Experience travelling with a drone to the USA and back

[Manfred Waldmeyer]

I just returned from a 4 week tour driving Route 66 from Chicago to LA.

Unfortunately the weather was inappropriate most of the time to fly my M2Z (rain and a too much wind) and too many no drone zones.

I flew from Hamburg, Germany, where I live, via London Heathrow to Chicago and back from LA to Heathrow and to Hamburg.

I had my M2Z in the DJI travel bag with 3 batteries, RC Controller and all four propellers attached and secured using pgytech elastic straps.

In all cases I took out the travel bag during security inspection and placed the unopened bag in the tray for inspection.

In Hamburg I had to open the bag, show its content and the drone body plus all batteries were wiped with a cotton pad and these were put in a detector.

In London international transit you have to go to an own security check and here in BOTH travels the drone passed without any individual address. They seem to know dji products.

Finally Los Angeles.

The trays are X-rayed and then there is a switch in the conveyor belt, which separates The "good" and the "suspicious".

My bag together with my laptop and by backpack was forwarded to the suspicious lane for closer inspection.

And this inspection was really newsworthy.

When my tray was in line, the TSA officer took the travel bag, opened it and pulled out the drone corpus.

"We need to run this through a second time" and went away with the bag with its 1500$ content, without any further instruction.

The TSA officer did NOT return and I waited approx. 10 minutes getting nervous from minute to minute.

I finally decided to leave my wife at the inspection table, in case the officer came back and went to the "good" conveyor belt.
And there was my precious M2Z pulled apart with two of the three batteries and the RC controller ripped out of the bag and lying open in a tray.

Luckily the "offer" to grab any of the components was not accepted by an other "drone loving traveler"

Fortunately the drone straps and the gimbal protector were still in place and as far as I could check it so far everything seems to be OK.

I really can not understand this kind of improvised procedure nor can I accept this kind of treatment of my possession!

The TSA officer could at least have given a short instruction, that the drone and its accessories should be retrieved by me from the "good" conveyor belt.

Do they (TSA) handle cameras the same manner?

For sure there must be dozens of DJI drone transported through TSA checks each day and there should be fixed procedures how to handle passengers carrying drones, cameras and other valuable equipment.

BTW: the batteries and their safety conditions (Insulation of connectors, loading status, capacity ...) were not checked in none of the four inspections I passed.
The TSA inspectors in LA were more occupied checking water bottles and drink bottles with baby food of families with there babies on their arms.

 

[Mikes145]

Some TSA officers are pricks and think they're more important than they are. Look at all the stuff that passes through while on their watch. You found one of them. I've had pretty good luck with TSA. That may change when I fly out on Monday with my new M2P.

 

[ChuckNorrisUSAF]

I have noticed at some of the busier airports, they tend to focus on specific things (either directed due to intelligence about things going on relative to the location, or a specific mandate to do it). It's one of those things you have to accept and adapt to when you travel. Always expect the unexpected. One day its going great, the next day... the sky is falling.

 

[bushie]

Just back from a month in Thailand. Had my MP1 and batteries packed in camera bag along with other cameras and gear. Did not take any special steps with batteries.

None of the security c hecks in Australia, Thailand or Malasia, where we transited, showed any interest in th e MP1. Never opened the camera bag.

 

[Clipper707]

The TSA officer could at least have given a short instruction, that the drone and its accessories should be retrieved by me from the "good" conveyor belt.

What an awful experience. A little bit of effort would have made a big difference. Glad your drone was still there for you.

 

[Hegemone]

Sorry about the experiences. Traveling by air is less and less of an "experience" and more and more a hassle at the hands of an industry that knows that most of us are a captive audience to their symphony of poor customer service and sub-par facilities.

I have a very much similar experience every time I travel. I carry on most of my valuables and apparently a 45 y/o man with a Nintendo Switch, Surface Pro, Micro 4/3rds camera, and a decent phone screams problem in the air. I normally have to spend close to 45 minutes chatting with en escalating barrage of TSA agents from grunt to manager talking about how cool all my stuff is, x-rayed, spread eagle x-rayed, patted down, swabbed, and 3-4 different "collection" spots for my gear. It might be my proximity to DC but the most fun almost always comes at the airports in the plane. I don't travel during the busiest of times so I think I am a training example to the new overly anxious folks looking to prove their diligence and pride in protecting the homeland. I am going to put a Trump and NRA sticker on my laptop and see if that helps my progress any (just kidding with topical references, don't take it personally).

As soon as my time loosens up a bit I will be an Amtrak man all day every day.

edited for spelling.

 

[bliksem]

I have TSE Precheck, so normally travelling though USA airports is a breeze - I don't have to unpack anything and no one even blinks when my bags go through. TSE Pre is worth every penny.
I recently returned to the USA from a trip abroad, landed in Atlanta and proceeding to the TSE Pre lane to board my next flight. Then the problems started... some ***** woman from TSA yelled at me to get in the other line. I said that I had TSE Pre but she wanted none of that, the TSA agent at the TSE Pre counter was confused as well. I joined the rest of the people in the regular line and went through the process, laptop out, shoes off, belt off, etc. When my backpack came through the scanner it was like someone had hit the lottery jackpot, gawd they were all over it. I was pulled one side with my pack and they started... "Why did you not remove xyz?". My reply was "your instructions say to remove my laptop, which I did". Oh boy.... anyway the contents were removed from my bag, everything unpacked and sent through the scanner again. Then repeated because my tablet was still in the bag, then repeated because my camera spare battery and charger was still in the bag. All the time I had to stand at the inspection table holding my pants up because they would not return my belt. Once they were sufficiently happy they had harassed me enough they set me free. So I stood at the inspection table repacking everything while the TSA agent impatiently waited with another victim's bag. I must admit I took a bit of extra time repacking my things, tying my shoe laces etc. As a military vet I'm not phased by power drunk pricks.
Lesson learned... ignore the dumb ***** who tells me not to go in the TSE Pre line ?

 

[johnmeyer]

Starting in the 70's, I flew almost every week, but after 9/11 everything changed, and when he TSA was created, I quite flying, specifically because of these kinds of stories, some of which I experienced myself before I decided I didn't really need to travel anymore.

I did, however, sign up and pay for "TSA Pre" because I know I'll have to go to some funerals in the next few years. I also got the "real ID" because, after August 2020, those of us in the states will need a "government approved" document to travel within the country, and if your driver's license hasn't been updated, you'll need a passport, even though you are traveling domestically.

It has been my experience that there is an abnormal percentage of bad people who have been attracted to working as TSA agents. Or, perhaps, they are playing out the famous "Zimbardo Prison Experiment" where a professor at Stanford simulated a prison for several days, and the people assigned to be guards turned into thugs, almost overnight, and the experiment had to be suspended. I was actually there at the time and know several of the people who were in the experiment. They were otherwise normal people before they were put in the position to have authority over other people.