Hi, thanks for your reply.
I went to India in January and returned last week. I was worried about three things, thats why I posted on this thread.
The first was flying with the phantom 3 and its batteries. I was flying with Emirates from uk to India via Dubai. Ive heard stories about airlines not being happy with people carrying LiPo batteries in their suitcases and that they preferred if they carried it onboard. However I heard of cases where Dubai airport security confiscating drone batteries due to safety reasons. Because of this I only took one battery (attached to the drone) with me thru Dubai and got a friend in India to purchase another battery for me.
I ended up flying from Dublin rather than London. The airport security were very cool and had no problems. They were very interested in the drone, one guy had the phantom 2 so everything was easy. Dubai airport security was easy as well, but it may have been because of the rush at the time.
Second worry was Indian airport security. I landed in south India (Cochin Airport in Kerala State) and prepared to waffle my way through security. I had printed out letters from the Indian ambassador in London saying that Im allowed to take the drone to India but not fly it outside etc. No waffle was necessary because the security guys were too busy looking for counterfeit money, excess alcohol & cigarettes and gold being smuggled in. My drone went through the x-ray machine and they just waved it through.
My third worry was flying the drone in built up areas. Because there was a temporary ban in India, the second you fly it, people come running out to watch and the news spreads fast. And then police come to either confiscate it or look for money. Thankfully I only encountered police twice and both times, they did not know the current law regarding drones, so they just watched it flying around along with everything else.
I went to three weddings whilst in Kerala, two were filmed by drones. Apparently, its very popular at weddings
I didn’t fly it around too many touristy places because it so annoying filming anything with people standing and staring. I mainly flew around the tea plantations of Munnar, the beaches of Trivandrum, and other non highly populated sites.
Three weeks ago the Indian govt. passed a law banning drone outright from the 1st April 2016. They will be confiscated at airports and you will have to pay duty.
When I was leaving india, the airport security gave me a stern warning not to bring the drone back.