DJI Mandatory, uninterruptible actions are wrong, legally actionable

[Tenly]

No, none of that is easy. You're assuming that things on the map are where the map thinks they are. That happens to be untrue. Lots of roads are shifted several hundred feet from reality. For a long time, my house which sits comfortably on a bluff was in the middle of a local bay. Google finally got around to fixing that.....

The other problem is that there is a limit to the computing power available to the UAV and the RC. The GO app pushes a lot of tablets / phones to the max. What you are suggesting is very computationally demanding. The 'is it moving' algorithm alone would take quite a bit of processor time.

Sure, you can do it. Not for $1000 but you can do it. Except of course for the maps. Until Google and its competitors manage to become perfect geographical engines, you may be worse off than you are now.

I disagree with your conclusion about using GPS data to land smarter - but not about the fact that there are many problems with existing map data.

The on-board camera or maybe even the VPS system could be leveraged to confirm (fairly easily) if you are in fact over a roadway or a body of water as the GPS data suggests - and identifying the edge of either should be pretty easily accomplished too - with existing hardware.

Understand - I'm not suggesting this would be a perfect solution - just something that is much better than the current procedure.

 

[iankahr]

I think that once you've gone through the Part 107 certification, DJI should allow the removal of any feature that takes a pilot OUT of command of the aircraft.

 

[WetDog]

I think that once you've gone through the Part 107 certification, DJI should allow the removal of any feature that takes a pilot OUT of command of the aircraft.

This may be the most insightful post of the thread. The OP's initial thesis was that, because UAV pilots have to follow National Airspace Rules and are vetted (to whatever minimal degree) by the FAA then they should have the majority of rights and privileges of 'real' pilots. I think that is clearly in error. Reading a manual and clicking on a link saying you will Behave is not sufficient vetting to lend credence that you will be able to stay out of trouble.

However, the part 107 testing is reasonably rigorous. From a quick glance over things, it appears to have most of traditional ground school topics. I think you can argue that anyone who passes the 107 certification should be allowed to be in control of the aircraft as much as possible.

The rest of us, not so much. Again, an amateur radio analogy - as you pass into the higher brackets, you are allowed to use more frequencies at higher powers and in different modes. But everyone has to pass the basic theory and rules of the road exam. I wouldn't push that analogy too far, but graded privileges is certainly not a new concept.

 

[Drestin Black]

This may be the most insightful post of the thread. The OP's initial thesis was that, because UAV pilots have to follow National Airspace Rules and are vetted (to whatever minimal degree) by the FAA then they should have the majority of rights and privileges of 'real' pilots. I think that is clearly in error.

The only thing I'm asking for is:
-
A pilot should always have full control of his craft.

Autohelpers are nice but should always be able to be overridden.

I doubt anyone will argue that the current dji "autopilot" functions are equal to any human pilot skills.

I know not to land into water, on top of people or highways, etc. The current auto pilot auto landing will ignore GPS data that ways "water below" and land because the battery is close to being empty (but not empty) while a human pilot can add that dry land is merely 20 feet away and act accordingly.

Hitting a NFZ wall it lands without your control. A human would say "whoops" and backup and resume flying safely. Not auto land into potential disaster.

-
All I'm asking is; Give pilots full control of the craft we bought and are legally responsible for.

 

[JigSaw294]

No, none of that is easy. You're assuming that things on the map are where the map thinks they are. That happens to be untrue. Lots of roads are shifted several hundred feet from reality. For a long time, my house which sits comfortably on a bluff was in the middle of a local bay. Google finally got around to fi
Just have to say in relation to this whole article. I recall watching an episode of mayday where the autopilot was on. The plane was behaving badly for a reason I forget but at the end of the day the pilots that were fighting the controls all they had to do to recover the plane was let the controls go and let the auto pilot do its job. They tested the whole thing in simulator and as long as the pilots tried fighting it they crashed. As soon as they just let the controls go the plane leveled out and continued with no more problems.

 

[DeanNelsonRN]

So I that is that....I am not getting into to is hobby...i want to relax...

 

[DaveWithDrone]

Dear DJI,

I have a couple of Phantom P4s and I love them; fly them daily as a hobbyist and am working towards becoming a FAA licensed UAS pilot. You have a great product, hardware and software. Kudos!

An incident today and the hours since has given me time to reflect and come to a conclusion that I wanted to openly discuss before it becomes an issue you address in court as I feel some day you will.

UAS (drones) are being treated as serious devices by the FAA now. These are not toys anymore, we have legal obligations and can suffer real and serious fines and penalties for violating them. Not just No Fly Zones, but obligations regarding maximum altitude, VLOS requirements, day time flying rules, etc. The most important take away from this paragraph is that we are now in the realm of regulated legal equipment and their pilots. When your hardware/software, that we MUST use in order to fly the device we purchased from you, FORCES us to break a law or travel in an unsafe way then we are FORCED to address this with you. Hopefully we can fix this in an open discussion before it becomes one where an attorney says, My client isn't at fault, his equipment MADE him do this, he had NO choice/control whatsoever.

ANYONE today can jump into ANY helicopter and airplane and take off ANYWHERE at ANYTIME and can fly ANYWHERE at ANY altitude ANY speed. Now, ALL of these things are regulated, there are laws that tell us what we cannot do, but we can physically do them (right or wrong is a legal issue). So, there are LAWS that prevent us from doing some of these things or combinations of things. In a regular airplane or helicopter, we must obey No Fly Zones and other Flight Restrictions, but it's up to the pilot to actually obey them. UAS pilots are learning about these things now with the classes and tests for UAS licenses. And we are expected to obey them, just as any other pilot. However; let's be clear; TONIGHT I can go jump in my buddys airplane, not bother calling the tower, taxi and just take off right into other air traffic and point my nose at the White House and go flying over it. What's going to happen is I'll be noticed and someone will try to contact me. Likely I'll be intercepted. Certainly I'll be "talked to", perhaps prosecuted, perhaps go to jail and pay big fines. Etc Etc Etc. You know who does all that? The FAA and other police agencies. You know who does NOT do that? DJI or Cessna or Boeing or any other hardware or software maker.

On sophisticated aircraft there are warning devices and computers, they tell you if you are going to stall, if your fuel is low, if your flying too fast or slow or too high or low, if your gear is stuck down or up, if there are issues with other electronics aboard. You can be told that your gas tank has less than 1/8th gallon left as you take off for a transoceanic flight. Your GPS and compass can say it's not working as you barrel down the runway and you pull up into the wild blue yonder.

WHILE you are flying - you computer systems can tell you; "Hey, we are nearly out of fuel." and"HEY, We are REALLY low on fuel!" They can say, "GPS says we are in a no fly zone. or "HEY We Just Crossed Into An The Pentagons restricted air space!"
Here is what NO aircraft or helicopter will do: It will NOT TAKE CONTROL away and FORCE the vehicle to do something that you can do nothing but watch in horror as it occurs.

Imagine we got a 747 super low on fuel coming in to land at Chicago and Oh Oh, it's at 1% fuel remaining - so the auto pilot kicks in an Automatically Starts Landing in the middle of a school yard or into a football stadium or into the lake or into a fuel refinery or nuke plant. Or you are flying your helicopter and suddenly the GPS and Computer aboard announce, "You have just entered a no fly zone" - AND IMMEDIATELY just stop, hover, then begin to land on top of a large playground filled with children, or it immediately starts to land in the middle of a lake. And You Can DO NOTHING about it but sit there and die, possibly to you and your passengers own screaming deaths! And if you should survive then the FAA comes to kick your *** you'll be saying, "I didn't do it, the plane/helicopter just did it all by itself!"

Some might be saying, "You did something wrong." Perhaps; but you are not the judge or jury. And, what about emergencies? In an emergency you can land in NFZs, in an emergency you can go to whatever altitude you need. What if this is a genuine emergency - Oh No, I struck a bird and one engine is out I'm declaring an emergency landing at the nearest airport, Oh No that is a NFZ and I can't authorize GEO because no cell service DOWN DOWN DOWN you go and right into the path of another plane or crash landing on a freeway or top of some building or into a crowd of people.

My Point - Yes, We WANT and LOVE your automatic features. When I lose connection and you auto return me home - dude, awesome! But when it's partially back and I regain control, you let me resume flight. Cool
However, When the battery hits critical low you force me to land (except the small "trick" of keeping altitude by forcing the left stick up ... what if I NEED to go up and over a small obstacle before I make a 100% safe landing? Just like a plane pilot who's "Flying on Fumes, the gauge says empty but she's still flying so go baby go please! In DJI land, "Sorry, our sensor reads X%, down you go" and despite the fact that the craft is still flying , you force us down potentially damaging or destroying our craft and maybe hurting others or breaking the law. This is wrong.

Tonight - I took off in a familiar area and flew a familiar path. The familiar warning to call the helipad near me came up and I self-authorized because I had already called them, we know each other by now Flying and doing just fine, all is well ---- then suddenly, "You Have Entered a No-fly Zone. Landing Now..."
Let's forget the "What NFZ?!" No time for that. I am a pilot and I am in charge of my craft. I have a fully flight capable craft and I am in contact with it, visually and electronically and it's working just fine. I've hit an invisible wall - right or wrong -- and being told I must not legally go further. Ok Ok I hear you and I have EVERY intention of NOT breaking the law and I'm perfectly happy to stop, and leave, hell, I'll even be happy to do a Return to Home. What I am NOT OK with is: And she just hovers then starts to drop. Gimbal downwards, AWESOME I'm coming down into a tree edged active roadway.

Here I watch helplessly as I go from legal to legally warned to screw-you-pilot, you going down and breakin' laws! Miraculously I do not hit a branch and she lands perfectly in the middle of the left lane. And I gimbal upwards to watch a car come right for her. Braking hard it doesn't hit. I'm already heading to my car with my partner and he drives as I'm watching on the screen someone stopping traffic, grabbing the drone and jumping in their car with it (lost signal). There are cars all around, whipping past him. He was endangered, they were endangered, my vehicle was endangered.
I get to the place and pull up just to survey the area. There is a car pulled over on the shoulder idling. I get out of my car and a dad and his son get out. And there's my drone. There are good people. They returned it to me. The father reporting he "practically had a heart attack" because it "practically landed on my roof" and then I was nearly rear-ended. I gave them all the cash I had as a reward and thanked them profusely.

DJI - YOU are at primarily fault here, not me. I didn't do anything wrong (to this moment I cannot find this NFZ on any map or app I have, starting with the official B4UFLY app and FAA websites but that's not the point of this message). It doesn't matter if I DID violate a NFZ and if I was technically therefore wrong and breaking a rule. I'll suffer that punishment if charged, that's my problem and my issues, not yours. YOU need to build good hardware and software that lets your craft fly properly and as much safety built in - BUT you cannot take control away from us when we need it, arguably, the most! TRY to imagine the scenarios I described above and you being Boeing or Cessna.

Any real world aircraft pilots: What if your aircraft just took over control and you could do NOTHING as it crashed into the ground? Think that flight system would be around long? Would the FAA even allow it to fly?

I think that DJI is WRONG, and I think they are even going to find themselves on the wrong end of a lawsuit soon enough, in having software that takes over control in a manner that cannot be overridden. Yes, put in your automatic features if you'd like but in ALL, repeat *ALL* cases, you MUST allow pilot overrides. We are the captain of our ships, what WE say goes when we're flying, NOT you. We are real pilots now with real law and penalties and therefore WE must ultimately be in FULL charge of our craft.

Summary and to repeat for full impact: DJI, The Pilot is Always in charge of his craft, completely and utterly. We MUST be able to override ANY automatic function. Period. I believe my desire is something you'll find legally necessary to protect yourselves and to protect our equipment and the public we fly over/around.

Sincerely,
db

Right on Brother! Excellent presentation!

 

[DaveWithDrone]

What about mandatory landing when battery is critically low?

Imagine you are in your car and the fuel gauge suddenly reads "E" -- Imagine that right then and there, no matter where you are or what you are doing, the car immediately comes to a stop and turns the motor off and you have zero control the entire time. Meanwhile the engine was running just fine on "empty"

This cannot be tolerated - sadly it will take an automatic landing that hurts someone and in the lawsuit that follows DJI will be found at fault and only then will they change things. This change needs to happen now, before someone is hurt.

Again, Well said!

 

[bkushner]

If violating space why not an immediate return home until your out of the area...what happened here scares me. I fly a lot over areas I cannot recover the bird if it goes down. If this triggers and sends my P4 down I'm screwed.

 

[Drestin Black]

If violating space why not an immediate return home until your out of the area...what happened here scares me. I fly a lot over areas I cannot recover the bird if it goes down. If this triggers and sends my P4 down I'm screwed.

Agreed - when violating a NFZ I think a poor decision is to just auto land - the FAR better solution is to BACK UP and get out of where you shouldn't be. Keep the pilot in control, back it up out of the NFZ and resume flight. With GPS and the flightlog this is easy, just read the flight log and use waypoints to backup!

 

[DaveWithDrone]

Agreed - when violating a NFZ I think a poor decision is to just auto land - the FAR better solution is to BACK UP and get out of where you shouldn't be. Keep the pilot in control, back it up out of the NFZ and resume flight. With GPS and the flightlog this is easy, just read the flight log and use waypoints to backup!

Sounds good to me!

 

[iankahr]

Here's another whammy for part 107 folks if your drone takes over...

107.19 (b) The remote pilot in command is directly responsible for and is the final authority as to the operation of the small unmanned aircraft system.

107.19 (e) The remote pilot in command must have the ability to direct the small unmanned aircraft to ensure compliance with the applicable provisions of this chapter.

So, if no option exists to disable autonomous features, Part 107 pilots couldn't use DJI products for business.

Is this a correct interpretation?

 

[Drestin Black]

So, if no option exists to disable autonomous features, Part 107 pilots couldn't use DJI products for business.

Is this a correct interpretation?

Sounds right. You will not find automated systems that can't be disabled on larger craft. No reason we should be handicapped. Having automatic helper systems is great and I'm all for them - as long as I can always choose to override them; me=pilot=responsible party=in control

 

[BigAl07]

I don't think DJI is going to change their operating process on this one. It's CYA for them and that's pretty much final.

If you want ultimate control over your aircraft then buy one that does that or build one that has exactly what you want. This way you program it to do as much or as little as you want.

I'm convinced anything else is peeing into the wind and hoping to stay dry.

 

[Drestin Black]

Or someone is going to get hurt or get charged with some rule broken and an attorney will pick this up and explain; not my clients fault, he wasn't flying at the time, "DJI was" - that's how it works with real planes or cars or any other product. Will be interesting to be sure. I just want to increase safety.

I didn't expect DJI to reply publicly to my thread say, we're on it! but the concern has been sent to some appropriate parties within, we can only hope some new release of Go addresses it

 

[Ohiowoodsman]

You were definitely put into a bad and scary situation!

I skipped a couple there, did you find out yet exactly what happened?

 

[Dave Smith]

Dear DJI,

I have a couple of Phantom P4s and I love them; fly them daily as a hobbyist and am working towards becoming a FAA licensed UAS pilot. You have a great product, hardware and software. Kudos!

An incident today and the hours since has given me time to reflect and come to a conclusion that I wanted to openly discuss before it becomes an issue you address in court as I feel some day you will.

UAS (drones) are being treated as serious devices by the FAA now. These are not toys anymore, we have legal obligations and can suffer real and serious fines and penalties for violating them. Not just No Fly Zones, but obligations regarding maximum altitude, VLOS requirements, day time flying rules, etc. The most important take away from this paragraph is that we are now in the realm of regulated legal equipment and their pilots. When your hardware/software, that we MUST use in order to fly the device we purchased from you, FORCES us to break a law or travel in an unsafe way then we are FORCED to address this with you. Hopefully we can fix this in an open discussion before it becomes one where an attorney says, My client isn't at fault, his equipment MADE him do this, he had NO choice/control whatsoever.

ANYONE today can jump into ANY helicopter and airplane and take off ANYWHERE at ANYTIME and can fly ANYWHERE at ANY altitude ANY speed. Now, ALL of these things are regulated, there are laws that tell us what we cannot do, but we can physically do them (right or wrong is a legal issue). So, there are LAWS that prevent us from doing some of these things or combinations of things. In a regular airplane or helicopter, we must obey No Fly Zones and other Flight Restrictions, but it's up to the pilot to actually obey them. UAS pilots are learning about these things now with the classes and tests for UAS licenses. And we are expected to obey them, just as any other pilot. However; let's be clear; TONIGHT I can go jump in my buddys airplane, not bother calling the tower, taxi and just take off right into other air traffic and point my nose at the White House and go flying over it. What's going to happen is I'll be noticed and someone will try to contact me. Likely I'll be intercepted. Certainly I'll be "talked to", perhaps prosecuted, perhaps go to jail and pay big fines. Etc Etc Etc. You know who does all that? The FAA and other police agencies. You know who does NOT do that? DJI or Cessna or Boeing or any other hardware or software maker.

On sophisticated aircraft there are warning devices and computers, they tell you if you are going to stall, if your fuel is low, if your flying too fast or slow or too high or low, if your gear is stuck down or up, if there are issues with other electronics aboard. You can be told that your gas tank has less than 1/8th gallon left as you take off for a transoceanic flight. Your GPS and compass can say it's not working as you barrel down the runway and you pull up into the wild blue yonder.

WHILE you are flying - you computer systems can tell you; "Hey, we are nearly out of fuel." and"HEY, We are REALLY low on fuel!" They can say, "GPS says we are in a no fly zone. or "HEY We Just Crossed Into An The Pentagons restricted air space!"
Here is what NO aircraft or helicopter will do: It will NOT TAKE CONTROL away and FORCE the vehicle to do something that you can do nothing but watch in horror as it occurs.

Imagine we got a 747 super low on fuel coming in to land at Chicago and Oh Oh, it's at 1% fuel remaining - so the auto pilot kicks in an Automatically Starts Landing in the middle of a school yard or into a football stadium or into the lake or into a fuel refinery or nuke plant. Or you are flying your helicopter and suddenly the GPS and Computer aboard announce, "You have just entered a no fly zone" - AND IMMEDIATELY just stop, hover, then begin to land on top of a large playground filled with children, or it immediately starts to land in the middle of a lake. And You Can DO NOTHING about it but sit there and die, possibly to you and your passengers own screaming deaths! And if you should survive then the FAA comes to kick your *** you'll be saying, "I didn't do it, the plane/helicopter just did it all by itself!"

Some might be saying, "You did something wrong." Perhaps; but you are not the judge or jury. And, what about emergencies? In an emergency you can land in NFZs, in an emergency you can go to whatever altitude you need. What if this is a genuine emergency - Oh No, I struck a bird and one engine is out I'm declaring an emergency landing at the nearest airport, Oh No that is a NFZ and I can't authorize GEO because no cell service DOWN DOWN DOWN you go and right into the path of another plane or crash landing on a freeway or top of some building or into a crowd of people.

My Point - Yes, We WANT and LOVE your automatic features. When I lose connection and you auto return me home - dude, awesome! But when it's partially back and I regain control, you let me resume flight. Cool
However, When the battery hits critical low you force me to land (except the small "trick" of keeping altitude by forcing the left stick up ... what if I NEED to go up and over a small obstacle before I make a 100% safe landing? Just like a plane pilot who's "Flying on Fumes, the gauge says empty but she's still flying so go baby go please! In DJI land, "Sorry, our sensor reads X%, down you go" and despite the fact that the craft is still flying , you force us down potentially damaging or destroying our craft and maybe hurting others or breaking the law. This is wrong.

Tonight - I took off in a familiar area and flew a familiar path. The familiar warning to call the helipad near me came up and I self-authorized because I had already called them, we know each other by now Flying and doing just fine, all is well ---- then suddenly, "You Have Entered a No-fly Zone. Landing Now..."
Let's forget the "What NFZ?!" No time for that. I am a pilot and I am in charge of my craft. I have a fully flight capable craft and I am in contact with it, visually and electronically and it's working just fine. I've hit an invisible wall - right or wrong -- and being told I must not legally go further. Ok Ok I hear you and I have EVERY intention of NOT breaking the law and I'm perfectly happy to stop, and leave, hell, I'll even be happy to do a Return to Home. What I am NOT OK with is: And she just hovers then starts to drop. Gimbal downwards, AWESOME I'm coming down into a tree edged active roadway.

Here I watch helplessly as I go from legal to legally warned to screw-you-pilot, you going down and breakin' laws! Miraculously I do not hit a branch and she lands perfectly in the middle of the left lane. And I gimbal upwards to watch a car come right for her. Braking hard it doesn't hit. I'm already heading to my car with my partner and he drives as I'm watching on the screen someone stopping traffic, grabbing the drone and jumping in their car with it (lost signal). There are cars all around, whipping past him. He was endangered, they were endangered, my vehicle was endangered.
I get to the place and pull up just to survey the area. There is a car pulled over on the shoulder idling. I get out of my car and a dad and his son get out. And there's my drone. There are good people. They returned it to me. The father reporting he "practically had a heart attack" because it "practically landed on my roof" and then I was nearly rear-ended. I gave them all the cash I had as a reward and thanked them profusely.

DJI - YOU are at primarily fault here, not me. I didn't do anything wrong (to this moment I cannot find this NFZ on any map or app I have, starting with the official B4UFLY app and FAA websites but that's not the point of this message). It doesn't matter if I DID violate a NFZ and if I was technically therefore wrong and breaking a rule. I'll suffer that punishment if charged, that's my problem and my issues, not yours. YOU need to build good hardware and software that lets your craft fly properly and as much safety built in - BUT you cannot take control away from us when we need it, arguably, the most! TRY to imagine the scenarios I described above and you being Boeing or Cessna.

Any real world aircraft pilots: What if your aircraft just took over control and you could do NOTHING as it crashed into the ground? Think that flight system would be around long? Would the FAA even allow it to fly?

I think that DJI is WRONG, and I think they are even going to find themselves on the wrong end of a lawsuit soon enough, in having software that takes over control in a manner that cannot be overridden. Yes, put in your automatic features if you'd like but in ALL, repeat *ALL* cases, you MUST allow pilot overrides. We are the captain of our ships, what WE say goes when we're flying, NOT you. We are real pilots now with real law and penalties and therefore WE must ultimately be in FULL charge of our craft.

Summary and to repeat for full impact: DJI, The Pilot is Always in charge of his craft, completely and utterly. We MUST be able to override ANY automatic function. Period. I believe my desire is something you'll find legally necessary to protect yourselves and to protect our equipment and the public we fly over/around.

Sincerely,
db

 

[Dave Smith]

I had a nearly identical incident today, although I ultimately elected to crash my Phantom 3 Professional rather than do the emergency landing.

First, I did a flight where I used Dronepan for a panoramic shot. After reviewing the photos, I decided to do the shot over. I went up to 200 feet, flew about 600 feet away from my starting point, which was my front yard. Just as I was getting near the spot where I was going to do the panoramic shot I got a message about being in a restricted zone and an emergency landing was being made. I had probably about 70% battery left. I noticed a red x on the DJI Go app on my Ipad, so I clicked on it and cancelled the landing. At this point I had dropped to 150 feet or so. I started flying the Phantom back to my house. About 400 feet from my house, the emergency landing started again. I aborted the landing again, but now I was at about 100 feet. I continued flying towards my home, but I could only gain about 15 feet of elevation before the emergency landing started for a third time. Now I was only at 50 feet or less and I did not want to do an emergency landing, fearing I would land on a pedestrians head, or cause a traffic accident as the Phantom landed. I decided to pull both sticks back and just let it do a crash landing. Sure, that could land on someone's head too, but since there are very few pedestrians in my neighborhood I thought the risk was small of hitting someone.

Anyway, the Phantom landed right in the middle of the street only about 250 feet from my starting point. If cars had been on the street, I could have caused a traffic accident. The crash ruined the shell, broke the battery, and a couple of props.

There is no indication on the map that I was in a restricted zone in my neighborhood. There are a few spots around the area that are marked as emergency heliport landing pads, which are basically school yards.

I saw no reason for the forced landing. A message telling me to return home, or find a safe place to land is understandable, but not a forced landing. The worst thing is, I don't have confidence now that this same thing won't happen again.

I filled out the repair incident on the dji website and sent the Phantom to DJI in California today to get it fixed. It is less than six months old, so I will be fighting to have it repaired at no cost to me.

 

[FlashBuddy]

Wow, now I'm nervous too.

NoCo Drones

 

[GadgetGuy]

I had a nearly identical incident today, although I ultimately elected to crash my Phantom 3 Professional rather than do the emergency landing.

First, I did a flight where I used Dronepan for a panoramic shot. After reviewing the photos, I decided to do the shot over. I went up to 200 feet, flew about 600 feet away from my starting point, which was my front yard. Just as I was getting near the spot where I was going to do the panoramic shot I got a message about being in a restricted zone and an emergency landing was being made. I had probably about 70% battery left. I noticed a red x on the DJI Go app on my Ipad, so I clicked on it and cancelled the landing. At this point I had dropped to 150 feet or so. I started flying the Phantom back to my house. About 400 feet from my house, the emergency landing started again. I aborted the landing again, but now I was at about 100 feet. I continued flying towards my home, but I could only gain about 15 feet of elevation before the emergency landing started for a third time. Now I was only at 50 feet or less and I did not want to do an emergency landing, fearing I would land on a pedestrians head, or cause a traffic accident as the Phantom landed. I decided to pull both sticks back and just let it do a crash landing. Sure, that could land on someone's head too, but since there are very few pedestrians in my neighborhood I thought the risk was small of hitting someone.

Anyway, the Phantom landed right in the middle of the street only about 250 feet from my starting point. If cars had been on the street, I could have caused a traffic accident. The crash ruined the shell, broke the battery, and a couple of props.

There is no indication on the map that I was in a restricted zone in my neighborhood. There are a few spots around the area that are marked as emergency heliport landing pads, which are basically school yards.

I saw no reason for the forced landing. A message telling me to return home, or find a safe place to land is understandable, but not a forced landing. The worst thing is, I don't have confidence now that this same thing won't happen again.

I filled out the repair incident on the dji website and sent the Phantom to DJI in California today to get it fixed. It is less than six months old, so I will be fighting to have it repaired at no cost to me.

Did you have GEO turned on? Are you on an earlier version of DJI Go that preceded the official GEO implementation? GEO is known to be buggy with bogus No Fly Zones. GEO was installed as a Trojan Horse into earlier versions of DJI Go, where it isn't supposed to exist, where it is impossible to turn it off, and where it's bugginess can lead to all sorts of unpredictable results. Brendan Schulman has all but admitted the same in the GEO thread on another site. The only way to recover from this atrocity is to update DJI GO to the latest GEO version encompassing GEO where GEO can be turned off, for now, as GEO will soon be made mandatory. Until then, pray that all the GEO bugs and bogus NFZ's are squashed and removed!