so this just happened like two days ago and im still kind of annoyed about it. came back through miami from colombia and customs pulled me aside because of the drone in my carry on. they wanted to know if id flown it commercially while i was there, whether i had a work visa, all this stuff i was not expecting. i fly for personal use only and i wasnt selling any footage but they were asking really specific questions about it.

they didnt take it or anything but it took like 45 minutes and they went through my sd cards which felt a bit much. anyone else had anything like this happen? i always carry my equipment but never had an issue before and now im wondering if i should be doing something different when i travel with it

that sounds really stressful. ive heard of this happening more with people coming back from certain countries, i think customs sometimes flags drone equipment because of concerns about commercial use without proper visas. honestly not much you can do to fully prevent it but some people carry a letter basically stating its for personal hobby use only. probably doesnt do much legally but it shows you thought about it. the sd card thing is definitely within their rights unfortunately even if it feels invasive

45 minutes for that is wild. i went through 6 countries last summer with my air 3 and never got stopped once, just had it in my backpack. maybe colombia specifically triggers something idk. did they at least treat you decently or were they being jerks about it