Was I jammed flying near a sporting event?

[pbrook12]

L

Well you are not supposed to fly 30 minutes past sunset. So technically if you got caught you would have faced fines or penalties of some sort.

lol what? Seriously? So all my night flights have been illegal?

 

[Strafe1]

L

lol what? Seriously? So all my night flights have been illegal?

You can fly at night.

 

[AlanTheBeast]

I could see on the phone screen a major shake. The camera view rotated about 30 degrees to the side.

Gimbal reset, perhaps.

 

[AlanTheBeast]

Don't know what happened of course but you did fly over a street, which is illegal!
Canada has just come out with new recreational rules which pretty much means the end of recreational flying except for extreme remote areas.

False. I live near Montreal. A few minutes drive and I'm free to fly even by the strictest interpretation of the rules.

 

[roflyer]

If you're in the US, I doubt it was jamming as it is illegal here to use that technology. Could have been something else just coincidental.
Still, you are right about it being a bad idea.

It's illegal but you can easily buy a GPS jammer in eBay.

 

[AlanTheBeast]

It's illegal but you can easily buy a GPS jammer in eBay.

Really? The FCC had been on a run fining stores and importers of GPS jammers. They've even fined a few truckers in the north of $30,000 range.

All for it. Jamming GPS is a sin in my books.

I just looked at e-bay and I couldn't find any GPS jammers - I did find "blockers" - pouches to put your phone in so you can't be tracked. That is entirely legal.

 

[Phunkydude]

Hey MavicPilotCA,
I see you have been reprimanded by the "drone police" here on flight safety. But I'm not gonna get into that. That is your responsibility.

What I am looking at is the flight anomalies you experienced with your Mavic. If you remove the time of day you were flying, where you were flying and the possibility of a jammer, I would say that you did experience a glitch or hiccup with the Mavic.

I can say this with confidence because what you described is the exact same situation I had experienced on a recent flight, in the day time, in a safe fly zone no where near an airport or sport event, out over a desert neighborhood in the SW, with very little wind. I thought it was just me, maybe I did something during the flight or maybe a bird attacked the drone while basically in a hover mode around 250ft.

The view on the screen rocked/shaked, for a moment or two I thought I saw a dark object on the screen in the corner(why I thought it was a bird or really huge bug) and felt like I had lost total control of Mavic for a few seconds. And then, I was back in control, camera was facing in direction of flight and I quickly returned it to home under my control.

After reviewing the captured video during the flight, I expected to see a glimpse of a bird but the dark shadow was actually the Mavic itself as the gimbal appeared to move in a fashion similar to when you first turn the Mavic on.

I have flown it a few times since that flight and have not experienced that scenario again...yet.

I am traveling right now but plan to publish the video of that moment along with the flight logs. If you don't mind, I will post them here on your thread so you can compare with your incident.

I truly believe there was a hiccup/glitch that occurred during the flight and had nothing to do with a jammer or twitchy fingers.

I was recently at a friend's house near a major sporting event. It was a night event and there were probably 10-20k people at the event. The house was about 1/2 mile away and I was in the backyard showing the folks there the Mavic. I launched it straight up and we could easily see the venue. A few people asked me to fly closer. Now I wasn't planning on flying right over the arena, but I didn't see much harm flying a few hundred yards to the side of the arena. I was flying -- if I recall correctly -- about 250 feet in the air. As I was about to cross the major street which separates the residential area with the grounds of the venue, I could see on the phone screen a major shake. The camera view rotated about 30 degrees to the side. Since the gimbal is fixed in a straight position this could only mean (I think) that the drone itself was somehow was interfered with. I didn't see anything physical in the video, like a bird, so I do think that likely there was some type of RF jamming going on. I was able to quickly get back safely, but even in the some of the return footage and while I was landing straight down into the backyard I could see the shaking. I don't think there was any physical damage because I did do a 10 minute testflight when I returned home and I didn't notice anything unusual.

 

[_milo_]

Gimbal reset, happened to a few of us, there is a thread here on the topic, fortunately its fairly rare, just remain calm, and it will be fine.

 

[Phunkydude]

So people have experienced a gimbal reset during flight. Wow. That's what it looks like. I'll search for the thread.

Gimbal reset, happened to a few of us, there is a thread here on the topic, fortunately its fairly rare, just remain calm, and it will be fine.

 

[JJM]

Okay, about flying at night; this is gonna start off weird-
My next door neighbor left us on a Sunday morning about a week after I got my first quad. He had erected a trellis above the fence, but had agreed to take it down at my request. Unfortunately, his suicidal tendencies overcame his word of honor, or should I say, outpaced it. I took the opportunity to take a crowbar to the ******* thing, and that was the luckiest thing I did that week, for upon deciding to try my first night flight, I was so jumpy, that as I lifted off, my right hand jerked the stick and the quad flew off toward that missing trellis, passing EXACTLY where it had been. I have never wanted to chance night flying again. WTF, it isn't Paris, so what am I missing?

Sounds more like you pinned the stick vs jerking it if it "passed" the missing trellis. Unless you launched right next to it. Which is probably not a good idea.

 

[code_ultra_zyl]

I fly at night. I fly over streets. I fly close to buildings. I fly extremely responsibly and know the limits of the Mavic. I went to talk to my city hall about flying the drone over town (to photograph notable city landmarks). They gave me a shrug, and said, if I am not entering FAA prohibited airspace, and was operating safely... they were totally OK with it. As well, my neighbors are all awesome... I show them video of the wetlands nearby, forest, etc... and they support my drone 'habit'. Yes, there are 'enforceable rules' and alot of them... but so are there with automobiles. A little common sense, and staying in touch with the local community, and you will have less limitations.

 

[mavicpilotca]

It was 100% not a twitchy finger. Even if it was, there is no way to make the drone move the way it did. I'll post it so you can see later or tomorrow.

Sorry for the delay, here is a link to the video:

Dropbox - shake_in_camera_at_march_sportingevent.mp4

You'll see it happens as I turn towards the arena. It also happens near the end as I'm landing. I have used the drone since then and there are no problems so it must have been something to do with the flight. I did upload the flight log to airdata.com and didn't see anything out of the ordinary. The GPS signal was always strong and there was a 100 Signal strength score. At the time/location of the shake there is a minor signal error of 1.7, but that was it. There were 4 other minor signal errors during the flight, 2 others of 1.7 and one of 3.4. The 3.4 happened at the beginning of the flight -- prior to the video I uploaded, and there was no shake then. FYI, the height at the time of the first shake was 219 feet.

I would make the data available for others to review but I spoke to my friend and he doesn't want his address shared online and it's clearly in the flight record. If there is something you guys suggest I check more carefully, let me know but I did look around and saw nothing unusual.

Let me know what you think and if you have any other ideas.

 

[Cookedinlh]

You may have flown into the path of a Microwave tower or cell tower operating near 2.4 or 5.6 Ghz . . . that would make a nice jammer!

 

[yjamesy]

I can confirm I flew my Mavic near a sporting arena once and it was like I hit an invisible wall. It's definitely either in the DJI software or some type of device that the certain sporting arenas use but I'm more inclined to think it's the DJI software.

 

[Sencorp]

You were hitting no fly zone.

 

[JeffCharger]

Could it be that you hit the maximum distance setting in the software and the Mavic just stopped?

 

[NorthEastJohn]

Last summer Thursday's were night flights, bunch of us all flying at the same time and very close to a regional airport, all the while perfectly legal.

Academy of Model Aeronautics - FAA UAS Frequently Asked Questions

WOW! Never heard of this before. I would certainly sign up as a member if this gave me some coverage when flying at night. Does being a member really exempt me from filing for 107.29 day light exemption??? I following the link and found this question. It referenced an FAA regulation from 2012. When I read that regulation it only mentioned pilots using night vision goggles???? Can you provide more details. Much appreciated...

John


Q: Am I permitted to fly first person view (FPV)? Can I fly at night?
A: Yes. AMA members are still protected by the Special Rule for Model Aircraft, which is part of the 2012 FAA Modernization and Reform Act. As long as AMA members continue to follow AMA’s safety guidelines for these activities, they can continue to fly. The guidelines listed on the FAA UAS website do not negate the modeling activities and related safety procedures established in AMA’s community-based safety program.

 

[madman4049]

Dear God the amount of misinformation in this thread pretty much sums up why I don't spend much time on forums these days. Can you all (select few who know who you are) actually fact check the crap you type before stating it as fact. Illegal to fly over streets, illegal to fly at night, every sporting event generates a TFR. Lol if half of what some of you claimed was illegal actually was there would be no point in even buying one of these or trying to fly it.

OP I hope you got it figured out and was a one time event, my educated guess from someone who has done rc since the early 90's is as others stated above there was likely much higher than normal transmission in that area and you got interference. Even the newfangled spectrum radios glitch sometimes.

 

[4Buzz]

It is perfectly legal for govt to jam our quads, and it does happen. It is typically precautionary to prevent a device flying over a "need to be secure area" In CA fire departments have adopted this approach when too many foolish pilots were flying over and interfering with fire fighters putting out wildfires last year

 

[_milo_]

WOW! Never heard of this before. I would certainly sign up as a member if this gave me some coverage when flying at night. Does being a member really exempt me from filing for 107.29 day light exemption??? I following the link and found this question. It referenced an FAA regulation from 2012. When I read that regulation it only mentioned pilots using night vision goggles???? Can you provide more details. Much appreciated...

John


Q: Am I permitted to fly first person view (FPV)? Can I fly at night?
A: Yes. AMA members are still protected by the Special Rule for Model Aircraft, which is part of the 2012 FAA Modernization and Reform Act. As long as AMA members continue to follow AMA’s safety guidelines for these activities, they can continue to fly. The guidelines listed on the FAA UAS website do not negate the modeling activities and related safety procedures established in AMA’s community-based safety program.

The only people that need to file an exemption under 107.29, are part 107 holders, if your flying commercially than being an AMA member doesn't grant you any extra privileges for flying commercially.

Hobby fliers can fly at night, AMA is a CBO that sets safety standards for their members, which is in line with FAA guidelines for hobby fliers.

If your flying for fun, FAA Part 107 doesn't apply to you.