TRAVEL WARNING: Don't take your drone with you, even tourist

Re: TRAVEL WARNING: Don't take your drone with you, even tou

Yeah, it's worse than some of the menus I saw over there.
 
Re: TRAVEL WARNING: Don't take your drone with you, even tou

Hi All,

New to this forum and new proud owner of the Phantom 2 Vision Plus V3.
Sadly, I have not been able to lay my hands on the beauty as yet as its sitting pretty in a hotel in USA awaiting my arrival next week.
I'm from India and will be visiting the US soon. Although I'm going there for a vacation but the primary concern on my mind is getting my phantom safely back to India.

Drones were recently banned in India w.e.f 7th Oct 2014 which effectively means I need to conceal it some how or else i'm risking confiscation. I seek your help and suggestions on how to reduce my chances of getting caught with it.

Following are some of the options i'm considering:
Carry-on OR Checked Baggage: Should I bring it in as a carry on or check it in with rest of my baggage. I do have a hard case heavy duty bag and was planning to do away with the original box and wrap the phantom in a bubble paper and old clothes. A new/packed phantom in its original box would surely invite customs interest and I'm hoping doing this might help. I will then carry the remote in carry-on. However, i'm worried about the safety of the phantom in checked in baggage i.e. breakage and mis-handling or even it being stolen by the baggage handlers.

Or should I just carry it all with me in my carry-ons?

Batteries: I have bought 2 spare batteries and as far as I understand even this has some flight restrictions. Going by my limited knowledge on the subject, I am planning to leave the original battery in the phantom, which is planned to be inside the hard case checked in bag and carry 1 spare each with me and my partner in our carry on's. So effectively here will be the original battery in checked in baggage(inside the phantom), 1 spare in my carry on and 1 spare in my partners carry on.

Disassemble: The insides of a phantom have very little circuitry, some wires and 4 motors. Theoretically speaking, it should be easy to disassemble and re-assemble later. I might be able to easily pass of the bare skeleton as a toy. while this option has the best chances of success, it seems very risky though i.e. what if i break or mess something inside and the phantom never flies again.

I need all the help I can get so please do let me know your views on the above or any other suggestions or advise. It is much much appreciated as I have a lot at stake here, Thanks

Laila K.
 
Re: Myanmar warning

Clipper707 said:
Thought you should know about this, if you're bringing your bird to Myanmar. A friend of mine sent me this pic, taken at Yangon International Airport. He was pretty sure my Phantom would be confiscated. Based on Geert's posts, I was pretty sure it wouldn't and considered it an acceptable risk to take it there

I'm glad I did. Your mileage may vary.

Banned in 1992 ???!!! :?:
 
Re: TRAVEL WARNING: Don't take your drone with you, even tou

No problems here in Mexico. Bahamas allow you in, but are making you pay a tax.
 
Re: TRAVEL WARNING: Don't take your drone with you, even tou

Indonesia is A ok. The multi-rotor hobby is huge there. Ever major city has it's own meetups weekly, and they build some fantastic quads and 360 aircraft.

Customs didn't blink an eye on the way in. On the way out, I explained to the guy doing manual bag checks that I had Lipos and he asked to see them, then asked what they were for. I had to open my luggage to show the quad, which was a bit of a pain, but he was more interested than worried.

Fyod said:
Interested in Croatia for next year. Any locals here?
Will be travelling by car through Austria and Slovenia.

Slovenia & Austria are Schengen so obviously no worries. When does Croatia become Schengen?
 
Re: TRAVEL WARNING: Don't take your drone with you, even tou

I can confirm a few places where it is accepted

Hong Kong : no problem with a few restrictions around the harbour side
Macau: no problem
Fiji: No problem
Vietnam: no problem
Indonesia: no problem
Singapore: no problem (300 feet altitude ceiling restriction)
Guilin region (China): No problem

Proof is below.

https://vimeo.com/114021493

[vimeo]https://vimeo.com/114021493[/vimeo]
 
Re: TRAVEL WARNING: Don't take your drone with you, even tou

Guys I can confirm that Peru is a DO NOT ENTER country.

I arrived here today for a work event figured I can get some good aerial shots I decided to bring my Phantom. As I go through the x ray in Peru. Customs saw the phantom and they were very familiar with what it was and with the model exaclty. They said that 2.4 is illegal in Peru and I needed a special permit to have it in the country.

Customs confiscated my P2. Thinking I will never see my phantom again I took the gopro and all the batteries and accessories off. They would not let me take the remote or the LCD screen.
They said if I did not get the special permit I would be able to pick my phantom up when I left the country.

Luckily I have a local work contact that helped me out trying to get this permit. The permit has to be obtained in some transportation office in Lima far away from the airport. Once I applied for the permit I was told they will review the request and give me an answer in 5 working days.

I'm really scared for my phantom and I hope I can take it out of this Peruvian Jail. I'll update on the process when I hear from them. I will never bring my phantom here again. Please beware if you are traveling to Peru.
 
Re: TRAVEL WARNING: Don't take your drone with you, even tou

lg8215 said:
Guys I can confirm that Peru is a DO NOT ENTER country.

I arrived here today for a work event figured I can get some good aerial shots I decided to bring my Phantom. As I go through the x ray in Peru. Customs saw the phantom and they were very familiar with what it was and with the model exaclty. They said that 2.4 is illegal in Peru and I needed a special permit to have it in the country.

Customs confiscated my P2. Thinking I will never see my phantom again I took the gopro and all the batteries and accessories off. They would not let me take the remote or the LCD screen.
They said if I did not get the special permit I would be able to pick my phantom up when I left the country.

Luckily I have a local work contact that helped me out trying to get this permit. The permit has to be obtained in some transportation office in Lima far away from the airport. Once I applied for the permit I was told they will review the request and give me an answer in 5 working days.

I'm really scared for my phantom and I hope I can take it out of this Peruvian Jail. I'll update on the process when I hear from them. I will never bring my phantom here again. Please beware if you are traveling to Peru.

Sad to hear this and I hope it gets sorted real soon. Were you carrying the P2 in your carry on or checked in baggage? And do you think it would have helped if the P2 was disassembled with the internal boards/motors in a small bubble/plastic bag tucked away somewhere with old clothes and only the shell to show in your carry on.

Thanks in advance, I will be in a similar situation soon and your responses/views will be very helpful, Thanks
 
Re: TRAVEL WARNING: Don't take your drone with you, even tou

I have taken my P2 to the following countries: Japan, China, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden, England and the USA where I live. I've had no problem with customs in any of these countries but I have to qualify that statement with this. I'm a flight crewmember and we usually go thru different customs lines than normal passengers. Most of the time we exit customs without any x-ray scrutiny but some places we do. Even in those circumstances I've not been questioned.

I have flown in the following countries: Japan (near Osaka), Singapore, China (Qingdao), South Korea (Incheon) and Germany (Cologne). Never had any issues flying in those countries but many times I was out early in the morning when nobody was around. Some of the countries I mentioned I didn't fly in because we would stay at hotels near the airport and it would be impossible to fly because of local restrictions or the Phantom's airport database restrictions. I will continue to bring my P2 with me on trips unless it becomes burdensome in certain countries with customs or local restrictions.
 
Re: TRAVEL WARNING: Don't take your drone with you, even tou

djifan said:
lg8215 said:
Guys I can confirm that Peru is a DO NOT ENTER country.

I arrived here today for a work event figured I can get some good aerial shots I decided to bring my Phantom. As I go through the x ray in Peru. Customs saw the phantom and they were very familiar with what it was and with the model exaclty. They said that 2.4 is illegal in Peru and I needed a special permit to have it in the country.

Customs confiscated my P2. Thinking I will never see my phantom again I took the gopro and all the batteries and accessories off. They would not let me take the remote or the LCD screen.
They said if I did not get the special permit I would be able to pick my phantom up when I left the country.

Luckily I have a local work contact that helped me out trying to get this permit. The permit has to be obtained in some transportation office in Lima far away from the airport. Once I applied for the permit I was told they will review the request and give me an answer in 5 working days.

I'm really scared for my phantom and I hope I can take it out of this Peruvian Jail. I'll update on the process when I hear from them. I will never bring my phantom here again. Please beware if you are traveling to Peru.

Sad to hear this and I hope it gets sorted real soon. Were you carrying the P2 in your carry on or checked in baggage? And do you think it would have helped if the P2 was disassembled with the internal boards/motors in a small bubble/plastic bag tucked away somewhere with old clothes and only the shell to show in your carry on.

Thanks in advance, I will be in a similar situation soon and your responses/views will be very helpful, Thanks


*Update... My contact told the Transportation personell handling my permit that we needed this for an event that was time sensitive and he was able to speed up my permit. They approved temporary use today for 5 days. I went all the way to the Transportation and Communications office to pick up my permit, I then had to drive back to customs at the aiport and present my permit. They examied the Phantom, remote and LCD thoroughly and made me pay $113.00USD. Customs says I will get this deposit back when I leave the country and show I'm leaving with my phantom complete. From there I was able to get my phantom out of customs and use it in Peru.

Not an easy process and I would have never been able to do this without my local contact. The running around you have to do is just insane. The Transporation office is about 1.5-2hrs away from the Airport with Traffic. The normal wait time for the temporary permit is 4-5 days. Keep all of this in mind when you think about traveling to Peru.

I had my phantom in a carry on case. It would have made zero difference if it was dissassembled because they xray every single bag you have whether it's carry on or check-in. The xray would have seen all the electronics and the actual phantom shell which they recognize as a drone. Also they will give you issues about the remote since they say 2.4ghz is illegal. What might help is if the remote reads 5.8ghz. I don't know if that's illegal or not but they sure didnt' like 2.4ghz. Overall it's not worth the effort unless you plan on staying in Lima a few days and don't mind running around and waiting for the permit. Customs mentioned they get a lot of "drones" trying to pass through and all of them must go through this process.
 
Re: TRAVEL WARNING: Don't take your drone with you, even tou

lg8215 said:
djifan said:
lg8215 said:
Guys I can confirm that Peru is a DO NOT ENTER country.

I arrived here today for a work event figured I can get some good aerial shots I decided to bring my Phantom. As I go through the x ray in Peru. Customs saw the phantom and they were very familiar with what it was and with the model exaclty. They said that 2.4 is illegal in Peru and I needed a special permit to have it in the country.

Customs confiscated my P2. Thinking I will never see my phantom again I took the gopro and all the batteries and accessories off. They would not let me take the remote or the LCD screen.
They said if I did not get the special permit I would be able to pick my phantom up when I left the country.

Luckily I have a local work contact that helped me out trying to get this permit. The permit has to be obtained in some transportation office in Lima far away from the airport. Once I applied for the permit I was told they will review the request and give me an answer in 5 working days.

I'm really scared for my phantom and I hope I can take it out of this Peruvian Jail. I'll update on the process when I hear from them. I will never bring my phantom here again. Please beware if you are traveling to Peru.

Sad to hear this and I hope it gets sorted real soon. Were you carrying the P2 in your carry on or checked in baggage? And do you think it would have helped if the P2 was disassembled with the internal boards/motors in a small bubble/plastic bag tucked away somewhere with old clothes and only the shell to show in your carry on.

Thanks in advance, I will be in a similar situation soon and your responses/views will be very helpful, Thanks


*Update... My contact told the Transportation personell handling my permit that we needed this for an event that was time sensitive and he was able to speed up my permit. They approved temporary use today for 5 days. I went all the way to the Transportation and Communications office to pick up my permit, I then had to drive back to customs at the aiport and present my permit. They examied the Phantom, remote and LCD thoroughly and made me pay $113.00USD. Customs says I will get this deposit back when I leave the country and show I'm leaving with my phantom complete. From there I was able to get my phantom out of customs and use it in Peru.

Not an easy process and I would have never been able to do this without my local contact. The running around you have to do is just insane. The Transporation office is about 1.5-2hrs away from the Airport with Traffic. The normal wait time for the temporary permit is 4-5 days. Keep all of this in mind when you think about traveling to Peru.

I had my phantom in a carry on case. It would have made zero difference if it was dissassembled because they xray every single bag you have whether it's carry on or check-in. The xray would have seen all the electronics and the actual phantom shell which they recognize as a drone. Also they will give you issues about the remote since they say 2.4ghz is illegal. What might help is if the remote reads 5.8ghz. I don't know if that's illegal or not but they sure didnt' like 2.4ghz. Overall it's not worth the effort unless you plan on staying in Lima a few days and don't mind running around and waiting for the permit. Customs mentioned they get a lot of "drones" trying to pass through and all of them must go through this process.
Thanks for sharing.

This is classic case of - Since some one can be murdered with a knife, lets ban the knife!
More and more countries seem to be taking this easy route, what is the solution?
 
Re: TRAVEL WARNING: Don't take your drone with you, even tou

nhoover said:
I just flew to Canada from the US and had no troubles at all. I went through San Francisco, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. The P2V+ was carry-on in a GoProfessional backpack. In Vancouver the security guy saw it in the xray and asked if the batteries were charged up. I just said that there was not a battery installed (not answering the question). He said, "That's too bad, I wish you could fy it around in here for us to see."

Hi,
Thank you for the information, I was wondering if you know if you can actually have the batteries with you, in your carry on, or should I put them separately into main luggage?
I'm planning on travelling to USA from Canada and I would rather have the drone with me.
Thx
 
Re: TRAVEL WARNING: Don't take your drone with you, even tou

Lipos should be carried on.
 
Re: TRAVEL WARNING: Don't take your drone with you, even tou

Sweden You won´t have any problems at the border, as long as your extra LiPo´s are in your carry on bag.

Guidelines if you fly private / as a hobby (if you do any commercial flying there´s more rules and you need authorizations from "Transportstyrelsen") :
Max 25mW for FPV (I use 400mW ;) ), always fly in L-O-S, maxximum 120m vertical, and no dangerous flying (near people, animals or buildings).
But if you want to take photos/be filming there´s more rules:

Länsstyrelsen (county government): Basicaly they claim that you need a permit for all filming in public that is done without physicaly holding the camera in your hand. This means that you can´t do timelaps, you can´t use a actioncam on your car, you can´t leave a camera on a tripod, you can´t use a UAS and soo on.... The problem is that they won´t give you a permit for using a UAS even if you apply for one and pay the application fee of ~ € 400.
This is their interpretation of the law, but since there haven´t any precedent-setting court cases no one knows if their interpretation of the law is valid. And frankly, no one cares ;)

The Swedish Armed Forces: The Armed Forces require you to send in aerial photos and movies before you spread them (or publish them). We who live in Sweden have the opportunity to apply for self-right of scrutiny, it means that we get permission to distribute images and movies shot in a particular area without having to submit them to the armed forces for review.
There is no cost to get the materials examined by the defense forces, it can however take some time to get it approved for publication (about a month).
You may not take any aerial photos/movies of military installations, prisons service buildings, police stations, nuclear power plants, etc.
This is the site with info about aerial photos, but I couldn´t find it in english. I will use google translate.
http://www.forsvarsmakten.se/sv/om-mynd ... grafering/

The text from the homepage in english:
"Aerial photography and permits for photo spread
For the dissemination of aerial photographs, and similar recordings, from aircraft over Swedish territory requires permission from the Armed Forces, according to § 6 Act (1993: 1742) on the protection of landscape information. Permission shall be granted if the spread can occur without the likely harm to the Swedish Total Defence.

However, there is no longer any requirement of prior authorization for aerial photography over any part of Sweden, as long as no heightened alert is demanded or at other times by the Government with regard to Sweden's defense preparedness.

It therefore does not require prior authorization for aerial photography or similar registration within the national territory at present, but always for the dissemination regardless of how this happens.

Licencing

In § 9 second paragraph of the Regulation on the protection of landscape information (1993: 1745) states that the Armed Forces handles permits to spread aerial photographs and other records from the aircraft.

Consideration of permit as indicated above is handled within the Armed Forces at any of the military regions. The application must then be sent to any of the regions.

There is no separate application form. Contact one of the military regions in question."


Depening on where you have been filming you need to contact the specific military region that covers that area, there´s a list on the homepage.

Basicaly, if you fly with common sence and not close to airports you will be fine. I haven´t had any problems yet, people are often curious and asking a lot of questions but I have never meet anyone that has been hostile.
 
Re: TRAVEL WARNING: Don't take your drone with you, even tou

Any chance someone has started capturing the information on this topic and built an excel spreadsheet. Would be a lot easier to go through the info.
 
Re: TRAVEL WARNING: Don't take your drone with you, even tou

I just returned from a 10 day peru and bolivia trip. O did have a 30 min blip at lima. But 62$ u s took care of that.
I was able to film all megalithic sites excluding machu pichu.
In bolivia no delays at all. Filmed all sites including pumu punku. As a world explorer i have learned, if all else fails... Payem
 
Re: TRAVEL WARNING: Don't take your drone with you, even tou

Hi Gary. Sometimes cash is an excellent motivator. Excellent first post and welcome!
 
Re: TRAVEL WARNING: Don't take your drone with you, even tou

Clipper707 said:
Lipos should be carried on.
How many many lipos can be safely carried in carry on? If im carrying 2 bags, can I have 1 lipo in each or do they consider 1 lipo per person?
I read somewhere that 1 lipo can be carried as part of checked in baggage as long as it is inside the phantom, is this true? Thanks a lot.
 
Re: TRAVEL WARNING: Don't take your drone with you, even tou

I carry on my P2V+ and 4 Lipos in my backpack. I've done so on the following airlines and airports:

Frontier Airlines: SFO and DEN
Singapore Airlines: SFO, HKG, SIN, RGN
Air KBZ: RGN, AKY, MDL, NYU
Bangkok Airways: RGN, BKK, VTE
Lao Airlines: VTE, HAN
Vietnam Airlines: VTE, PNH
China Airlines: SGN, TPE

The only places I've had my bag or hard case opened up have been DEN and SFO.
 

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