How to ship your drone back to Flyability

Please follow these guidelines, forms and labels to help you return your UAV to Flyability safely and smoothly. This applies to maintenance, repair or at the end of a lease.

There are several requirements including regulation/customs clearance you might be liable for. In case of a question or a doubt, do not hesitate to contact us.

Please note that shipments are subject to customs duties and VAT on importation. As a Company you are entitled to get your VAT back from your local Administration.

Your drone was delivered with a Return Folder, you can download the latest version as a zip file here:

ELIOS 1
ELIOS 2

Folder Content

Return Form (x1)
Proforma Invoice for return to be completed (x1)
Seco Certificate (x 2)
Lithium Batteries Shipping Form (x1)
Security seal (x1)
Sticky labels printed with "Documents Enclosed" to include shipping documents.

Please follow the steps bellow:

1 Beware of Dangerous Goods Regulations for Lithium Batteries

As a shipper, you (personally) and your company are responsible for meeting those regulations. You could be held liable for not meeting those. Do not ship any loose ELIOS Lipo batteries.
Beware that the tablet and Remote Control have Lipo batteries contained in equipment. Therefore,

Do not ship any broken tablet.
Make sure that the Tablet and Remote Controller have a state of charge below 30%. Discharge them accordingly if necessary.

Read the Lithium Batteries Shipping Form contained in this Folder

2 Fill in the Return Form

The Return Form is designed to indicate us what products you are shipping back to Flyability. It also indicates damage and contamination on your UAV.
Please fill this form carefully. This will give us all the information we need and will help us in the receiving process.

Providing false or incomplete information about any form of contamination with hazardous materials will be taken as a serious breach of trust, and will result in legal action.

3 Prepare the return documentation that will be provided to the freight company

Complete the provided Proforma Invoice. Fill in all yellow boxes, make two signed copies.
Complete the Lithium Batteries Shipping Form contained in this folder. Fill in all yellow boxes, make one signed copy.
Gather the Seco Certificates (2 copies) contained in this folder

Include all these documents into the sticky label “Documents Enclosed” located on a side of the box. If the existing label is in poor condition, please remove and use the spare one provided in this folder.

4 Prepare your Elios for shipping

Your Elios Box was provided with a Shock Watch Patch stuck on the outside. Check if this one is still white, if not, make sure to remove it.
If you are only shiping back the drone without tablet, spare batteries or controller, remove the Dangerous Goods label for Lithium Batteries that is showing on one side of the Box.
Place all the items listed on your Return Form table carefully into the box.
Place the completed Return Form inside the Elios Box.
Place one copy of the Proforma Invoice inside the Elios Box.
Close the Box and apply the security seal (yellow tie provided).

5 Arrange the shipment

Contact your preferred shipping company to organise the pick-up according to your schedule.
Ensure the goods as necessary (we recommend to ensure Ad-valorem as per the Proforma Invoice). Comply with any further documentary requirements the transport company may have (shipping labels…)
Once the goods have been picked up, please communicate the tracking number to support@flybility.com

6 How to get tax back when the drone is returned to you

You could be charged import tax when Elios is returned to you after maintenance or repairs.

Having to pay the VAT is standard when receiving a shipment, at Flyability we pay the VAT ourselves whenever a customer sends a UAV for maintenance or repair.
But you will get this VAT paid back by the tax department when you make your VAT declaration.

What is important to get your VAT back is that you keep a registry of the shipments to and from us, meaning you have to keep a folder with:

The proof of export (for example the UPS or DHL tracking)
A copy of the proforma you used to ship the UAV back to us
A copy of the proforma we have used to ship the UAV back to you

Then you have to make sure that your quarter VAT declaration shows an invoice of 100% of VAT.

The proformas used to ship to us and back to you must have the same value, so we emphasize that our customers use the proforma template issued in our return folder.

This 'pay back' system can be avoided by declaring a "temporary import". However the customs paperwork for this also carries costs, which you cannot get back.