Our flights are booked, we are ready to go. Going from Hannover with an ICE train to Hamburg, getting on board the airplane to Dubai, 5 hour overlay and then off to Beijing. I bet we are totally done when we arrive. The plan for the next day is an extended Great Wall trip with our friends that live in Beijing.
During the preparations for the trip I checked with Emirates on how to bring my DJI Phantom 4. You are only allowed to take the drone with you in the checked in luggage! But on the other hand the lithium ion batteries must always be carried in a carry-on bag. As I mentioned in my last steemit post, it's useful to check the Watt-hour (Wh) of all your batteries. It's also advised to pack the batteries in safe LiPo bags.
There are no IATA guidelines regarding the drone itself. Last year we flew from London to LA and I transported the drone in my carry-on backpack. They check the backpack in Hannover and London. In London I even had to take out all the batteries, talk to a supervisor and wait for about 10-15 minutes before he came back and told me that everything is fine:) On the way back we had no trouble at all!
On the Emirates website are detailed information regarding the transportation of drones. Even if you travelled with an Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to Dubai for example with your drone in your backpack, you'll not be allowed to bring it on a connecting Emirates flight! So be aware of those circumstances.
I'm pretty excited how traveling with a drone will turn out in China. There are even security checks at the train stations. Our first journey in China will be a train ride from Beijing to Xi'an.
Next post will be about all the gear which we bring with us! So stay tuned Steemians:)
Photo by Patrick Hendry on Unsplash
I travel on Emirates with a drone no problem. Carry on with three batteries, never a issue. Btw, check this video where I had a terrible noise onboard an Emirate flight:
I tend to take my DJI Spark in hand luggage as I feel so much more comfortable doing so... though it's much smaller than the Phantom 4! I know that DJI and many other companies sell DJI battery safe bags, which can only be a good thing.
The bit that really shook me was your note that "Even if you travelled with an Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to Dubai for example with your drone in your backpack, you'll not be allowed to bring it on a connecting Emirates flight!" and I'll definitely have to pay attention to transfer flights in the future; thanks for the tip.
I have travelled with the drone in my hand luggage on every flight, including emirates. I've always had a LiPo fireproof bag just in case too. Only thing the carriers need to worry about is that LiPo's need to be in the cabin with you, which I'm sure you know. There does need to be some unilateral agreement between airlines on this issue.
Hi guy Great work ... If You Like see my flying drone ..
https://steemit.com/drone/@ing-rigon/drone-fly-music-relaxing