Perhaps the question I get asked most often is about how I travel with the drone. Is it allowed? Is it tedious? Well, there is no simple answer. For me, I pack very lightly (I mostly travel to warmer places as I don’t do so well in the cold), so this means a few t-shirts and pairs of shorts. I keep my drone in a hard case that came with the drone. I have the Phantom 3 Advanced and it came with a hard backpack from DJI. While traveling, I almost always opt to rent a vehicle, unless I am just staying in a single city. Having a vehicle makes the traveling with the drone easy as I will just always keep it in the trunk. If I see an opportunity for some good aerial photos and videos, I am usually never far from my car. If I was backpacking on trains and buses, I could see how carrying the added baggage can be tedious, but I try to avoid buses and trains as much as possible when traveling. Nevertheless, I feel like it is almost always worth it because the quality of the footage you can get is 100 times better than you can do with a handheld camera. It is really a matter of personal preference.
As far as legality, traveling with it, by other peoples’ accounts, is hit or miss regarding customs/security. I, in particular, had no problems in Asia. I was a little concerned about China as they are nuts about security and supposedly the drones are banned there:
http://www.stuckincustoms.com/2014/06/19/dji-quadcopter-china-detention/
I’ve also read that theyve just recently been banned in Thailand, but I faced no issues.
http://tech.thaivisa.com/drones-fitted-cameras-banned-thailand/3290/
and also Cambodia:
http://thediplomat.com/2015/02/cambodia-bans-drones/
As for Indonesia, a license/permit is required. So they conceivably COULD seize it from you at customs or arrest you for flying it. As you can probably tell from my videos, I’m a bit of a risk taker so was willing to take mine with me. I did not even inquire about the permit.
If, after reading this, you still want to take a drone with you, I would 100% recommend you carry it on with you. You must discharge the batteries below 50% and are supposed to put the batteries in a fireproof li-po bag. It is also illegal in US and pretty much everywhere to put the batteries in your checked bag. When searching my drone bag, I feel like I looked like an unassuming tourist with a snapback, so I was likely not perceived as a security threat.
One other thing that you may consider doing is detaching the camera from the drone. Its the camera that is a real concern for many governments, so if you stow that in your checked bag, it only looks like you are bringing a toy. This method probably saved my ass in Dubai, as camera drones are illegal there.
So basically, you really have to be pretty comfortable with the fact that you may get it taken away. Its really a matter of whether low-level officials have been briefed on the relevant laws, because even in USA, some TSA agents had no idea what my drone was (which is a little concerning for our security). But, again, I went through customs in 8 different countries in Asia in April and didn’t have any problems.
