Hello everyone!
before I venture into the world of electric paramotors, I was wondering what people’s experience is with taking your gear with you on a plane. I presume the actual motor and stuff is not a big deal but the batteries might very well be a problem…
So anyone tried to take them on a plane yet?
thanks guys!
They are unfortunately very much over the limitations of the airlines. You might get lucky and security would let you through, but I wouldn’t bet or even hope on 4 of the Bonkas getting through.
I’ve taken lots of drone lipos through before, but they’re all under 100Wh. You can get special permissions up to 150Wh. Each Bonka is 488Wh. 
First of all is there a way to make them nearly impossible to ignite or explode so there is truly nothing to worry about? If so then I would have no problems chatting about how we might desguise these packs under an X-ray to look like something they are not that is acceptable. We could for instance fabricate false data stickers that would give the impression that these are under the allowed amount of wattage.
That’s a great idea if you want to pay a big fine or get your name on the no fly list. Security agents aren’t stupid but this idea is. As a pilot I certainly wouldn’t want people sneaking batteries that are known to be dangerous onto an airplane, dangering not only your own life but many others.
thanks, yea I figured as much… I’ll stick to the 2stroke!
darwin will take care of you 
With Tesla’s recent acquisition of a super capacitor company, I am wondering if super capacitors might give us an option for air travel. It seems they would be incredibly safe if you could completely discharge them for travel.
That said, I don’t think I would trust my flight gear as checked baggage, and I would not want to carry the heavy and bulky gear on a plane either.
Again is there a way to make them safe to fly so that like I said there would truly be nothing to worry about? how is that a stupid idea? People fly with cellphones that have been known to ignight unknowingly. That in conjunction with something flammable in a bag could be just as bad if not worse depending on other factors. My question is can the be made safe. If they are safe then I see no problem bending the rules. I’ve had a friend take a $8000 parachute through tsa with an official FAA X-ray card to prove the wires on the inside were for the system and not some sort of bomb. They took it into lockdown before he could stop them and cut into the side of it. What’s a stupid idea is tsa in the first place$$$
I fly regularly to diving vacations with diving torches that have batteries that are a little bigger than normal batteries. They want you to carry the batteries as hand luggage instead of checked in luggage. Probably because then somebody is around to notice it if they catch fire. But the practise is still to check them in, because we often get discussions at security when they check our hand baggage. Especially in the lesser developped countries.
But I don’t think there is any chance that you get 4 Boncas through in your checked in baggage with todays automated screening machines (I work at a company which delivers automated baggage handling systems with integrated screening). And that is very fortunate!
If a 6S 22Ah lipo goes up, it’s a bomb. I’ve had 2 friends lose their homes from lipos much smaller than these (4S 1.5Ah, drone racing lipos). I have fudged it with lipos that were just over the 100Wh limit, but one of those is still manageable in an enclosed space. Bonka lipos at almost 500Wh (and if there’s 4 of them 2000Wh packed next to each other), you’re not stopping it once it starts.
Any lipo should always be in carry on, then you can deal with them if they do go up. The dangerous goods declaration you make as you’re checking in says “do you have all spare batteries in your carry on?” Very unlikely that they would go up as long as they’re well cared for, but I don’t want to be the one responsible for 2000Wh of lipo going up in a plane cabin.
Best option is to ship them ahead. Might be a bit more expensive depending on where you’re going.
This seems to be a big minus when it comes to eppg. Traveling with gasoline paramotors on airlines has been increasingly difficult. I assumed that eppg would resolve that and we could finally travel freely to the great paramotoring countries around the world. Are there no approved ways of carrying large lipos on airlines? No fireproof containers?