LAANC

[Ed H]

I flew my first LAANC job yesterday. Everything worked ok But I had a small problem. When I went to get my Approval I used my I phone. When I try to fly with my I pad
It wouldn't let me. So I switch back to my I phone and everything worked great. So the question I have is what do I have to do to use my Ipad? Hot spot with my phone?

 

[brett8883]

I flew my first LAANC job yesterday. Everything worked ok But I had a small problem. When I went to get my Approval I used my I phone. When I try to fly with my I pad
It wouldn't let me. So I switch back to my I phone and everything worked great. So the question I have is what do I have to do to use my Ipad? Hot spot with my phone?

Your LAANC approval is basically just for getting approval to fly in controlled airspace from the Government. You can do this on any device and it is required to fly in controlled airspace legally, it has no bearing on if DJI will allow to you aircraft to take off or not.

To get the aircraft to take off you must then go through DJI’s process to get the aircraft unlocked. DJI has different tiers of unlocks depending on where you are flying. Some airspace can be unlocked just by agreeing offline to their terms. Other airspace may require the DJI app to be connected to the internet. I suspect the airspace you were in may have been the kind that requires internet connection and therefore switching to an iPad with no internet connection may have been the issue. I would try connecting the iPad to your phone’s internet connection via hotspot and trying it.

If that doesn’t work an unofficial work around that sometimes works, depending on your aircraft, is to take off while using the phone and then switching to the iPad while the aircraft is already airborne.

Another method for DJI unlocking is to go to the DJI flysafe website via a desktop computer ahead of time to get the unlock and then downloading the unlock to the drone while the phone is connected to the internet. This should store the unlock on the aircraft instead of the mobile device which, in theory, should stay with the aircraft even when you change mobile devices. I find this method to be the least reliable. While in theory it should be the best option, in practice it doesn’t work very well

 

[Ed H]

good advice. I am going back to the same location in a few weeks I will try both and see what works. THANKS

 

[Fort Pierce Pilot]

Either of the ways suggested by brett8883 should work. I run into this all the time. I prefer using DJI Fly in advance. A few tricks for you. You can get and apply more than one approval at a time. So if you are flying in different areas get one for each and load them all at home. If you are going for a week in the same area or are unsure what day you will fly the approvals are good for 2 days. But you can get sequential approvals for many days and load them into the drone. Not sure what the max is but I have done 5 without a problem.

 

[twickers14]

Ugh! I’ve just posted a question about LAANC for our trip to FL in April-regarding the use of my U.K. phone. I didn’t realise I might have to unlock my MA2 through dji as well! Is that required for every flight in Controlled Airspace as well as LAANC?

 

[Fort Pierce Pilot]

Ugh! I’ve just posted a question about LAANC for our trip to FL in April-regarding the use of my U.K. phone. I didn’t realise I might have to unlock my MA2 through dji as well! Is that required for every flight in Controlled Airspace as well as LAANC?

Yes, but not hard to do in advance, negating the need for real-time connection.