What really happens when an airborne MP flies into a NFZ or other 'hard' geo-fence boundary?

[Lou]

I have read the threads, watched the youtube vids but still can't get a clear read on what my Mavic would do if I accidentally (or on purpose) flew into a geo-fence. Some say you can fly it back but cannot gain altitude, others say it auto-lands but you can still control direction while landing, still other say it takes over, auto-lands period. Assuming I have the latest firmware and GO app, what would really happen? TIA.

 

[Bunny Too]

I have read the threads, watched the youtube vids but still can't get a clear read on what my Mavic would do if I accidentally (or on purpose) flew into a geo-fence. Some say you can fly it back but cannot gain altitude, others say it auto-lands but you can still control direction while landing, still other say it takes over, auto-lands period. Assuming I have the latest firmware and GO app, what would really happen? TIA.

Hmm... My thought was it initiates a RTH. However I have never been in that kind of situation.

 

[Luc.vn]

I am kind of interested in this as well, what would my Mavic do if I flew into a geo-fenced area coming from outside it?
Because it start to message me on the controller really far away from the NFZ, so I would like to go closer to the perimeter, but I am a bit worried what happens if I go too far?

Anybody? Please do not answer if you don't really know, not interested in hunches or guesses, because that is exactly why we keep wondering as in what the OP writes:
1. Some say you can fly it back but cannot gain altitude,
2. others say it auto-lands but you can still control direction while landing
3. still other say it takes over, auto-lands period.
In the end, we don't know...

 

[Top Hat]

There's only one thing to do to get the fact. Try and report back to the board, we will deeply appreciate it.....Thanks in advance

 

[Lou]

I would gladly be the guinea pig BUT in most cases around my area, that 'wall' is over water or really wild bush...

 

[wolfmad]

I flew into a fence- kinda-
Was using active track to follow my golf cart and forgot to increase max distance--
MP stopped midair and hovered until I came back for it and retrieved it back inside limit!
Took me a while to figure out what I did wrong.

 

[tmoerel]

Well.....here in Switzerland I have an NFZ from a small airstrip a few km's away. The exclusion zone is 5km around the strip but for some reason DJI has it at 7 km.
So when i legally fly some 6km from the strip i get a warning that i am in an NFZ, nothing else.
When I am outside what DJI considers the NFZ there is no warning. When I then fly into what DJI considers the NFZ again, the warning pops up and that's it. No other limitations, drone does stay in the air and flies normally.

Now it is possible that the drone reacts differently to different kinds of airfield types or that there are per-country reactions. All I know is that here I get warned without any further consequences.

 

[Clinton1]

Well.....here in Switzerland I have an NFZ from a small airstrip a few km's away. The exclusion zone is 5km around the strip but for some reason DJI has it at 7 km.
So when i legally fly some 6km from the strip i get a warning that i am in an NFZ, nothing else.
When I am outside what DJI considers the NFZ there is no warning. When I then fly into what DJI considers the NFZ again, the warning pops up and that's it. No other limitations, drone does stay in the air and flies normally.

Now it is possible that the drone reacts differently to different kinds of airfield types or that there are per-country reactions. All I know is that here I get warned without any further consequences.

The same happened to me last weekend, i was flying at the local sport fields when i saw there was a concert at one of the golf clubs venue's. I wanted to go and see how it looked, but suddenly got the warning that i am in a NFZ. Got a fright, but just turned around and flew back normally. Must have been from the international airport that is about 5 kilometers away. So, i can also concur that nothing strange happens with the Mavic.

 

[Lou]

Ok.. this is good information! How about a geo fence at an international border? I was recently flying in the Sonoran Desert in southern Arizona, and the Mexican border was close. I did find myself what would happen if I 'hit' it. No physical fence there yet! Lol.

 

[KiterTodd]

I had this happen to me recently when, upon flying, the drone realized it was in an NFZ. If it's already in an NFZ, it initiates auto landing and starts counting down. You can still stear the drone, but you can't increase altitude. It will eventually auto land. (this was an NFZ map error, but the drone didn't know that)

I have also been flying the drone and run into a geo boundary, and the drone just stops. It won't go into that area.

 

[apu]

Ok.. this is good information! How about a geo fence at an international border? I was recently flying in the Sonoran Desert in southern Arizona, and the Mexican border was close. I did find myself what would happen if I 'hit' it. No physical fence there yet! Lol.

I can tell you nothing happens on northern border. I live literally right on the US/Canada border and there is no hard border NFZ as of yet. Not sure about the soft geo fence as I generally keep that off.

 

[Robbyg]

The OP asked an excellent question.
I have also seen a lot of different responses as to what happens. I have been making note of it and it seems that DJI has been tweaking the response with each firmware version. The latest version seems to use an Auto land with the pilot still having control of the craft while it is descending. This could be a major problem if your over a large body of water.

Rob

 

[Clinton1]

The OP asked an excellent question.
I have also seen a lot of different responses as to what happens. I have been making note of it and it seems that DJI has been tweaking the response with each firmware version. The latest version seems to use an Auto land with the pilot still having control of the craft while it is descending. This could be a major problem if your over a large body of water.

Rob

This can be a bit concerning. Will the Auto land be there where it is, or is it a RTH. If it lands right there, then it is stupid, they already dont want you in that air space, but no problem with it landing in that space.

 

[Robbyg]

This can be a bit concerning. Will the Auto land be there where it is, or is it a RTH. If it lands right there, then it is stupid, they already dont want you in that air space, but no problem with it landing in that space.

It lands where it is, but you can steer it towards you. It is probably just a jump to the same subroutine that they use when the battery is at 10%.

Rob

 

[CodeCutter]

Well.....here in Switzerland I have an NFZ from a small airstrip a few km's away. The exclusion zone is 5km around the strip but for some reason DJI has it at 7 km.
So when i legally fly some 6km from the strip i get a warning that i am in an NFZ, nothing else.
When I am outside what DJI considers the NFZ there is no warning. When I then fly into what DJI considers the NFZ again, the warning pops up and that's it. No other limitations, drone does stay in the air and flies normally.

Now it is possible that the drone reacts differently to different kinds of airfield types or that there are per-country reactions. All I know is that here I get warned without any further consequences.

There is also an altitude limit of 400 feet

 

[Clinton1]

It lands where it is, but you can steer it towards you. It is probably just a jump to the same subroutine that they use when the battery is at 10%.

Rob

Thank you very much for the answer. Hope i never will need to have that scenario.

 

[tmoerel]

There is also an altitude limit of 400 feet

Sorry In Switzerland there is no altitude limit. There is a recommendation not to exceed 150m above rural areas and 300m above cities and villages but there is not hard legal limit.
So i can tell you that in the NFZ that DJI indicates at my village (which is wrong as there circle around the airstrip nearby is 2km too wide) it will let me ascend to the the limit (500m) without any problem. The NFZ warning is there but it does not limit me to 400ft

 

[Gary cato]

according to the latest which came up when i did an update (it flashed up on phone with a picture showing how it works) the GEO boundary height is now set as distance from airport. The nearer you are to an airport the lower the altitude it lets you fly at, eventually that decreasing radius will ground the aircraft.

it is almost like the holding pattern of a plane, in the sense as the plane loops around the closer it comes to the airport its altitude is decreasing.

At 6km away 500m altitude would seem to be fine but go try the same at 1kilo away.

on older firmware i strayed once close to an international airport, 2km to the runway close, parrallel to it . what happened was zero, that was a long time ago though on older firmware when NFZ tech was just hitting the Mavic in 0400.

The NFZ on 0600 near to an airbase/airport did not warn me of an NFZ, yet a civvy plane taking off from there was pretty **** low, but it is hard to judge how high those planes are but i swear he was low, recently the 0600 lets me fly approx 1 kilo now before i get an NFZ warning for that airport but that is still letting me within 2 miles of it.

now i limit myself to 400m in a park at no higher than tree height if i really want to test something on the drone.

the new firmware though does have altitude restrictions now built in as said, and will ground you if too close.

i have no idea what the AC does now if you stray into an international airport restriction.
I am also not going to go and find out for anyone before you ask.

 

[Lou]

WoW! If that's the case, great! Our Canadian government could learn much from DJI - rules that make sense, protect manned a/c while avoiding killing the hobby. My home is 6 km from a tiny municipal airport with a single runway that gets maybe 4 scheduled movements per day during maybe the same number of private planes. My home is at 40m ASL while the airport is 137m ASL but I still can't fly due to the blanket 9 km NFZ. Even at the mandated maximum 90m AGL here, I'm still BELOW the runway surface.

 

[Gary cato]

WoW! If that's the case, great! Our Canadian government could learn much from DJI - rules that make sense, protect manned a/c while avoiding killing the hobby. My home is 6 km from a tiny municipal airport with a single runway that gets maybe 4 scheduled movements per day during maybe the same number of private planes. My home is at 40m ASL while the airport is 137m ASL but I still can't fly due to the blanket 9 km NFZ. Even at the mandated maximum 90m AGL here, I'm still BELOW the runway surface.

yes Canada really do want to kill Drones for the hobbyist, i agree that the flight height limit being adjusted the further out you are is a good idea, but like all good ideas they have to get it right.

i guess i can still fly so close as my altitude is way below the 400 feet ATP, and as the approach and take off immediately goes over residential areas, the Ac taking off circle tight to the airport while reaching height.

So they do pass pretty close as said to my local flying area, and if i see anything coming from that direction the drone gets grounded no matter if i am below tree height or not. Sometimes i have seen nothing go over for a week other times i have seen everything from lear jets to military landing there. Sometimes 6 or 8 in one day.

i do not want to try flying to 400 feet to see if going to altitude is stopped by the NFZ software. I do not trust it but i do trust my mostly sane judgement.

If they can get the software right regarding height versus distance then i see that as a way forward for Hobbyist drones that could satisfy a lot of goverments.
It also seems to have reflected what people are feeling about the newer NFZ stuff being downloaded by those who believe it is so restrictive that they will not use it.

I would like to hear from others close to major or even military bases and see if they have used the new NFZ and if they are height restricted. It could be tested by those living in an area around the airports regarding how far they live and what height they can achieve before the NFZ cuts in and if they can take off at all or even start the props withing 2.5 miles with all NFZ software activated. trouble is no one wants to activate all the NFZ software for fear that they will restrict themselves more than they are now.

DJI should be working on this harder and actually getting the message out that they are not against us but are working for us fliers with this.