Traveling with a drone

[Devin Callis]

Hello everyone! Has anyone traveled with a drone to SA before? I am flying with united then have a flight from joberg to port Elizabeth. Was wondering if anyone else has brought a drone along and had any trouble or not getting it thru airport security.

 

[spike.t]

Out of interest....why do you want to take a drone?...

 

[lightweight]

Hello and good day /. Thank you for reaching out and for the inquiry when I flew with two drones no issues. The only problem I got was in my backpack on the statue of liberty the refused access to the ferry ...

 

[CM McKenzie]

Out of interest....why do you want to take a drone?...

You can get some cool images from a different vantage point.

My wife took these images with her drone just so we could get several different vantage points of the new corrals we were building below just so we could make sure everything was going in well.

Next time we are in your neck of the woods; we are going to take a drone. Africa is to cool not to.

 

[JimP]

I think that you will have more problems with the batteries and the airlines.

 

[Argali]

I had taken my Dji Inspir-2 traveling with me to Southen Africa, Northern Amercia and Russia during 2017-2019. No serious problem. Biggest problem was the case of drone too big, bigger than the rule of aircraft carry-on. The most of airlines/airport security allowed me to board with it. One refused, they said that carbon rotor wing is very sharp as knife, I had to check-in.

The battery is not a issue, since drone designer considers the capacity lower than IATA Standard for backpack, except you have biger.

 

[rookhawk]

Hello everyone! Has anyone traveled with a drone to SA before? I am flying with united then have a flight from joberg to port Elizabeth. Was wondering if anyone else has brought a drone along and had any trouble or not getting it thru airport security.

A quick drone anecdote.

So no idea what the rules are in RSA, but in Zimbabwe they are most definitely illegal. I was in the Zambezi valley at a fish camp. An adult father/son duo was at the next camp down the line on a safari for tuskless and croc. We befriended them over sundowners and worked out a symbiotic barter of ice for Biltong where everyone left happy. They had a videographer that was really good, along with their smuggled drone which was whatever the very best one was 7-8 years ago. I believe the same videographer got footage of a leopard charge on their prior hunt that was a segment on Tracks Across Africa. The footage they got on the Zambezi was incredible with that tool.

At any rate, the dad got his elephant and the son finally shot a beautiful big croc, but the shot was off and the croc took to the Zambezi waters. After hours of countless searches, they came back the next day, and the next and final day of their safari. When they were about to call it quits the videographer put the drone in the air one last time and saw a dark shadow in the water 300-400 meters downstream of where they had their croc blind. Remarkably, the drone found the croc. More remarkably, the croc remained preserved in the Zambezi for three days and it was tanned successfully. I saw the full body mount and you’d never have known it was in the water that long post mortem.

So yes, in some countries they are very illegal. Yes, some people use them anyway. Yes, they can have utility that you never imagined.

I always have pucker factor about bringing anything ITAR restricted into a country. Drones. Tritium sights. Night vision. A laptop (they have regulated encryption chips and software). I just don’t need trumped up charges so I keep it clean and simple.

 

[npaden]

Hello everyone! Has anyone traveled with a drone to SA before? I am flying with united then have a flight from joberg to port Elizabeth. Was wondering if anyone else has brought a drone along and had any trouble or not getting it thru airport security.

I flew this July/August with my DJI Mavic 2. Wasn't an issue. I had it in my carryon with 3 spare batteries. Also on United. No issues with security going or coming.

I didn't end up using it nearly as much as I was hoping too. We hunted hard every day and didn't end up with much free time. Wish I had flown it a little more.

 

[Devin Callis]

Thanks everyone! I made it on my safari with no problems I was traveling with a DJI Mavic 2 and had no issues here are a few shots I took whole out hunting and around the lodge I stayed at with Game 4 Africa Safaris!

 

[Philip Glass]

Hello everyone! Has anyone traveled with a drone to SA before? I am flying with united then have a flight from joberg to port Elizabeth. Was wondering if anyone else has brought a drone along and had any trouble or not getting it thru airport security.

No issue in RSA but Zim can be tricky. As with everything in Africa, keep quiet and keep a few $ handy.