Remote Authorization

[wco81]

OK, I've never encountered this with my M2P.

I get a warning that a local agency would authorize the flight. I'm in Italy so it lists local Carabinieri or police.

It prompts me for a phone number and I get a 6-digit code. Does that mean DJI communicated with a local authority here in Italy?

I'm about 15-20 kilometers from a small airport but also a few kilometers from a hospital with a helipad. I didn't see any aircraft activity.

In any event, one of the warnings I got was that if I used an intelligent flight mode, it might get interrupted by an RTH command? So it made it sound like some agency here would have the ability to force this M2P to RTH?

It was actually a fairly windy flight. UAV Forecast app showed 14 MPH wind with 28 MPH gusts.

Thing is that I've researched this area on a drone map published in connection with ENAC, the Italian civil aviation agency. It showed a completely clear zone, even though there is this hospital helipad a few kilometers away. There is a NFZ but it's a few kilometers to the SW of where I was and I flew E mostly.

UAV Forecast app indicates nearby DJI NFZ zones but as I said, the closest one to me was to the SW while the Home Point was in the clear. This pretty much matches the www.d-flight.it map which is published for ENAC.

The DJI Go 4 app didn't flag the wind issues though. Some gusts did blow the aircraft a few times during flight. I did a couple of quick panos, running low on battery and those may not have the vest results.

In any event, I thought DJI had some automated process for getting authorization from airports but as I said, it used the word "Carabinieri" which is their state police, I believe. Does DJI notify the relevant authority and then text back this 6-digit code which I'm suppose to reference if questioned?

 

[Cafguy]

DJI does not notify. but you have a code. I live really close to an airport and I always am having to check the box that tells me I am about to reach a restricted zone it also lists the local airport and then tells me to fly at my discretion. I think those warnings such as you got are programed and while DJI is not actually informing them you are there, I would think if for some reason you caused an incident. Then In theory the authorities could contact DJI and get your code number.

 

[wco81]

Hmm, wouldn't they provide the phone number to which they texted the code, which is rather meaningless unless it's some record of notifying the authorities?

In any event, after I landed, I did see a police car. I took off from this cool roof top terrace in the place I'm staying. So not too many people could see me take off and land unless they happened to be looking on at the terrace.

Certainly the noise of the aircraft could be heard at the street level, which is about 30 feet below.

I think it was just a coincidence, not a cop looking for the drone and the pilot. At least I hope, nobody has knocked on the door yet.

I wouldn't mind doing another flight but the wind conditions are pretty bad (and forecasted to be very gusty for the next week) and this warning thing is discouraging me from pressing my luck.