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Flying with Batteries Issue

steve green

steve green

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Usually when doing shoots in other cities I FedEx gear ahead of time, no issues. But next week I'm heading to the Caribbean and for temporary import purposes I'm going to travel with all the gear. Reading the TSA restrictions it seems it's illegal to check even 95 watt AB HC's. I am wanting to bring 8-10 batteries so it's not really practical to carry them all on. How are all you dealing with these travel restrictions these days?
 
Yeah, Lithium Ion have to be carry-on. <100Wh and you can bring on as many as you can hold in your carry-on case. You're only allowed two 101 to 150Wh batteries (anything greater than 150Wh can't be brought on a plane). Repeat, you can NOT put any sized Lithium Ion batteries in checked luggage (not even AAs, though you'll never get flagged for those).

I think what most people do is rent when they're on the ground. In your scenario, if renting isn't an option, have one carry-on case hold your 8-10 95Wh batts and carry that onboard. Hopefully they won't check the weight, as it'll likely be more than the carry-on limit (which is usually ~20lbs).
 
Are you travelling alone? Generally I'm travelling with the Producer, Director and myself so between the three of us we carry on the A-Cam body, lenses and batteries and check everything else in. The batteries are the only thing that you legally have to carry on, but I find its a good idea to carry-on the main body and lenses as well for two reasons: A) Baggage handlers can be pretty rough, even if they're in a good case getting knocked around could throw them out a bit (lenses I mean). B) Sometimes luggage gets lost or delayed and that can really mess up your shoot. So I always carry-on the bare necessities to get a camera up.

Shipping ahead is also a good idea, though I've never done it that way except for block batteries and LiPo's.

I did a shoot in Jamaica last Match and we had a customs/import broker. I recommend doing that as well.
 
Check the regs, you can put batteries in the hold as long as they are "attached to a device". A battery charger fits that bill. Configure a case to take chargers with batteries on them (under the limit watt hours wise obviously). Then you should be fine.

Nick
 
Nick Gardner said:
Check the regs, you can put batteries in the hold as long as they are "attached to a device". A battery charger fits that bill. Configure a case to take chargers with batteries on them (under the limit watt hours wise obviously). Then you should be fine.

Nick
Click to expand...

interesting tip from Nick, we use PAG as they are all 95ws and the travel charger is tiny.

We carry 8-16 batteries via carry on luggage, usually spread out amongst the crew (client included) we try to fly business to get mor hand luggage allowance. Sometimes we've taken an extra assistant on trips just to get the extra baggage allowance.
 
Hey Steve,
The really old school option is to have a bunch of 140w Hytrons. I had a bunch recelled by John Ritter, www.ritterbattery.com
They can also tolerate a high amp draw.
Heavy as, well- lead (almost, metaphorically speaking).

No restrictions on Hytrons- correct?
 
Karl Kim said:
Hey Steve,
The really old school option is to have a bunch of 140w Hytrons. I had a bunch recelled by John Ritter, www.ritterbattery.com
They can also tolerate a high amp draw.
Heavy as, well- lead (almost, metaphorically speaking).

No restrictions on Hytrons- correct?
Click to expand...


Correct - Hytron's are Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH). No restrictions - you can send as many as you want as checked baggage.
 
Do not attempt to transport any Li-Po batteries as checked baggage, attached to a device or not.
Click to expand...

I don't think anyone is talking about LIpos. Those are a no-no. Lithium Ion are what we are talking about. Lipos need to be carried on 100% way too scarey to be out of reach.

Nick
 
I can fit 6 PAGlink batteries (96wh each), attached to each other, across the bottom of my F-Stop Tilopa. And then PAG sells these incredible Micro Chargers, $200 normal price, but I managed to grab two used for $99 each from Adorama. Since the batteries stack for charging, this lets me put three batteries on each Micro Charger. You can see in the link just how small these chargers are on the link. I used to travel with non-stacking batteries and a giant dual charger... it's crazy how much nicer, faster, and smaller the PAG setup is.
 
I'm liking the Hytron solution, I've got a bunch of those that need re-celling.....also the Pag option works well but that means buying all new batteries. The attaching the batteries to the charger works well if that is "legal". Lots of great solutions..... I guess you need to have the TSA regulations printed out so when you get challenged at 5 AM at the airport you can get the batteries check in. Anyone have those regs printed out?
 
steve green said:
I'm liking the Hytron solution, I've got a bunch of those that need re-celling.....also the Pag option works well but that means buying all new batteries. The attaching the batteries to the charger works well if that is "legal". Lots of great solutions..... I guess you need to have the TSA regulations printed out so when you get challenged at 5 AM at the airport you can get the batteries check in. Anyone have those regs printed out?
Click to expand...
Yes, a printed copy always accompanies my batteries where TSA can read the sections I carefully highlighted for them : )
 
Bill Totolo said:
Yes, a printed copy always accompanies my batteries where TSA can read the sections I carefully highlighted for them : )
Click to expand...


Bill,
Would you mind posting the TSA document that you carry with you? I've checked around and can't seem to find anything that would be very convincing.
 
Hey Steve,

Literally just got back from a two week filming adventure in China. We took 10+ International and domestic flights during the trip. Basically there is no one way to prepare. Sometimes we would go through security without even taking out the batteries and other times they would stop us for 15 minutes and demand we go back to the airline checkin counter to get a stamped approval form. We had four people flying with us and 6 Anton 98Wh Batteries and two vlock Red Bricks at 153Wh. Almost every time the RED Batteries would be stopped and questioned. The below 100Wh batteries typically could be approved by the security screening team, but those red batteries.. always had to either go back to the counter or have an official called and talk about whose authority it was to approve for 20 minutes in Chinese with our fixer.

Next time we go I'm taking all PAG under 100Wh and not looking back. I think you could prob even take a few more batteries at this level per person, but each flight company and TSA agent will be different. Check the airlines provide website and print out the documentation or section of the website you find. And with anything over 100Wh always ask the checkin desk for the approval form!
 
Steve,

I have a collection of documents, but all are too large for REDUser (A bit over 20MB worth of info - most are PDF's).
Could share those via Dropbox. I'll set it up pending a PM with an email to share the folder...
 
JP Castel said:
Hey Steve,

Literally just got back from a two week filming adventure in China. We took 10+ International and domestic flights during the trip. Basically there is no one way to prepare. Sometimes we would go through security without even taking out the batteries and other times they would stop us for 15 minutes and demand we go back to the airline checkin counter to get a stamped approval form. We had four people flying with us and 6 Anton 98Wh Batteries and two vlock Red Bricks at 153Wh. Almost every time the RED Batteries would be stopped and questioned. The below 100Wh batteries typically could be approved by the security screening team, but those red batteries.. always had to either go back to the counter or have an official called and talk about whose authority it was to approve for 20 minutes in Chinese with our fixer.

Next time we go I'm taking all PAG under 100Wh and not looking back. I think you could prob even take a few more batteries at this level per person, but each flight company and TSA agent will be different. Check the airlines provide website and print out the documentation or section of the website you find. And with anything over 100Wh always ask the checkin desk for the approval form!
Click to expand...


Seems like the under 95 watt hour batteries in a carry on is OK.....It's the checking of 8 batteries presents the problem. The airport run around you encountered on your trip sounds like a major hassle. Travel will just never be the same.
 
Josh Becker said:
I can fit 6 PAGlink batteries (96wh each), attached to each other, across the bottom of my F-Stop Tilopa. And then PAG sells these incredible Micro Chargers, $200 normal price, but I managed to grab two used for $99 each from Adorama. Since the batteries stack for charging, this lets me put three batteries on each Micro Charger. You can see in the link just how small these chargers are on the link. I used to travel with non-stacking batteries and a giant dual charger... it's crazy how much nicer, faster, and smaller the PAG setup is.
Click to expand...

I agree, love the PAGs. Only issue is it takes a very long time to charge with the micro chargers, plan accordingly.
 
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