Drone and travelling

Drones and traveling these days are practically a package deal.

Most travelers and photographers either have a drone or on the search for one. A drone has become a tool that gives you the opportunity to shoot and capture a different perspective of places that before was never possible. Imagine yourself on the top of a beautiful landscape, before drones, the most you could do to get a different view would be take a panoramic, with drones there are endless angles you can capture the perfect shot from.

First off, we are going to speak on how to travel in a plane with a drone.

How to travel with a drone in a plane?

1. First thing you need to know are the laws for drones in the country you are going to and also in your connection country.

There are 3 different type of legislation you might have to deal with:

• A country that doesn’t allow drone flying without a license (worst case)
• A country that allows drones if you have authorization (you have to ask for)
• A country without any problems for bringing and flying a drone if you stay in the regulation (most countries)

It is very unusual to enter a country that doesn’t allow flying drones without a license, however you still need to do a good amount of research before you travel to make sure you will not run into any problems

My advice: A good tip I can give you and something that I always do myself is to print out the law of the country regarding drones. You may ask yourself, why? In the case of you losing control of your drone or an accidental crash on somebody, the authority in charge will see that you have printed the law about the country, and have at least done some research about it. This is also a way to avoid getting any biased treatment from the authorities. In many cases the authorities will not know their own laws on drones and will try and charge you for something that you would otherwise be covered for.

Now where can you find these laws? You can find it on the website of the Civil Aviation of that country. If you still can’t find it, you can ask your embassy in the country and they may help you find out.

2. The airline policy and conditions:

The first thing that you have to know is that no Airline will allow you to put the lithium batteries of your drone in the luggage bay. The reason that these batteries are not allowed in the luggage bay is because they are very vulnerable to catching on fire. You have to put the batteries of your drone along with your remote in your handbag, that way in the case of a fire the crew on board may be able to shut the fire down. You can still put, your drone in your suit case, only the batteries are important to put in your handbag.

Some airlines may ask you to put your batteries in a Lipo Bag to prevent from any danger of fires.

I flew with Norwegian Airlines and I just had to put my batteries in my handbag, however I was too scared that they would go through my suitcase without taking care of it so I preferred taking my drone and accessories in a handbag.

My advice: Ask by mail or social media what the airlines policy is for carrying drones and batteries inside the airplane.

A little sum up of what you have to know about drones in planes:

DEVICE	LUGGAGE BAY	CABIN
DRONE	✅	✅
REMOTE	✅ (Without batteries inside)	✅
CHARGER	✅	✅
BATTERY	❌	✅ (In a Lipo Bag)

How to prepare your backpack to travel with your drone?

Which equipment?

• What are you going to do in vacation?

You have to keep in mind what you will be using your drone for and this will help you pick out a good backpack for your drone. If you go kayaking for example, you are going to need a backpack that is waterproof, if you are hiking you will want a hard case that way if you fall you will not crush your drone.

• Which drone?

If you travel already, you know that extra space in your bag can quickly be a big issue so a smaller drone is the best to travel with. I would highly recommend you take a drone not bigger that a Mavic Pro, for the plane but also if you go hiking, riding bike, kayaking, etc.

What else do you have to take?

This part really depends on your own preference but if you are unsure, this is what you might need:

• Drone
• Remote
• Batteries (check how many you can take, some airlines may set a max number of batteries)
• Charger & the power adapter of the country
• Smartphone or Ipad & the cable to link it to the remote
• Propellers
• Paper with the local laws printed on it
• A USB cable to link your drone to your computer and an adapter for SD and micro SD card
• Computer
• Computer charger
• External Hard-drive
• Filter ND

My advice:

Take extra propellers! You could be the best drone pilot in the world but crashes can happen to anyone. Extra propellers won’t take up too much space in your backpack and might help you to keep flying all along your trip even after a little crash.

A car charger is a great way to take less batteries on a road trip and still have an almost unlimited flight time.

Filters ND or polarized are really helpful with your drone when flying above water or on a very sunny day without having a bad quality video.

I hope you enjoyed this article! Thanks for reading and don’t hesitate to contact us if you want some information about drones. We will be glad to answer all your questions! 954-580-9551