Grounded!

[westwind77]

So.....I guess there is a way around the system. I knew the NFZ was going live, but since the drone has not been used in a bit obviously nothing was updated with the maps. I turned on airplane mode on the phone and fired up the drone, no issues. You could fly anywhere you wanted (if you wanted to get into trouble). I then deactivated airplane mode and relaunched the app and it instantly said 'sorry pal, no flight for you'.

In theory this temp NFZ zone is a joke as it is easily avoidable. Anyone who uses a tablet without cell service could take it out and never be the wiser to the NFZ (although you are suppose to check b4ufly, etc).

I would not mind so much if this was just a 24 hour thing but shutting down for this extended amount of time is disappointing and frustrating.

 

[sar104]

In theory this temp NFZ zone is a joke as it is easily avoidable. Anyone who uses a tablet without cell service could take it out and never be the wiser to the NFZ (although you are suppose to check b4ufly, etc).

So now you are complaining that DJI isn't doing enough to save you from breaking the law?

You don't need to do any of that to circumvent the law and fly in the TFR - it's only a DJI self-authorization zone:

 

[Lets Fly]

So the POTUS decided to spend the Holiday week on Nantucket......great for him.....however there is a 30 mile radius NFZ set up around the island which encompasses most of Cape Cod, a huge vacation destination. So, I have all this time off work where I can go fly.....but can't. Very frustrating. I think 30 miles it a bit extreme. This is the largest NFZ ring I can remember around a POTUS. I know other locals pilots are very upset about this as well, oh well, nothing you can do about it though. Thanks for letting me vent!

Yeah good luck with that, we put up with it here in Florida for four years, hope we don't have to do it again.

 

[LA 2020]

So the POTUS decided to spend the Holiday week on Nantucket......great for him.....however there is a 30 mile radius NFZ set up around the island which encompasses most of Cape Cod, a huge vacation destination. So, I have all this time off work where I can go fly.....but can't. Very frustrating. I think 30 miles it a bit extreme. This is the largest NFZ ring I can remember around a POTUS. I know other locals pilots are very upset about this as well, oh well, nothing you can do about it though. Thanks for letting me vent!

Kind of like when a POTUS comes to LA and causes a traffic jam of about a 30 mile radius. The POTUS does less damage when they just stay home

 

[Yeunglings]

Let me apologize in advance for not being brief or having hard science to back up my thought process but here I go. One of the arguments I've heard for the TFR including drones out to the 30 mile mark is that it gives time for the authorities to assess, react and respond but here's what I'm thinking. I admit to not being an expert but if the drone is small enough and fast enough to not be seen( via radar I guess) at say 5 or 10 miles but still pose a threat then wouldn't the outside chance be that even at 30 miles the same would hold true? If you can't see it you can't stop it no matter how far away its coming from. On paper, in a perfect world where there are no negative performance variables introduced I could theoretically, based on specs and proper planning, launch an un laden African Swallow( M3) from outside the bubble, fly it towards my location that's halfway to the target and then continue to the destination and reach it but that's without any coconuts in its talons or headwind. I realize you can modify by adding a few extra batteries for extra capacity, be it range or payload, but the law of diminishing returns apply where you can only load so many batteries on to say a Mavic, Phantom or Inspire before you simply can't fly farther than 'X' carrying 'Y' and that holds true for custom built " never before seen and unquantifiable" drones built by bad actors, right? How small does something need to be to be undetectable yet strong enough to be a threat and then how far could something like that actually fly? If DJI, Autel, Hubson, Skydio and so on can't put a movie production level of camera( read big and heavy) on to a device small enough to be unseen yet can fly 10 miles then the chances seem to be almost nonexistent( I'd say inconceivable but maybe that word does not mean what I think it means) that a bag guy could do that and fly 20 miles so why make a law that no one who follows the rules with a stock drone that has a maximum transmission range range of 12 miles, flight time of 45 minutes and speed of 42mph can fly within 30 miles? The bad guys don't care what they're allowed to do anyway so why bother and a good guy, already doing the right thing, that accidentally crashes a stock drone isn't going to cause any actual damage.

 

[sar104]

Let me apologize in advance for not being brief or having hard science to back up my thought process but here I go. One of the arguments I've heard for the TFR including drones out to the 30 mile mark is that it gives time for the authorities to assess, react and respond but here's what I'm thinking. I admit to not being an expert but if the drone is small enough and fast enough to not be seen( via radar I guess) at say 5 or 10 miles but still pose a threat then wouldn't the outside chance be that even at 30 miles the same would hold true? If you can't see it you can't stop it no matter how far away its coming from. On paper, in a perfect world where there are no negative performance variables introduced I could theoretically, based on specs and proper planning, launch an un laden African Swallow( M3) from outside the bubble, fly it towards my location that's halfway to the target and then continue to the destination and reach it but that's without any coconuts in its talons or headwind. I realize you can modify by adding a few extra batteries for extra capacity, be it range or payload, but the law of diminishing returns apply where you can only load so many batteries on to say a Mavic, Phantom or Inspire before you simply can't fly farther than 'X' carrying 'Y' and that holds true for custom built " never before seen and unquantifiable" drones built by bad actors, right? How small does something need to be to be undetectable yet strong enough to be a threat and then how far could something like that actually fly? If DJI, Autel, Hubson, Skydio and so on can't put a movie production level of camera( read big and heavy) on to a device small enough to be unseen yet can fly 10 miles then the chances seem to be almost nonexistent( I'd say inconceivable but maybe that word does not mean what I think it means) that a bag guy could do that and fly 20 miles so why make a law that no one who follows the rules with a stock drone that has a maximum transmission range range of 12 miles, flight time of 45 minutes and speed of 42mph can fly within 30 miles? The bad guys don't care what they're allowed to do anyway so why bother and a good guy, already doing the right thing, that accidentally crashes a stock drone isn't going to cause any actual damage.

The TFR is not specifically targeted at drones, especially tens of miles out. It's not even going to be effective against sUAS, since they are too small to show on radar and so there will be no "assess and react". If someone wants to launch a sUAS to attack POTUS they are not going to pay attention to the TFR and they are going to launch much closer than 30 NM. In this case drones are simply caught up in a TFR that is intended to protect against manned aviation threats.

 

[Yeunglings]

The TFR is not specifically targeted at drones, especially tens of miles out. It's not even going to be effective against sUAS, since they are too small to show on radar and so there will be no "assess and react". If someone wants to launch a sUAS to attack POTUS they are not going to pay attention to the TFR and they are going to launch much closer than 30 NM. In this case drones are simply caught up in a TFR that is intended to protect against manned aviation threats.

But that's kind of my point. We may not be 'targeted' but we are still obligated to abide by it. Whenever potus goes back to DE for the weekend, which is a lot, my whole area( Philly Metro) is locked down for drone flights even though no reasonably informed person would conclude a Mavic, Phantom, Inspire or similar could pose a threat. Serious or otherwise. I get a lock down on drones out to say 5, maybe even 10 miles, for safety because a MA2 is fast enough and capable enough to carry a potentially deadly payload but not from the distances we are required to maintain in a TFR/NOTAMS. The kamikaze drones seen in Egypt, Libya and so on are either small and popping up right next to their target( so a TFR geofence requiring internet access to be effective wouldn't make a difference) OR large enough that first world traveling defensive measures already put in place similar to the Israeli Trophy APS would have seen and stopped them. So do a 2 tier system like safety bollards at a park entrance to stop the cars and then fencing around what you don't want the pedestrians to trample instead of walling up the entire city and not letting anyone in at all.