Excruciating experience flying with my drone today
0Commercial domestic airline passenger kind of flying I mean. Air travel with a drone for the first time today and it was the single most horrific day of air travel I've ever experienced. I've flown dozens of times including a handful of international flights to third world destinations and this was worse than any of those! Details later, when I can manage to find working wifi, but suffice to say I will be shipping the drone home and likely will not attempt air travel with it again.
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ouch. You should talk to Father Robert Ballecer on Google+ to find out how he flies with his drone(s). He's flown to Hawaii with one before.
I wonder if TSA PreCheck would have helped here...
I'm finally back in civilization. I know better, but was still annoyed and frustrated by my inability to gain access to reliable communication while I was traveling. After all, I WAS still in the US, not some third-world country! LOL!
So... my drone flying experience: I packed a Quanum Nova into a drone backpack, then put that pack into a big suitcase along with the gimbal, battery charger, cables, tools, spare parts, etc. Having studied the TSA and airline's policies on electronics, I recognize that LiON batteries are not permitted in checked baggage, but ARE permitted in carry-on bags. So I packed four 11.1v, 2700mAH batteries into a laptop case (sans computer) along with GoPro and iLook+ cameras, iPad and a few cables and chargers.
When I reached the TSA checkpoint, I did all the usual: remove shoes, belt, empty pockets, remove jacket, etc and put all the benign stuff into a screening tub and sent it through the xray machine. Next, I removed the electronics from the laptop bag and put LiON batteries, GoPro battery, iPad and my phone into a tub, and the laptop bag into a different tub. Sent them into the machine and stepped into the body scanner.
I was confident this was going to be a smooth and simple process. I was mistaken. 95 minutes later I was running like a madman to reach my flight.
First, I was pulled aside for a secondary TSA screening. Pat down. Swab down. Full baggage search. Interrogation. Then a second pat down where I was asked to loosen or remove various bits of clothing, and further swab samples were collected. Second full baggage search by explosives specialist who practically turned my laptop bag inside out, scrutinized every item that was removed from the bag and swab tested everything, including me. Further questioning by the explosives specialist. Finally, after a 20 minute conference between the explosives specialist, TSA supervisor and some unidentified character in a suit, my possessions were returned to me and I was sent on my way to sprint through the terminal to my gate. I literally made it to the gate as they were closing the jetway door.
Side note: When I picked up my checked bag at my destination there was a TSA inspection notice attached. Unsure if it was merely coincidence, or if TSA detained me so long because they took time to pull my checked bag for inspection before it was loaded into the plane.
I felt like one of three things had occurred.
1. Drones have been SO vilified, the presence of drone-related items in their midst caused an overreaction on the part of TSA agents.
2. TSA agents were unfamiliar with the items they were encountering, and were unsure how to proceed when the big red X appeared on the scanning monitor.
3. Both of the above.
It is my assertion if TSA is going to make a policy about how batteries can be transported, they damn sure need to clarify their internal policy on how to handle inspection and disposition of those batteries when they encounter them during a screening, as well as providing internal training for their agents to identify these items and act in an efficient and appropriate manner. Fortunately for me I managed to make my flight. By seconds. Next time, the Fates may not be smiling so kindly.
I was frustrated and upset. Hell, angry. I was on display to thousands of onlookers during most of this experience, made to feel like a criminal or terrorist, then thanklessly dispatched with a flourish once the ordeal had culminated. In retrospect, I would have been best served to order a couple new batteries and have them shipped to my destination city (or simply visit a local hobby shop on my way out of town).
At the moment the sting is still fresh enough I'm disinclined to attempt air travel with a drone in the future.
BTW, I nominate me for the most creative use of a drone during the last week.
I couldn't get any cell service where I was, so I hiked up a hill. Spotty service there because the hilltop was covered with trees. I climbed a tree to break through the canopy and my signal was a bit better.
I hiked back down the hill and grabbed the drone, some fishing line and some paracord. Back up the hill, I tied the fishing line onto the drone, then maneuvered it up and over the tallest branch I could safely navigate around at the top of the tree (around 45-50 feet up), then back to the ground for a safe landing. I tied one end of the paracord to a low branch, and the other end to the fishing line. I used the fishing line to pull the paracord up and over the branch, and back down to the ground. I tied a loop in that end and clipped the belt clip from my phone case to the loop.
When I wanted to access the outside world, I would put my phone in "hotspot" mode, clip it to the paracord and hoist it up into the tree. I could then use the iPad, join the phone's wifi network and would have very slow, very unreliable, but very real access to the outside world without having to balance on a branch 40 feet up a tree. I'm still LMAO about it!