VIP TFR crashed my drone.

[Nobbler]

I'm familiarizing myself with all of this and appreciate it, even if the uppercase acronyms give me flashbacks to when I worked at NAVSTAGTMO

 

[NDWildBill]

Rules and regulations aside, I'm still not okay with the drone's behavior in this situation. Yes, the pilot made an error by not checking for TFRs before takeoff. I get it. But the drone should never deliberately take control away from the pilot. Not ever. Issue a warning message, tell the pilot they need to land immediately, but then let the pilot do that. In this case, the drone hovered there for 20 minutes while he tried to figure out how to land it safely - without that "feature", he could have been safely on the ground 30 seconds after seeing the warning. The "feature" caused him to violate the TFR for 20 minutes longer than necessary. Put the responsibility on the pilot, not the drone.

I can live with the drone not allowing takeoff in an authorization zone, but once it's in the air, the pilot needs to be able to control it, always.

Would you buy a car that won't let you exceed the speed limit under any circumstances?

That said, POTUS is in my area almost every weekend now, and it's getting annoying.

There are too many drone pilots who ignore the warnings they do get. Telling someone to land immediately, but allow them to keep flying will haves some, not all, drone pilots thinking they can ignore the warning and keep flying until they run out of battery. I think the only way this would work is if they limited the time you could keep flying to say 60 seconds to give you time to land safely. just giving a warning will not work for some folks.

 

[011111110]

There are too many drone pilots who ignore the warnings they do get. Telling someone to land immediately, but allow them to keep flying will haves some, not all, drone pilots thinking they can ignore the warning and keep flying until they run out of battery. I think the only way this would work is if they limited the time you could keep flying to say 60 seconds to give you time to land safely. just giving a warning will not work for some folks.

Regardless, the responsibility should lie with the pilot, not the drone. If I choose to ignore the speed limit when I drive, I am responsible for what happens and willingly accept any consequences. I don't expect my car to enforce the law, why should I expect my drone to? Personal responsibility is still a thing.

 

[sar104]

Regardless, the responsibility should lie with the pilot, not the drone. If I choose to ignore the speed limit when I drive, I am responsible for what happens and willingly accept any consequences. I don't expect my car to enforce the law, why should I expect my drone to? Personal responsibility is still a thing.

Then why did you choose to buy a drone with that feature?

 

[011111110]

Then why did you choose to buy a drone with that feature?

Because I like most of the other features? I wasn't aware that I had to like all of them.

 

[sar104]

Because I like most of the other features? I wasn't aware that I had to like all of them.

You don't have to like them, but you asked why you should expect your drone to do that. The answer is that you should expect it because you bought a drone with that feature.

 

[DoomMeister]

Rules and regulations aside, I'm still not okay with the drone's behavior in this situation. Yes, the pilot made an error by not checking for TFRs before takeoff. I get it. But the drone should never deliberately take control away from the pilot. Not ever. Issue a warning message, tell the pilot they need to land immediately, but then let the pilot do that. In this case, the drone hovered there for 20 minutes while he tried to figure out how to land it safely - without that "feature", he could have been safely on the ground 30 seconds after seeing the warning. The "feature" caused him to violate the TFR for 20 minutes longer than necessary. Put the responsibility on the pilot, not the drone.

I can live with the drone not allowing takeoff in an authorization zone, but once it's in the air, the pilot needs to be able to control it, always.

Would you buy a car that won't let you exceed the speed limit under any circumstances?

That said, POTUS is in my area almost every weekend now, and it's getting annoying.

I couldn’t agree more about the inflight behavior of the DJI aircraft system. It should allow the aircraft to RTH and shutdown.

Aside from that, it is still the responsibility of the PIC to investigate the planned airspace before taking flight.

 

[011111110]

You don't have to like them, but you asked why you should expect your drone to do that. The answer is that you should expect it because you bought a drone with that feature.

Fine. expect want

Better?

 

[neggy]

They would need a lot of personnel and Aeroscope units to scan the 3744 square miles that a 30 NM radius circle covers.
It's a huge area and shuts down a lot of aerial activity beyond just drone flyers.

C. The following operations are not authorized within this TFR: flight training, practice instrument approaches, aerobatic flight, glider operations, seaplane operations, parachute operations, ultralight, hang gliding, balloon operations, agriculture/crop dusting, animal population control flight operations, banner towing operations, sightseeing operations, maintenance test flights, model aircraft operations, model rocketry, unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), and utility and pipeline survey operations.

I know what a TFR covers, and one of the airports I used to fly out of as a PPL was just outside the airspace they locked down every time President Obama came to Martha's Vineyard..... it made prime flying season hell around there... and in Florida on the rare times VP Pence came to town we dealt with the same issues.

If you want to have fun, try getting permission to fly over Washington DC... it is a lot easier to fly around the restricted air space

And as far as staffing, they have plenty of staff between the Treasury Department's Presidential Protection detail and the folks at the FAA

One of the most high profile uses of the Aeroscope system was at a 2018 balloon festival in NM where the organizers brought one in and identified 450 drones operating in an area where a TFR was in place...

 

[Capt KO]

The previous president liked to play golf nearby and would shut us down for days. No problem this year. Please check the services available B4UFly and fly safe. My sons house is on the border of an airport NFZ (with warning) and it will stop my drones dead in their tracks, same as yours did but I can escape. Sorry bout that. Enjoy

 

[michael boeren]

They really do care about those TFRs and they will arrest you if you break them. Just last week there was a story of two guys who were arrested for breaking the Super Bowl TFR.

I live in Tampa. The TFR was no joke broadcasted for days. Radio, newspapers, television, you name it. The first said it was 50 miles. They also told the penalty in nononsence terms. TFR is no joke!

 

[TheSnowyPilot]

If you were flying over a pond when the restriction hit I think VIF would be more fitting. Maybe the fish queen came to visit and the pond FAA shut down the area?

 

[stiller_paul]

Flying my drone around my 1 acre pond for a while. Started to head back. Thing gets about 3 feet from the dock I took off from and and just. STOPS. Over the water.

Laughing at me. Mocking me.

Suddenly, I hear AUTHORIZATION ZONE. EXIT IMMEDIATELY. What. My home point just because verboten.

I look at the map and a 25 mile radius of the suburbs just turned into Area 51. It was so absurd I couldn't help but laugh. And here's my drone fenced in over a pond.

I tried for 60% battery to get that Drone to NOT want to commit suicide. I thought of running to grab my canoe and having it land on that. But by now I'm at 10% battery and running out of ideas.

Eventually I managed to scramble one sensor or another by flying low in S mode while I gunned it for the shore where I promptly crash landed in the mud.

Decided to read old threads on the forum. Someone mentioned a VIP visiting in a similar scenario. I head to the local paper and national sites.

Then it clicked.

The auth zone was called VIP.
POTUS is visiting Gwinnett, Georgia, where I live.

Then it really clicked.

CRASHED MY DRONE.


At least I have a cool new bumper sticker idea.


(I applied for a 3 year geo unlock but I don't think my app will go through because the credentials I attached were Picard facepalming.)

This post and thread title were edited by a moderator. This serves as an example of why you should check NOTAMS for your flight area before you take to the skies. There would have been advance notice of the TFR and the times it was effective. An important thing when you are flying a drone that relies on flight permissions from the manufacturer.

Switching to Autel or Skydio should fix this problem. About half the time I try to fly, I charge everything up and am grounded by updates by the good people at DJI. There are times that you have to use DJI. Then there are times when a lesser drone will do and you can spare your blood pressure.

 

[stiller_paul]

As a retired air traffic controller and ATC Operations Supervisor I can say from first hand experience that TFR's are strictly regulated and monitored, especially VIP TFR's. I understand that many people may not understand them or may think that the TFR doesn't apply to them, but those are the ones that need to educate themselves a bit. If you have any doubt whether to fly or not, don't. Stay on the ground. It's not worth it, especially if it's a VIP TFR. The last thing you'd want is for a black SUV to be pulling up to your house with men in suits and sunglasses knocking on your door.

It doesn't sound like this guy decided to break the law. It sounds like they created a TFR around him while he was flying, and that it wasn't his fault.

 

[sar104]

It doesn't sound like this guy decided to break the law. It sounds like they created a TFR around him while he was flying, and that it wasn't his fault.

A TFR with no advance warning would only be put up for emergency operations and would not be this large. In this case I'm sure that he simply didn't check for NOTAMs, and so it was his fault.

 

[BigAl07]

It doesn't sound like this guy decided to break the law. It sounds like they created a TFR around him while he was flying, and that it wasn't his fault.

Uh no that's not how a VIP TFR works. They can be fairly "quick" but not normally "SNAP" quick.

The one in question here (I'm assuming by the OP's date and location) is noted below:
Hartsfield - Jackson Atlanta Intl

Facility: ATL (Atlanta GA)
NOTAM #: 04/370


Pay attention to the DATES listed below:
Issue Date UTC: 04/27/2021 2058

Start Date UTC: 04/29/2021 1900

End Date UTC: 04/29/2021 2345

It was published on 4/27/2021 2058 UTC which means on 4/27/2021 at 4:58pm (Local time) it was in the system where it could be "Seen". It didn't go LIVE until 4/29/2021 at 3:00pm local time so it was published 46 HOURS in advance of it going LIVE so the OP did not check the sources prior to flying! It was 100% his responsibly to check all NOTAMs in order to be able to make an informed decision. By not checking and flying anyway it was 100% pilot error.

If you don't look both ways before crossing the road and step out in front of an automobile and get hit it's your fault.... same here unfortunately. Luckily no one died and this can be a valuable learning moment for many other UAS operators.