Just so you know...

[Deleted member 114292]

I've been inadvertently flying in controlled air space because the map at

Custom Unlocking - Fly Safe - DJI

DJI technology empowers us to see the future of possible. Learn about our consumer drones like DJI Air 2S, DJI FPV, Mavic, and Phantom. Handheld products like DJI OM 4 and DJI Pocket 2 capture smooth photo and video. Our Ronin camera stabilizers and Inspire drones are professional cinematography...

www.dji.com

does not correctly show the class D airspace.
I guess the good news is after I get the FAA auth I can skip the DJI unlock.
DJI Map:


FAA Map:

 

[PhantomFandom]

As PIC, it is always your responsibility to check airspace with the source (i.e. the FAA) and not depend on third parties for accurate representation of controlled airspace, NOTAMs, and TFRs. None of the apps (AriMap etc) are a definitive source. Always check the sectional charts or UAS facilities map.

 

[dawgpilot]

I've been inadvertently flying in controlled air space because the map at

Custom Unlocking - Fly Safe - DJI

DJI technology empowers us to see the future of possible. Learn about our consumer drones like DJI Air 2S, DJI FPV, Mavic, and Phantom. Handheld products like DJI OM 4 and DJI Pocket 2 capture smooth photo and video. Our Ronin camera stabilizers and Inspire drones are professional cinematography...

www.dji.com

does not correctly show the class D airspace.
I guess the good news is after I get the FAA auth I can skip the DJI unlock.
DJI Map:

View attachment 104445
FAA Map:
View attachment 104446

I just looked more closely at your attachment. The airspace boundary is not defined by those squares, but by the curved blue area. If you are flying at the pinned location, that is outside controlled airspace, even though there is a rectangle there. You don't need to seek FAA authorization unless you are actually inside the borders of controlled airspace.

 

[Deleted member 114292]

So true.
what I use now is:

ArcGIS Web Application

faa.maps.arcgis.com

I live in a non LAANC area (so airmap is not useful) and you can just draw a box around the LAANC squares you want screen shot it and attach that to you dronezone auth request.

Oddly dronezone wants a circle, but by doing this you can get multiple LAANC squares in one shot.

 

[Deleted member 114292]

I just looked more closely at your attachment. The airspace boundary is not defined by those squares, but by the curved blue area. If you are flying at the pinned location, that is outside controlled airspace, even though there is a rectangle there. You don't need to seek FAA authorization unless you are actually inside the borders of controlled airspace.

I need to fly a bit in the blue. I realize it's hard to line them up, but if you look at Baker road it is clearly in the blue, but on the DJI map it is not. Actually the pin is in the blue on the FAA map. But that is not the mission I got this for.

 

[Deleted member 114292]

As PIC, it is always your responsibility to check airspace with the source (i.e. the FAA) and not depend on third parties for accurate representation of controlled airspace, NOTAMs, and TFRs. None of the apps (AriMap etc) are a definitive source. Always check the sectional charts or UAS facilities map.

Of course it is my bad won't make that mistake again.

 

[Deleted member 114292]

Of course it is my bad won't make that mistake again.

This is the DJI map overlayed on the FAA map the black marks show the two blue areas.

 

[z28lt1]

The DJI map is not a map of controlled airspace. They do not claim it to be one. DJI's goal is to lower the risk of you getting near manned aircraft (as well as they added restrictions around prisons, power plants and the such) It some cases it over-reaches the controlled airspace, and others it is less. When DJI went to the new "shapes" they specifically described at as such:

The new system allows GEO to create detailed three-dimensional “bow tie” safety zones surrounding runway flight paths, and to use complex polygon shapes around other sensitive facilities, rather than just simple circles. These new restrictions better reflect the actual safety risk posed in those areas, while allowing more flights to the side of runways where risk is substantially lower


Note you will see no language around restricted airspace. You need to reference a source of restricted air space to determine if you are allowed to fly or get legal permission to fly. You need to separately deal with DJI to authorize/unlock your drone to fly. These are different and should not be confused as the same.

It seems DJI may eventually be a LAANC provider, which may make the whole DJI flysafe stuff go away, but we'll see.

 

[Deleted member 114292]

The DJI map is not a map of controlled airspace. They do not claim it to be one. DJI's goal is to lower the risk of you getting near manned aircraft (as well as they added restrictions around prisons, power plants and the such) It some cases it over-reaches the controlled airspace, and others it is less. When DJI went to the new "shapes" they specifically described at as such:

The new system allows GEO to create detailed three-dimensional “bow tie” safety zones surrounding runway flight paths, and to use complex polygon shapes around other sensitive facilities, rather than just simple circles. These new restrictions better reflect the actual safety risk posed in those areas, while allowing more flights to the side of runways where risk is substantially lower


Note you will see no language around restricted airspace. You need to reference a source of restricted air space to determine if you are allowed to fly or get legal permission to fly. You need to separately deal with DJI to authorize/unlock your drone to fly. These are different and should not be confused as the same.

It seems DJI may eventually be a LAANC provider, which may make the whole DJI flysafe stuff go away, but we'll see.

I see that. DJI becoming a LAANC provider would not help me.

I think think the most likely scenario would be them partnering with Kittyhawk (which they already are in some manner) .
If they just made it so the two apps could talk that would do it.

 

[z28lt1]

I think DJI becoming a LAANC provider helps all of us, because then they will match controlled airspace, and we will have a single place to go to get legal authorization and unlock the drone.

 

[Deleted member 114292]

I think DJI becoming a LAANC provider helps all of us, because then they will match controlled airspace, and we will have a single place to go to get legal authorization and unlock the drone.

Nobody would disagree with that.
The point you are missing is why would DJI invest a considerable amount of development time and money into that?
DJI is an amazing company in many ways and makes a good product but they pay attention to the bottom line.
There is close to zero ROI from DJI's point of view.

For one thing there are at least two great apps for that already so there is nothing that would differentiate DJI by doing that. So what's already out there is more that good enough - there is really no "need" to fill.

It would not drive sales to any significant degree. The real target customer for DJI in the consumer market is entry level who have no need or even knowledge of LAANC.

And last but not least software is not DJI's strong suit. They are constantly behind on software.

So why would they do that when for example they could just integrate more closely with kittyhawk? There would actually be very little benefit for us for DJI to home grow it vs kittyhawk integration. Kittyhawk already works fine, and a DJI implementation would take a while for it work as well.

What's more in the current anti China atmosphere I would image they would prefer not to deal with the US government at this time. There could be crys of there they go again taking away American jobs.

I work in software development and the trend is to not build what you can buy. Just developing the the software is only the beginning as then you have to maintain it. You only develop unique features not what's already there.

 

[PhantomFandom]

The point you are missing is why would DJI invest a considerable amount of development time and money into that?

Many, many, many, many reasons....

• No need to depend on another vendor providing accurate data, providing good API, and not changing course a year from now after you become dependent on them.
• No need for the drone owner to install more apps and take up more memory/storage on the mobile device
• Fewer dependencies are better in a real-time system
• No finger-pointing between vendors when the drone pilot has issues
• Many others

There is close to zero ROI from DJI's point of view.

In some cases, customer experience, customer satisfaction, and a solid product is more important than ROI. Long term business revenue and profit is built on happy customers. Making it easier for a customer to get LAANC authorization with only one app is a better customer experience.
There are costs in integrating with a third-party as well. Initial contractual and technical costs. Development costs for the integration. ongoing royalties for using the other vendor's IP.

It would not drive sales to any significant degree. The real target customer for DJI in the consumer market is entry level who have no need or even knowledge of LAANC.

Exactly the opposite. It is the entry level consumer who needs this most! ignorant new pilots are a danger to all of us because they have no idea of where and when they can fly. An easier process for allowing these pilots to unlock DJI restrictions AND obtain legal LAANC authorization in one place makes it safer and better for all of us.
Otherwise they swipe or accept the risk of the DJI unlock process without having a clue that they are still flying illegally in controlled airspace.

And last but not least software is not DJI's strong suit. They are constantly behind on software.

This isn't development of Minesweeper or a calculator app. It is real-time processing of data. It takes time, effort, and lots of testing to make sure that it works under all possible conditions. Good software takes time. There are other apps that are out there and that I have paid for and used (i.e. Litchi, Drone Deploy) but consistently use DJI Go4 because it does everything I need it to and it is rock solid for me. It works every time.

There would actually be very little benefit for us for DJI to home grow it vs kittyhawk integration.

See above.

What's more in the current anti China atmosphere I would image they would prefer not to deal with the US government at this time. There could be crys of there they go again taking away American jobs.

What American jobs? Will KittyHawk or any other American company lose jobs if DJI builds LAANC authorization capabilities into their own software? No.

I work in software development and the trend is to not build what you can buy. Just developing the the software is only the beginning as then you have to maintain it. You only develop unique features not what's already there.

Just because it is a trend or "popular" doesn't make it the best approach for everything and everyone. The trend in IT is to bring everything to the cloud or purchase SaaS. That doesn't mean it is best. Many try it and see that on-prem solutions are better and actually more affordable. It all depends on the application.
For me, it would be best for DJI to incorporate LAANC capabilities natively in their apps.

 

[Deleted member 114292]

Many, many, many, many reasons....

• No need to depend on another vendor providing accurate data, providing good API, and not changing course a year from now after you become dependent on them.
• No need for the drone owner to install more apps and take up more memory/storage on the mobile device
• Fewer dependencies are better in a real-time system
• No finger-pointing between vendors when the drone pilot has issues
• Many others

In some cases, customer experience, customer satisfaction, and a solid product is more important than ROI. Long term business revenue and profit is built on happy customers. Making it easier for a customer to get LAANC authorization with only one app is a better customer experience.
There are costs in integrating with a third-party as well. Initial contractual and technical costs. Development costs for the integration. ongoing royalties for using the other vendor's IP.


Exactly the opposite. It is the entry level consumer who needs this most! ignorant new pilots are a danger to all of us because they have no idea of where and when they can fly. An easier process for allowing these pilots to unlock DJI restrictions AND obtain legal LAANC authorization in one place makes it safer and better for all of us.
Otherwise they swipe or accept the risk of the DJI unlock process without having a clue that they are still flying illegally in controlled airspace.


This isn't development of Minesweeper or a calculator app. It is real-time processing of data. It takes time, effort, and lots of testing to make sure that it works under all possible conditions. Good software takes time. There are other apps that are out there and that I have paid for and used (i.e. Litchi, Drone Deploy) but consistently use DJI Go4 because it does everything I need it to and it is rock solid for me. It works every time.


See above.


What American jobs? Will KittyHawk or any other American company lose jobs if DJI builds LAANC authorization capabilities into their own software? No.


Just because it is a trend or "popular" doesn't make it the best approach for everything and everyone. The trend in IT is to bring everything to the cloud or purchase SaaS. That doesn't mean it is best. Many try it and see that on-prem solutions are better and actually more affordable. It all depends on the application.
For me, it would be best for DJI to incorporate LAANC capabilities natively in their apps.

You can argue all you want but my money is on DJI never doing that for my stated reasons.

 

[z28lt1]

We know that DJI applied for and was accepted to be a LAANC provider. I assume they didn't apply for fun. We know that DJI has stated they will develop and integrate LAANC components into their software. Perhaps they change their mind and never will. Perhaps they will only do it for professional drones like the Inspire.

From my view, DJI's motivation is simple. The more drones are regulated and the less places they have to fly, or the harder they are to legally fly, the less sales they get. You can tell DJI recognizes this by implementing geofence/flysafe to begin with, and working with the FAA on their "quiz" and other things. If DJI can prevent their drones from flying illegally and improve safety, they can help prevent even more strict measures and regulations. Integrating LAANC makes it easier on the consumers and helps convince regulators that their drones are flown responsibly.

 

[Deleted member 114292]

From my view, DJI's motivation is simple. The more drones are regulated and the less places they have to fly, or the harder they are to legally fly, the less sales they get. You can tell DJI recognizes this by implementing geofence/flysafe to begin with, and working with the FAA on their "quiz" and other things. If DJI can prevent their drones from flying illegally and improve safety, they can help prevent even more strict measures and regulations. Integrating LAANC makes it easier on the consumers and helps convince regulators that their drones are flown responsibl't y.

LAANC let's you fly for one day. Most recreational flyers never don't even know about it.
The pros know how to deal with it using current apps.

The whole geo fencing idea did not work - remote ID is coming anyway - which DJI hates. If anything geo fencing is ineffective because they didn't bother to correctly get the airspaces in place. For those of us that get auths it's just a big annoyance. So drones are going to be highly regulated going forward anyway.
They should allow 107 pilots remove it.

The problem is you need to look at from DJI's view. If they saw ROI they would have already done it,

 

[z28lt1]

I'm going to make this my last post in the thread, because it doesn't seem to be going anywhere, and all of us are just guessing/speculating anyway.

My guess is based on:

-DJI Applied to be a LAANC provider
-DJI was accepted to be a LAANC provider

DJI has released several statements that they were planning on incorporating LAANC.

Here's the statement they released when LAANC opened to rec flyers:

"The FAA approved DJI as a LAANC UAS Service Supplier last year, which will in the future allow DJI professional and recreational customers to use DJI solutions to seamlessly apply for LAANC approvals when planning flights. Further details on LAANC services currently under development by DJI will be announced in due course. "

That all has led me to believe it is likely we will see something from DJI in the future. Again, my personal speculation based on the evidence that I have. If anyone wants to speculate something different based on other evidence, such as "they haven't released anything yet", that is another valid approach.

Happy flying!