Travel experience to BVI

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Just returned from a trip to the British Virgin Islands from the U.S. where we chartered a PowerCat for a week. Thought I would share my experience.

First off, I carried my Phantom in a Pelican 1510. Traveling with this case was very easy - it went through the x ray machines and customs without any issue with the exception of a customs person asking about it when entering BVI. They just opened the case to look at it and that was it - no hassles.

Know how the airports have those "your baggage must fit inside this to be carried on" setups? On our flight from Miami to St. Thomas they were actually making people place their carry-ons inside of it and it if it didn't fit they made you gate check it. Never seen that before but if you have a larger case you might be stuck gate checking here.

We had a ferry from St. Thomas to Tortola and I checked my Pelican when I boarded (thought I had to). I didn't see it happen but my friends saw them hurl my Pelican onto the boat which landed with a bang. I would later find that damage was done...

We hit the first island, I fired up the Phantom and one of the props wouldn't turn. I could tell that it had knocked a C clip off and I didn't have any tools to make a repair... Now begins the quest of finding allen wrenches in the BVI which I can tell you from experience is **** near impossible. We asked practically every shop at every stop - no one has them.

A few days in, a dive shop in Virgin Gorda let me borrow theirs. I made the repair and did a flight. Success. On to the next island... I fire up the Phantom and the same prop isn't turning again and I can see the c clip stuck between the motor and the case. I'm on the hunt for allen wrenches again. Ended up having to take a very expensive cab ride from one side of Tortola to the other to get to a hardware store. The first store was sold out of allen wrenches... Had to go to another which had some. Back to the boat for repairs. Found that the first time I had repaired the Phantom I had attached the c clip but overlooked the brass ring. Luckily I found both pieces and made the proper repair and the Phantom worked for the remainder of the trip. It was working 3 out of 7 days - very frustrating but a good learning experience.

* Don't check your Phantom case for ferry travel - keep it with you
* Travel with basic tools and spare parts so you can make repairs, especially if you're in a remote area as we were
* Some airports validate the size of your carry on so if your case is too large be prepared to gate check it
* Travel with your Phantom. I was a little stressed about traveling with it but it was a very smooth experience (ferry damage aside) and I'm looking at some of my vacation pics I took with it and I'm glad I took it.
 

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