American Airlines travel ban on certain lithium batteries.

[Tv Shooter]

You can also carry as many that are under 90watts as you can. I carry on my camera with a 190 attached, a 130 spare in the carry on case and 2 130's in my shoulder bag, and my audio guy carries on 2 mixer batteries (70w), with the mixer in cargo.

I have toyed with the idea of buying some Nicad batteries to fly, cause I hate carrying on anything. My camera may even start going in a hard case as well. I tell clients that want to fly, we do not take the last flight out the day before a shoot. Sometimes I go ahead early in the day, get the SUV and then load up. Get lunch and then either pick them up when they get in or they get a cab to the hotel.

But never….never take the last flight out unless absolutely necessary. That way if something doesn't make it or is broken, you have time to deal with it.

 

[Focused]

Shipping batteries

This is such a pain anymore.

It seems the FAA has their guidelines and each airline has their own as well. They are not consistent either. Not sure I agree with needing training to ship them through FedEx. That seems unnecessary to put a few batteries in a box for ground shipping. That how batteries are shipped from the resellers. For air shipping I can understand the precaution but the need to take a course is, in my opinion unnecessary.

Sidebar--
One thing that got me at NAB was an Anton Bauer rep. When showing their new Li-batts in the rubber housing, she ripped other battery manufacturing companies for publishing a PDFs that explain what is in the battery in case an airline has a question. Her comments were it wasn't necessary and could be misleading. I completely disagree with her on that. Any documentation from the manufacturer to help with this confusing issue would be helpful.

PAG batteries assured me that I could take as many 90w as I wanted as a carry on with no concern and that has been the case for a while. I asked the United when flying home and got a very different answer. 3 days later I fly again (American this time) their response was different yet again. Delta wasn't sure at the counter. Awesome.

 

[dhart]

https://www.flickr.com/photos/124300220@N03/14128667472/

This is the proper labeling for shipping Lithium Ion batteries via FedEx ground.

 

[At the scene]

So I thought I would dredge this up since it's that time of year when TV stations get crazy about sending experience and inexperience crews to the "Big Dance". Yes I am heading to Phoenix with thousands of others for sleepless nights, malnutrition days and long, long shifts.
The topic of conversation today was traveling with lithium batteries and the rules that go along flying with them. I decided to email Anton Bauer and I was very pleased that they responded so quickly with this.

Thank you for your interest in our products. Here are the general guidelines however it is important to cross-reference this detail with the airline as it may vary.

DIONIC 90: YES - You can bring as many as you want.
DIONIC 160: NO -These are forbidden on all Commercial Airlines.
HyTRON 100: YES - There are no limits on Nickel Metal Hydride Batteries.

The below link should also contain more helpful information on the subject.

http://video.antonbauer.com/Carry-on

Regards,

Customer Support

I'm sure most of you are familiar with this but I thought I would pass it along to those who are not.

 

[csusandman]

Good heads up... I think. The questions I have are: do the the TSA agents working security at the airport really know ANY of this?! And, if they happen to, are they really gonna take the time to check each gram, Wh, kn, gigwatt, etc?!

I just traveled from SLC to Phoenix (and back) and had my camera w/ an AB Hytron battery on it and two other AB batteries in separate Ziploc bags and had NO issues in either direction. The only time I've ever been stopped by TSA was years ago, shortly after 9/11, and an agent just had me verify that each battery was just that. So I put each one on the camera and powered it up. Good to go.

 

[Capt. Slo-mo]

While all of my LI IDX batteries are legal...as long as I have them each in a plastic bag, and take them out of my backpack and put them in a bin at TSA...they don't even look at them. If I leave them in the backpack still in the bags, it's about 50-50 whether they will do an explosives swipe...but I have never ever had TSA examine a LI for flight compliance. But as we all know...it only takes one dude to ruin your trip, so I typically carry the latest TSA printout about the batteries with my other trip paperwork.

 

[Run&Gun]

Mike, if the other two batts were Hytron's, as well, you shouldn't legally have any problems at all. There aren't any travel restrictions on that type of battery chemistry. Now, whether the monkey in the blue shirt can figure that out is another story.

 

[TimG]

. . . . but I have never ever had TSA examine a LI for flight compliance. But as we all know...it only takes one dude to ruin your trip, so I typically carry the latest TSA printout about the batteries with my other trip paperwork.

Hey all,

I'm on a Southwest Flight from Vegas to Houston right now (3/23/15) and we just brought three PMW-EX3s with a 160 Watt hour Lithium-ion V-mount battery attached to each camera and one spare in each bag. I think we even brought some 240 Watt hour ones. All three cameras went through with no problems. They didn't even question the bags. It might be a game of TSA Roulette but I also wonder if they are lightening up. They didn't even ask people to take off their shoes or take laptops out of the bags.

Hope you guys are well. It's been awhile. B-Roll.net is still the best resource out there for broadcast production questions!

Tim