Has anyone worked out a way to take the TB60 battery for the M300 on an airplane?At present we can't work out how to get our UAV out of the country (we are in the UK) and given that much of our work is international, it means we have to revert to the P4RTK and it means we have a lot of moneys worth of equiprment sitting there, largely redundant. We can't be the only people with this problem,  so I am wondering whether anyone else has a solution. I have seen that we can rent batteries in the US but for three sets thats around $210/day so for a two week shoot thats really $3000 Any advice welcome Thanks John

I saw a warning on Heliguy that you cannot fly with in their FAQ's.  I wonder if the alternative is to ship them out in advance.

That's a problem that won't be going away any time soon.

Certainly not cheap, but you could ship the batteries.

Dear John,
I have the same problem! did you solved in some way?

Marco

Hi,
You should contact the airline's customer service. With Lufthansa and AirBaltic I never had a problem. Each company has its own rules and are sometimes strangely different from the IATA regulations. The TB60 battery is 274Wh, the company may ask you for this information. The most difficult every time is to pass the security check of the airport. Print the airlines agrement.
The best is to contact the company by email and if the person does not know what it is, here is the link that goes with it: https://www.iata.org/contentasse ... um-battery-guidance -document.pdf
Sometimes I'm asked to put it in cargo, sometimes in the cabin.

Good luck !

LV_Forestry Posted at 2-14 09:56
Hi,
You should contact the airline's customer service. With Lufthansa and AirBaltic I never had a problem. Each company has its own rules and are sometimes strangely different from the IATA regulations. The TB60 battery is 274Wh, the company may ask you for this information. The most difficult every time is to pass the security check of the airport. Print the airlines agrement.
The best is to contact the company by email and if the person does not know what it is, here is the link that goes with it: https://www.iata.org/contentassets/05e6d8742b0047259bf3a700bc9d42b9/lithium-battery-guidance -document.pdf

Thanks for that, hadn’t thought to go direct to them.  I’ll give them a try, nothing to loose :-)

marcorina Posted at 2-14 05:07
Dear John,
I have the same problem! did you solved in some way?

Hi Marco, Not yet, but we have contacted a couple of cargo companies and I’m going to try the airline direct. Will let you know how we get on. Cheers

Quick note to anyone who is following this
We contacted the airline (KLM) and they said no. They were happy to discuss batteries up to 150 WH but these are 274
We tried the standard couriers - DHL etc and none of them would touch it
We found a specialist courier who would take 6 batteries and charging station from Aberdeen (UK) to Salt Lake (UT) for £1600 each way  - thats £3200
We eventually found a local operator who was willing to lend us some batteries for the duration of our work.

This is a serious issue - it basically means that we can not take the UAV anywhere that we can't drive to. This is a major limitation. I am very curious what film crews or anyone else using these equipment are doing. If anyone finds a solution I would love to hear it. We got lucky this time, but in a normal (non covid) year we do 10 -15 overseas trips per year. I spent a lot of money on an M300, I will be very disappointed if it sits at home while we go back to mapping with Phantoms

I can assure you of one thing, no one has ever checked the power of my batteries during security check. If 150 Wh is good, then it's perfect.

LV_Forestry Posted at 3-2 09:26
I can assure you of one thing, no one has ever checked the power of my batteries during security check. If 150 Wh is good, then it's perfect.

Thats fine until they confiscate your batteries and you are £5000 down and can’t do your job. Never had drone batteries confiscated but I have had a LiDAR battery and laptops boundaries in pounded. You can risk it but we won’t be :-)

Was it in the US that you had confiscated material?

You're right it is a risk but you can probably get away with just carrying them on.  If you don't want to take a chance, UPS or FedEx should have no problem shipping them overseas to your destination.  

Quadrocopter.com Posted at 3-8 13:03
You're right it is a risk but you can probably get away with just carrying them on.  If you don't want to take a chance, UPS or FedEx should have no problem shipping them overseas to your destination.

Possibly, but if they do get impounded we are stuck and unable to do the job. It has happened before and the TB60 charger case is hardly subtle...
FedEX and UPS wouldn't touch them. We tried every courier and ended up at a specialist dangerous goods carrier who wanted £3200. In the end we have managed to borrow some.
Its a serious problem for us as we work overseas a lot and this makes the drone close to worthless for us if we can't take it anywhere. Not happy at all.  

Has anyone had any luck flying with them, someone mentioned here in Australia they spoke with CASA our governing body and they stated that if the batteries are discharged to say 15% they will not actually be 274w/h and below the 100-160w/h limit.  I cant get confirmation from any airline but wondered if anyone else had information regarding this?

AIRWORKS. Posted at 6-20 06:29
Has anyone had any luck flying with them, someone mentioned here in Australia they spoke with CASA our governing body and they stated that if the batteries are discharged to say 15% they will not actually be 274w/h and below the 100-160w/h limit.  I cant get confirmation from any airline but wondered if anyone else had information regarding this?

I don't think it works like that, my understand is that its the potential capacity of the battery not what is actually in it.
I would be very happy to be proved wrong on this
John

For what its worth Ive had no issues traveling with my M300 in its GPC case and a pair of batteries in each battery slot. I've also, out of habit, have drained the batteries to a point where I only see 1 LED light on each battery. The case has zip ties where you could place a lock on the GPC case and each time I've landed and waiting for the case the zip ties were the same and not messed with. I know they are the same because I mark the zip tie with a ball point pen. Ive flown Allegiant and Delta and no issues. I know your in the UK but for someone here in the US it hasn't been an issue with me.

MacDude Posted at 6-23 17:37
For what its worth Ive had no issues traveling with my M300 in its GPC case and a pair of batteries in each battery slot. I've also, out of habit, have drained the batteries to a point where I only see 1 LED light on each battery. The case has zip ties where you could place a lock on the GPC case and each time I've landed and waiting for the case the zip ties were the same and not messed with. I know they are the same because I mark the zip tie with a ball point pen. Ive flown Allegiant and Delta and no issues. I know your in the UK but for someone here in the US it hasn't been an issue with me.

That's uesful to know thanks.

we used a courier/shipping service to send batteries outside the UK - its quite expensive so renting sounds safer

MacDude Posted at 2022-6-23 17:37
For what its worth Ive had no issues traveling with my M300 in its GPC case and a pair of batteries in each battery slot. I've also, out of habit, have drained the batteries to a point where I only see 1 LED light on each battery. The case has zip ties where you could place a lock on the GPC case and each time I've landed and waiting for the case the zip ties were the same and not messed with. I know they are the same because I mark the zip tie with a ball point pen. Ive flown Allegiant and Delta and no issues. I know your in the UK but for someone here in the US it hasn't been an issue with me.

Something to consider on top of the idea of keeping batteries located in the device. If the batteries are stored in the BS60/BS65 smart case, is this considered in the device??? All contacts are covered, device is turned off, and discharge them to 1 bar.
Could this have been DJI's plan all along to maintain domestic/international flight regulations? Or am I overstating  DJI's ability to plan for this issue?

fansfd34655e Posted at 6-21 22:48
Something to consider on top of the idea of keeping batteries located in the device. If the batteries are stored in the BS60/BS65 smart case, is this considered in the device??? All contacts are covered, device is turned off, and discharge them to 1 bar.
Could this have been DJI's plan all along to maintain domestic/international flight regulations? Or am I overstating  DJI's ability to plan for this issue?

In or out it doesn't matter. Battery power is too high. It all depends on the rules of the company you are flying with. These rules are modeled on the IATA, so +/- the same everywhere.

I travel regularly with Lufthansa, and with them things are very clear:

https://www.lufthansa.com/conten ... es_restrictions.pdf

Hello John, thank you for your post, we will have the same problem with our futur system and I am wondering if you find a new solution?
I don't understand why DJI does not help their Clients to get in touch with each other by creating a list of potential renter allowing battery rental in their own country. That would make thing so much easier...
I look forward to reading your new post.
BR
Laurent