I'm on airlines a lot both domesticly and internationaly.  I've traved with my P3A a few times, but it was bukly.  Now traveling  with the Mavic Pro, it is why I got it and sold the P3A.  It travels like a dream.  I've only traveled with it once so far, but so far it's gone thru TSA screening without a question.  I have had issues in the past due to drone-phoba.

I'm interested if others have had issues with airline travel and if so what it was.


For me I keep a sUAS tail number FAA certificate with me ( It's $5 - go get one - https://registermyuas.faa.gov/  ) as well as I keep a print out of the FAA.GOV Airline Passenger battery guide:

https://www.faa.gov/about/office ... _and_batteries.pdf.   And I only travel with my batts in my carry on and in a mostly discharged state.   Mavic batteries are ~44Watt hours.  They according to the guide CAN be in checked baggage, but this gets sticky and feel it is safer on my person  (but I don't feel bad when I've had my wheel abord carry on taken from me at the gate.)

I have had minor issues with TSA underinformed.  But saying this is a FAA registrated aircraft, and showing the battery guide -   Nobody has stoped me from carry on my drone yet.


One more minor point, there are a LOT of nofly zones and pre-authorization areas.  When traveling be sure to check the GEO Map at:
http://www.dji.com/flysafe/geo-system

Any TSA stories - ISSUES?

Great write-up with your experience.  I plan on traveling Sunday but it is just for static display at a show so the battery will be dead and I won't even have the RC.
The link to the batteries is broken.  I would like to see it if you get a chance to fix it.

been to Hawaii and Maine from the east coast and had no questions asked about the Mavic for carry on.  One thing I do is I carry one battery in the mavic and I put electrical tape over the ends of the connectors on my spare.

Whenever I traveled through Europe, I was asked to take my Pelican containing my Mavic out and scan it through the xray along with my laptop. The Mavic will then be pulled aside and swabbed for explosive residue, then you will be sent on your merry way. It has happend to me in over 10 countries so you can expect this to happen and take it out before they ask you. Show you have nothing to hide.

One tip since they are swabbing for explosives, make sure you did not fly your drone around a gun range or firework explosions. It will trigger the machine to say there is explosive residue and you will have a fun time explaining what happened.

I've always traveled with batts mostly discharged.   Do you guys?

I've traveled through both ATL and MIA international airports and never been asked a single question.   I carry everything in a very compact DSLR camera sling bag.   Just throw it on the conveyor belt and let it go through.  Don't even take it out.   

Yet its still absurd they would not let me walk through with my wallet in my hand.  Half the time they make me walk back and put it through the conveyor belt.  

I mean seriously, my wallet is a slim piece of leather with some cash and credit cards.   While the Mavic looks like something out of a spy movie that could take over the plane.  

Has anyone traveled to the Dominican Republic? Has there been any issues bringing it back from there? Is it standard procedure to swab and check my drone for explosion residue? lol

SupraLB Posted at 2017-2-12 13:44
I've traveled through both ATL and MIA international airports and never been asked a single question.   I carry everything in a very compact DSLR camera sling bag.   Just throw it on the conveyor belt and let it go through.  Don't even take it out.   

Yet its still absurd they would not let me walk through with my wallet in my hand.  Half the time they make me walk back and put it through the conveyor belt.  

Same here use a DSLR sling. I even put that in my laptop bag. Take laptop out but nothing else. Never a second glance. But gotta take belt,shoes, wallet off for inspection....

I would also like to know about traveling to and from the Dominican Republic, as I thought about taking it with me on my trip in September. (If I get my Mavic by then)

Very informative, I fly at the gun range a lot so...  Looks like I will be fedexing. Thank you for the heads up, could have been embarrassing.
Regards,
-d.

fans6394d9c6 Posted at 2017-2-12 13:28
I've always traveled with batts mostly discharged.   Do you guys?

There's no reason to mostly discharge your batteries. I do a storage charge which for the Mavic is about 50% of capacity. This is best for the battery and it's more stable than at full charge or close to empty.

I just got back from Argentina and had absolutely no questions asked during either way of the trip. I went through at least 6 security check points between Argentinian customs, TSA, PSA (Argentina TSA) and US customs. Didn't even have to take it out of my backpack.

Here is the FAA info on batteries.

Just went thru MIA and no issues.    Mavic pro was in my wheel-aboard, and scanner did not even give it a 2nd look.

Bunny don't worry about flying at a gun range.   TSA whenever they see something they don't understand they run it thru the scanner.    The explosive trace technology TSA uses most likely will not pick up on anything.  I shoot a lot of skeet, mussle loader and reload 1000s of shells, never had an issue even after wearing the same clothes I had on at the range, and been screened.   The tech gets a lot of false hits, somthing like 1% of bags they scan shows a false positive.  If you would get a hit, then they are going to do more of an intensive inspection on you.

however, if you just clean off your drone after gun range flying, you will be fine.  I would be SHOCKED if that causes a TSA hit.