Planning on taking your drone with you while traveling? Worrying to get through security airport? Carrying it on the plane? Flying it in new countries?
Travelling with a drone isn’t as hard as you think but you need to be prepared. Here are my tips and advice for travelling with a drone. These will help you get no problem with your drone.
Carry on bags
Travelling with valuable electronic, depending the size and weight, it is on what you decide if you want to carry on the drone or check it in. It is like travelling with your laptop or camera gear, it is always best to keep things safe with you. But it is always important to check with the airline rules requirements.
If you are going to check in the drone, keep in mind to use a hard shell case and lock it. Drones are fragile and expensive so it is risky.
There are bags designed for carry-on purposes, for smaller drone like a Phantom. Depends on the plane, you need to make sure that the bag size fits in the overhead compartment.
Keep in mind, the purpose of the drone, make it easy to travel even when you are in the country.
We use this bag – reasonable for easy to carry on the back and very spacious to fit things in it more than just the drone.
These are some others that you might like:
Lipo Batteries
It is very important that Lipo Batteries must be carried with you on board. The lithium batteries can burn or explode and cause damage to the plane especially in flight. Store your batteries separate in plastic bag or fireproof for additional safety.
Discharge your rechargeable batteries. Make sure they are discharged more or less in the range of 50% capacity.
Take extra propellers, but not the fake once
I recommend that you have extra propellers if you only have 4 props, you’ll never know the unknown since those things are a bit fragile and as simple as a bad landing could destroy your propellers. Think twice before buying knockoffs, for some few pounds you could hinder the drone’s safety, having higher risks for failure since they are made with cheaper materials.
Have a flight plan
It will be a good idea if you plan the flight for your drone before. As we have the Phantom 3 Standard we used to use Dji app and recently we found another good app, ‘Litchi’. It is easy to get familiar with it. You can plan your flight from your laptop or mobile phone before you head to the location itself.
Be polite and answer any questions to the airport security
The most fretting, you will face while travelling with drones is airport security. Be honest and polite, answer all the questions. Offer to show it to them.
Respect the law of countries
Drone laws are becoming more restricted in different countries. Ensure that you check the rules and understand what, where and how it is allowed to use the drone.
Keep it in line of sight
One more way to keep you a bit more safe is to keep the drone in line of sight, this is due that multiple things can occur like losing connection while your flying far away; the DJI app crashes; loss of gps signal; and other distractions like telephone line, flock of birds etc. A drone small like these within the range of 200m would be a dot on your vision and you’ll need a pair of good eyes to see it in distance (might as well have a spotter with you with a binoculars).
Do it in your own risk, be extra careful in urban areas if you can by law, there are many apps that can let you fly your drone autonomously but always take extra precaution.
Be friendly to locals
Drones give a lot of attention to locals or any individual. They be curious and might ask questions to get to know about it. Be friendly, they would love to have feedback on how it works and anything. We’ve been to weddings, near beaches, and other places … there will be always that one or two persons asking you a question on your beloved toy 🙂
Avoid crowds
Being safe with the flight of the drone, you should avoid flying over people. This will make you safe in not injure anyone. You never know what happens, if it crashes or anything similar.
Aware of animals
Be very careful if you are in a location with seagulls or large birds. Drones will be very frustrating for them. They might attack if you get too close to them. Be safe and respect their distance.
Weather
Make sure to check the weather forecast before you go to the location to fly the drone.
Hot and cold weather – They both will cause reactions to the drone.
In our case, when we flew it in cold weather, it took time to warm the battery. So if you have planned a time to shoot be prepared to allow some time before.
On the other hand, flying it with hot weather, you have to plan short flight. This as we noticed that the battery drops down very quickly.
Note as well – check out the wind forecast. The drone might be difficult to handle and control. Check out your drone for what wind speed it is capable.
Shoot at the best times
To have a great image, it is best to choose best times if possible. This is always depends on location. Sunrise and sunset times give the image a very nice shot.
Consider insurance
Travel insurance could always save you time and money in the long run. It will cover any loss, theft or damage. Carrying expensive equipment with you is always a safe thing to be protected. Take a note always read the terms and conditions or asks the agent for the coverage.
The last and not least, have fun with the drone. 🙂 Let other travellers and photographers know any additional tips that you might have? Let us know in the comments below.
Great article! I think you hit on the very important ones; especially checking the rules of the country you plan on visiting. For example, fliers who took their dones to Nicaragua had to leave their drone with customs and pay a daily storage fee until the returned to the airport to leave the country! Not what you want to happen.
Thank you for your comment! 🙂 Good example to share and learn from others.
This is a very useful post – it answers almost all questions I had about travelling with Drones.
Thank you for your comment! I am happy for you that it help you with some questions you had! 🙂