If you happen to be a new drone pilot or have simply never flown commercially with your drone before, you likely have questions about how to pack your drone in an organized, space-efficient way and prevent damage to your equipment, and accommodate all your personal gear as well. Luckily, the process of packing a drone for travel is relatively straightforward, but we have a few tips to keep in mind and to make it a better experience.
Keep reading below for more information.
Carry-On or Checked Luggage?
You might be wondering if you should take your drone in your carry-on bag, or if you should pack it into your checked luggage. And for that matter, you may wonder if it’s even possible to check a bag that contains a drone.
Traveling with your drone in your carry-on bag is preferred because of the obvious extra control you have. There is little risk of damage to your equipment and zero chance of the drone being stolen. Unfortunately, checked luggage is often mishandled, damaged, or items may go missing due to sticky-fingered handlers. Additionally, checked luggage cannot contain lithium-ion batteries which means that at the minimum you’ll have to pack your batteries in your carry-on anyway.
With all of this said, plan to take your drone in your carry-on, even if you have extra space in your checked bag.
Finding the Best Bag
When searching for the ideal carry-on bag for your drone, keep in mind that you’ll need to accommodate more than just the drone and its basic gear. There are always things like spare props, a variety of cables, SD cards, adapters, filters, and other accessories. And it goes without saying that you’ll want a high-quality foam set in the bag that is designed to surround and protect your specific drone.
In addition, your drone certainly isn’t the only thing that you’ll be taking aboard in your carry-on bags. You’re very likely going to have your laptop and/or your iPad and all your cords, cables, chargers, batteries, eyeglasses, documents, snacks, water bottle, and even things like your chapstick and your ibuprofen. So having a bag that can efficiently organize all your person stuff along with your drone, is key.
You’ll want to make sure that the bag fits within carry-on sizing requirements. It’s also helpful if your drone bag is small enough, or can be otherwise configured, to fit under your seat in case there isn’t enough overhead storage.
Additional Tips for Packing Drones
When traveling with your drone in a carry-on bag, sometimes flight attendants will ask people to gate check their bag. If this happens, politely decline and let them know that your carry-on contains lithium-ion batteries for your equipment and that the contents of your bag are extremely fragile. In an ideal world you would be also able to show that your bag can be divided so that part or all of the bag can go under the seat and if necessary, part can go overhead in a much smaller space.
You will also want to make sure that your batteries are protected. Ideally the batteries will all be mostly discharged and stored in a battery sleeve, perhaps even with the contacts taped over to avoid short-circuiting.
While you always want to have spare batteries, avoid packing too many of them. Aside from the fact that batteries will increase the overall weight of your bag and make it heavy to carry, most airlines have limits regarding how many lithium-ion batteries a passenger can bring onboard.
Planning Your Next Trip
If your trip is quickly approaching and you must use the bag you have on hand, take note of any issues that arise as you make your way through the airport or during your travels. Unfortunately, some carry-on bags may seem like they’d be okay, but it turns out that yet they fall flat when it comes to functionality or protecting your equipment. Some brands and styles of bags are better-suited for traveling with a drone than others.
When you find that your bag is falling short, or if you’re simply ready for a new bag to use while traveling with your drone, consider building a customized bag from BrightLine Bags. Their modular approach to gear bags lets you “pick your parts and build your bag”.
You’ll never struggle with the issue of safely packing your drone in your carry-on again because you’ll have the ability to add or remove extra storage through your choice of different center sections and side pockets in order to reconfigure your bag as needed.