DJI Fly App will not allow me to take off

[muabg]

Let me start this rant off by saying the I am a 107 Certified drone pilot who has flown drone commercially for over 10 years all across North America, Europe and Asia and I have flown almost every DJI product form the original phantom. I have thousands of hours on all sorts of remotely piloted aircraft

So I decided to buy the Mavic Mini and an ultra-light option for my travels but I have just found out that I can non fly this aircraft in my backyard where I have always flown all of my DJI aircraft without any problems.
Apparently the new DJI Fly app lists my house as a restricted no fly area and the mini will not start up. There does not seem be any way to unlock no fly areas in the new DJI Fly app.

I live in Class G airspace, and according to AirMap App and FAA B4UFLY App there are absolutely no flight restrictions where I live

Any suggestions on how to proceed?

 

[msinger]

Apparently the new DJI Fly app lists my house as a restricted no fly area and the mini will not start up. There does not seem be any way to unlock no fly areas in the new DJI Fly app.

Per the Mavic Mini FAQ, you'll have to wait until late December when DJI allows GEO zones to be unlocked in DJI Fly.

 

[Recoveryone]

What I notice over the last 2 weeks (since I crashed my P3P) that you will have a new DJI Geofencing update that is more subject to restrictions (Power Plants, Helo Pads, Colleges etc...) you will need to bypass the warning (accept responsibility) in the app to fly. If what Msinger says is true, your in a wait and see mode, if there is no updating on the Mavic Mini.

 

[muabg]

Per the Mavic Mini FAQ, you'll have to wait until late December when DJI allows GEO zones to be unlocked in DJI Fly.

Not really happy with this since there are no flight restrictions where I am trying to fly according to the FAA.

I guess someone in China has overruled the FAA and decided I cannot fly in Class G uncontrolled airspace

 

[msinger]

I guess someone in China has overruled the FAA and decided I cannot fly in Class G uncontrolled airspace

That doesn't seem to be the case at all. DJI Fly simply is not able to override the DJI GEO zones as-is today.

FYI, DJI GEO zones are in no way related to FAA no fly zones.

 

[Prmath]

Let me start this rant off by saying the I am a 107 Certified drone pilot who has flown drone commercially for over 10 years all across North America, Europe and Asia and I have flown almost every DJI product form the original phantom. I have thousands of hours on all sorts of remotely piloted aircraft

So I decided to buy the Mavic Mini and an ultra-light option for my travels but I have just found out that I can non fly this aircraft in my backyard where I have always flown all of my DJI aircraft without any problems.
Apparently the new DJI Fly app lists my house as a restricted no fly area and the mini will not start up. There does not seem be any way to unlock no fly areas in the new DJI Fly app.

I live in Class G airspace, and according to AirMap App and FAA B4UFLY App there are absolutely no flight restrictions where I live

Any suggestions on how to proceed?

Have you tried another location yet?

 

[DanMan32]

According to geomap, there's a TFR 9/3067 from 10/28 to 12/28.
According to FAA, thats for safe firefighting operations for 5 nautical miles south of Van Nuys airport

9/3067 NOTAM Details

Geofence doing its job. It just needs to tell you why.

 

[Thomas B]

Yep... should look for TFRs before flying. Part of my routine.

 

[Prmath]

Have you tried another location yet?

According to geomap, there's a TFR 9/3067 from 10/28 to 12/28.
According to FAA, thats for safe firefighting operations for 5 nautical miles south of Van Nuys airport

9/3067 NOTAM Details

Geofence doing its job. It just needs to tell you why.

hear anything yet about MAVIC FLY being configured to fly ALL DJI drones
Coming soon. Please stand by ?

 

[DanMan32]

It does seem that way with leaks of embedded features. That or future enhancements to Mini.
I'm not a fan of Fly

 

[muabg]

I am located at the red dot and according to that sectional map I am outside a restricted area.

According to the FAA website B4UFly I am “Good to go”

This is clearly a DJI error and I apparently have to wait until the DJI Flight App is updated in late December :/

 

[DanMan32]

The center of the TFR appears to be 5 or so miles south of Van Nuys, and the TFR has a 5 mile radius as per FAA themselves. How far are you from the airport?

 

[DanMan32]

I think Airmap is missing that TFR. FAA has it as a circle. No circle showing in Airmap.
It's not showing Van Nuys airspace either.

 

[DanMan32]

Here's some screenshots from flysafe.

 

[muabg]

The center of the TFR appears to be 5 or so miles south of Van Nuys, and the TFR has a 5 mile radius as per FAA themselves. How far are you from the airport?

Vay Nuys Airport is 10.44 miles from where I live in a straight line

 

[DanMan32]

Then you seem to be inside, close to the edge of the TzfR.
The TFR center is I'd say 6 miles south of the VN airport, along the southern end of the runway flight path.
The TFR has a 5 mile radius.

I wish I could find an outside source graphically showing the TFR in the same way DJI does.

 

[muabg]

Here's some screenshots from flysafe.View attachment 86609View attachment 86610

As per the web site:
“The GEO system is advisory only. Each user is responsible for checking official sources and determining what laws or regulations might apply to his or her flight. In some instances, DJI has selected widely-recommended general parameters without making any determination of whether this guidance matches regulations that may apply specifically to you.”

Pardon my ignorance here and please educate me on how GEO system works and who set it up. It seems that this is “advisory only”
Thanks again for your help with this.

So how do I unlock this zone? I guess my only option is to wait for the DJI Flight update before I can fly in an area that DJI appears to have created an “advisory”

IMO it’s unfortunate that the Mini cannot be flown with the regular DJI Go App where there would be no problems

I did not want this post to sound snarky, I am here to learn from everyone

 

[DanMan32]

At this time the Fly app is incapable of unlocking authorization zones.

DJI is protecting itself and their customers from shooting themselves in the foot. A prime example is yours where you do indeed seem to be on the inside edge of a TFR that you seem to want to ignore.
They follow government regulations and maps and design their database and application of the data. They are constantly improving their application. Less than a year ago their zones were circles which often would exceed actual legal restrictions. Now they use all sorts of geometry to make it more accurate.

Now that FAA has a facilities map, DJI now has more concrete data to go by to match with their database.

It seems DJI has also recently included warnings and restrictions based on TFRs. TFRs are not easily interpreted since FAA doesn't seem to have a clear map of where they are. Officially it's just a list. Violation of a TFR can be quite serious depending on what it is. I'm thankful for DJI making it clearer what and where they are.

Your beef really isn't with DJI but with FAA and LAANC providers for not making it clearer to you in a way that's easy for you to see and understand about the existence of the TFR affecting you. There's been a lot of wildfire activity in your general area so FAA felt it best to keep general UAS out of the area for a two month period so responders don't need to be as concerned about a UAS getting in the way of a sudden flareup and can get their planes an choppers that will be low flying quickly in place to control the blazes.

The TFR in question has a listed center lattitude/longitude 34º06'36"N, 118º28'40"W and a listed radius of 5 miles. Have you yourself plotted this to see if perhaps DJI has made an error in their zone plot for the TFR? If DJI has indeed made a mistake, you can submit the error to [email protected]. So far you've only shown that Airmap and Kittyhawk (FAA contracted Kittyhawk to redesign B4UFly) made a mistake in omitting the TFR.

 

[muabg]

First of all, thanks for your help Dan, I am here to learn.

I am troubled by your statement that I have chosen to ignore a TFR, as an 107 Certified Pilot and Air Map user I see no list of any advisories. I assume that Air Map would let me know.

I think the problem here is I live in an area that is surrounded by state and national parks and the DJI FLY app does not have the resolution to determine that I live is a small finger of un restricted airspace

 

[sar104]

First of all, thanks for your help Dan, I am here to learn.

I am troubled by your statement that I have chosen to ignore a TFR, as an 107 Certified Pilot and Air Map user I see no list of any advisories. I assume that Air Map would let me know.

I think the problem here is I live in an area that is surrounded by state and national parks and the DJI FLY app does not have the resolution to determine that I live is a small finger of un restricted airspace

AirMap is not an authoritative source of TFR information. You should know that as a Part 107 pilot.

That said, this particular TFR was cancelled before its listed expiration date - it is no longer active. The DJI geo database often doesn't pick up prematurely cancelled TFRs unless notified.

!FDC 9/3067 ZLA CA..AIRSPACE LOS ANGELES,CA..TEMPORARY FLIGHT RESTRICTIONS WI AN AREA DEFINED AS 5 NM RADIUS OF 340636N/1182840W (SANTA MONICA VOR/DME SMO335006.1) SFC-5000FT TO PROVIDE A SAFE ENVIRONMENT FOR FIRE FIGHTING AIRCRAFT OPERATIONS. PURSUANT TO 14 CFR SECTION 91.137(A)(2) TEMPORARY FLIGHT RESTRICTIONS ARE IN EFFECT. LOS ANGELES FIRE DEPARTMENT, TELEPHONE 323-881-6119 OR FREQ 118.950/THE GETTY FIRE, IS IN CHARGE OF THE OPERATION. LOS ANGELES /ZLA/ ARTCC, TELEPHONE 661-265-8205, IS THE FAA COORDINATION FACILITY. 1910281448-1912280747