Short point to this thread: I know this has been brought up a few times, but I'm posting this to give pilots who have never had to go through the process a heads up to familiarize yourself with "how to" before you need to unlock directly from DJI website. Luckily my client was patient and understanding during my 30+ minutes of trying to unlock a specific area.
Long Point: I mentioned in another thread that I was able to get approval to fly very near an international airport - Half a block from a busy landing/takeoff runways. I was approved for 90', 300' radius. Not ideal to photograph a large commercial building/warehouse, but I could make do. Onsite, I was expecting the usual, "locked area, are you permitted to fly here etc.?" message. Where I would proceed to enter my info, submit and await a code to unlock my flight area.
Being my first time fly this close to the airport, I was surprised to see, "Restricted area. Locked". And no way to enter my data. My client is patiently waiting for me to solve this issue, I had already told her I will have to go through some hoops once we are ready to fly. I quickly googled and found instructions on how to manually unlock geo zones.
I've kind of paraphrased some of the above. Be sure to google and look up for your specific DJI Fly app, and further instructions. But this should give you an idea what you need to do if you are in such a zone. If I've errored in any of these instructions, by all means correct me.
Also, it seems the DJI site was not very smart phone friendly (I used an iPhone 11 pro max). I couldn't see entire page horizontally or vertically. Just enough to get the job done.
Good luck out there!
Long Point: I mentioned in another thread that I was able to get approval to fly very near an international airport - Half a block from a busy landing/takeoff runways. I was approved for 90', 300' radius. Not ideal to photograph a large commercial building/warehouse, but I could make do. Onsite, I was expecting the usual, "locked area, are you permitted to fly here etc.?" message. Where I would proceed to enter my info, submit and await a code to unlock my flight area.
Being my first time fly this close to the airport, I was surprised to see, "Restricted area. Locked". And no way to enter my data. My client is patiently waiting for me to solve this issue, I had already told her I will have to go through some hoops once we are ready to fly. I quickly googled and found instructions on how to manually unlock geo zones.
- Log into DJI
- Go to DJI.com and scroll to bottom
- click on the "Fly Safe" link
- scroll down to find a link to "Unlock a zone"
- there is even a helpful video right here
- From here you will have to enter in your Flight controller SN, Your name, email, phone (I think) and Drone model
- Once you have above bullet point finished, you can click on "New Unlock Request"
- Fill out accordingly
- attach/upload pdf file of your approved FAA clearance document when you submit
- Make sure you draw or circle enough area to accomplish your flight plan. I cut one side of the building a little too close and couldn't back up as far as I wanted.
- curiously, my location services didn't help. It started me out in DC, and I had to zoom out, scroll over to Nevada, zoom in, find and highlight my flight area.
- Approval came within 5 minutes
- After approval, you will need to go into your controller under "unlock Geo Zone" and click on the approved request and sync.
- Then you have to go into "Aircraft" tab and click the desired request to "On"
I've kind of paraphrased some of the above. Be sure to google and look up for your specific DJI Fly app, and further instructions. But this should give you an idea what you need to do if you are in such a zone. If I've errored in any of these instructions, by all means correct me.
Also, it seems the DJI site was not very smart phone friendly (I used an iPhone 11 pro max). I couldn't see entire page horizontally or vertically. Just enough to get the job done.
Good luck out there!