New FAA hobby regs (17th of May 2019) and DJI firmware update (or lack thereof)

[sar104]

I sure hope that's true. Been depressed about actually reading this bill. Techno speak, I need to read every paragraph 3 times. All day today I have been reading and seeking summaries on the FAA site. I must have retained some older material or found bad advice (The FAA seems to be behind on web updates) where both cases were in the same sentence. Don't fly in controlled airspace or within 5 nm of an airport. I want to go with the controlled airspace, this 5 nm radius thing is overkill.

There is no longer a 5 mile notification requirement relating to recreational flight, and only the class of airspace determines where you can fly.

 

[D Hansel]

Hi guys, newbie to this forum.
I have a DJI mavic pro, and I've just began the process of studying to get my part 107 license, for now I'm 100% a hobbyist.

So yesterday was an interesting evening. I went to a friend's place with my drone, (as I've done a few times in the past), since it has a really beautiful lake behind some woods in the backyard.
I've flown here in the past quite a few times, but the tricky part is that it's right at the edge of a 5mi local airport radius. Now I've never figured out where exactly is this radius border, but I've always called the tower and let them know I'd likely be flying a bit into their 5mi radius. Never have I ever had a problem flying here.

Yesterday afternoon, however, I had just picked up a set of ND filters, and I wanted to give them a quick visual test run before actually venturing out into the lake... and that's when things went south.
I put on the ND filter but since I was behind the sun, in the shade of the house, I decided to take off, straight up, about 20ft up and see some sunny areas and calibrate image settings. I never got any restricted airspace warning (which I sometimes randomly do in that area) ... but about 10 secs after take off, the drone just did a swan dive and crash landed on the side of the house. WTF... I was afraid my controller was defective or something was seriously wrong with the drone. Long story short, I called it a day... the drone survived but was left with a crack in the front leg, and I was left scratching my head as to what in the world went wrong.

It wasn't only until this morning that I was browsing the interwebs for answers that I learned that this new rule effectively bans hobby drone flying in the 5 mi airspace around airports.
Now I know it's on me for not keeping up-to-date with the news, but I'm 100% sure my firmware was, and I would have imagined that DJI's software would let me know via some warning or something that there was now effectively a no-fly zone less than a stone's throw.

So my question is... What are DJI drones supposed to actually do now when they get near the 5mi radius of an airport? What then when I do have my part 107 pilot license... will the drone also crash land when it gets anywhere near restricted airspace? How would it know when a hobbyist is flying versus a part 107 pilot?

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Just stay a hobbyist. You have less things to worry about.

In a few years all these drone rules will fall into the category of Rules and Regulations pertaining to CB radios. There will be thousands of drones in the air and the budget will not be there to have FAA people running around trying to heard cats.
There are so many out of work lawyers making rules up in coffee shops to justify their existence.
The bad guys will not worry about rules and regulations just like a bad guy gets a gun and holds up a convenience stores despite of laws on the books.
If the bad guy wants to do something bad he is not going to buy a DJI drone but get one on the black market and do what he wants.
One day we will see drones in the air delivering packages, pizza and medical supplies. People won't worry about that is flying over their heads. They will be happy to order a pizza and get it in 15 minutes!
More flying accidents are attributed to pilot judgement than to drones.
I think we are beating a dead horse. Everyone has to get into the act and throw their punches.
If the power to be want to do something useful they need to get America strong again otherwise places like North Korea, ISIS, China or Russia will drop a few nukes on a few cities while we are running around looking for people playing with their drones.
The drones normal people use are expensive toys.
We have holes in our Southern Border that are letting people into this country with all kinds of disease .
Many of them are carrying Polio, Malaria, Typhoid fever and Tuberculosis to name just a few.
Measles are spreading like wildfire throughout the country.
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People talk about images sent to China. There are more Chinese people living in the US than many others. Who cares about them getting pictures of this country when they can go to Google Earth get street views an wish they lived here.

That's my .02 worth....