Failsafe RTH and No Fly Zone

Well... yes... the apps do make it look like we can't fly anywhere. I should have warned you of that!

I can't tell you what you should or shouldn't do... I don't mind recommending the apps because they offer decent guidelines, but the final analysis is yours.

Incidentally, DJI Go does NOT restrict takeoff when inside the circle... I've yet to find an NFZ that DOES interrupt flight and I'm hoping I don't find out the wrong way. I'm a pretty careful flyer.


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Yea thanks for the info dude! I'm glad you recommended them. I'll use them regardless. Yea just makes me nervous of these NFZ's and how they can prematurely make your bird land even though you are far away from them...


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Dramface460 said:
Yea thanks for the info dude! I'm glad you recommended them. I'll use them regardless. Yea just makes me nervous of these NFZ's and how they can prematurely make your bird land even though you are far away from them...


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There seems to be a LOT of grey area in this game, doesn't there?!

Or red... or yellow...


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Dramface460 said:
You aren't kidding, there sure is!


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I live within 9km of an airport... just at the edge of one of the rings in the app pic.

I'm almost tempted to drive few hundred yards at a time, pull into a parking lot, and see if there is any point that the app prevents takeoff. Just to see what the message, if any, looks like.


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jwmcgrath said:
I live within 9km of an airport... just at the edge of one of the rings in the app pic.

I'm almost tempted to drive few hundred yards at a time, pull into a parking lot, and see if there is any point that the app prevents takeoff. Just to see what the message, if any, looks like.


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You should try this and record all That you see and do. I'm tempted to do the same with mine and get closer to the radius, play around with it and see what happens. I'm going to be 10 feet away from my drone though :)


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jwmcgrath said:
I live within 9km of an airport... just at the edge of one of the rings in the app pic.

I'm almost tempted to drive few hundred yards at a time, pull into a parking lot, and see if there is any point that the app prevents takeoff. Just to see what the message, if any, looks like.


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What country do you live in?


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Dramface460 said:
And according to the other app, I basically am not allowed to fly anywhere lol. This doesn't make any sense. There is only one airport and that's RDU where I live in Raleigh. According to those apps I shouldn't be flying my drone but only in rural areas.
afd4e205d34738da361505a4c68bbb9e.jpg



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Getting bad info from those app. technically, there are no NFZs on the maps that you show. If you check the sectional, all you have to contend with is the inner ring of Class C space around RDU. Under current FAA recommendations for hobby fliers, all you have to do is notify any airport within 5 miles of your take off that you will be flying (airport and tower if there is one). General consensus on the forum is than helipads/ports are kind of 'if you can find some one to notify'. Note, Part 107 Pilots don't have to notify any of the airports that you show, they just can not fly within the RDU inner circle without prior authorization.
 
DJI has a site that maps out their area classifications. The large airport boundaries are not NFZs though the center of one with about 1 mile radius might be.
What tends to qualify as a NFZ are powerplants and jails among other things.
The best way to handle this is the same way it handles reaching a maximum distance you might set: don't fly any further but rather change course as you command to fly into it. To avoid actually going into a DJI designated NFZ, they could apply a 10 foot buffer so when it does change course, theres no violation drifting closer. That or just hover.
Now there could be a problem if you flew around a NFZ but your RTH path goes through it. The P4P already has programming to optimize RTH, considering the flight path taken from home point to when RTH was triggered, following back on a similar path in case you had avoided an obstacle. NFZ avoidance during RTH could take the same approach.

You can also disable use of geo apparently as one person figured out.
Though I agree in the Phantom to not fly into a NFZ, I also agree a forced landing is a bad idea. There's better ways of handling it such as I had described.

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Thank you for the info Dan. RDU is the only major airport and NFZ in my area, where I live. The dji link you posted says that the drone will pause at a NFZ but forum members are posting that their drones are stopping then descending to land. So our drones are they supposed to stop and hover at the yellow 5 mile radius barrier or are they supposed to land automatically. That's the true test with NFZ


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I've launched and flown through green areas and live in one. It just warns you and you select you take responsibility.
I don't think it lands in yellow areas but can't say for sure. Red areas are prohibited, no exceptions can be obtained.
But you can turn off geo in the app.

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DanMan32 said:
I've launched and flown through green areas and live in one. It just warns you and you select you take responsibility.
I don't think it lands in yellow areas but can't say for sure. Red areas are prohibited, no exceptions can be obtained.
But you can turn off geo in the app.

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Yea I'm thinking I'll fly into a yellow area to see what happens but remain close to my p4.

When in doubt it sounds like the best thing to do is turn it off, that way you don't screw your self by having it accidentally land.

But in theory the yellow does mean it should stop at that barrier and your not allowed to fly inside? Well unless you get permission from the air traffic tower


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Richard R said:
Getting bad info from those app.
Click to expand...

I don't think it's so much "bad info" as it is the way we interpret and use it.

All the app does (actually they each do everything a little differently, that's why I use more than one), is show you a ring around what should be avoided.

A helipad may sit unoccupied for days or weeks, but I wouldn't want to be inside that ring when a Life Flight is coming in with an accident victim or sick kid.

Same as calling the airport... it's great to get a verbal that you're ok to be in he air, but let's see how far that verbal goes if you bring down an A380 with 400 people aboard.

In Canada, we aren't supposed to fly within 9km of an airport (or helipad etc) so the apps show me that ring... they give me a reference that is consistent with Transport Canada guidelines, so at least I know what risks I'm taking.

Does that necessarily qualify them as a DJI NFZ? Clearly not, because I can take off inside one.

It's all fluid and dynamic and subject to interpretation and varying levels of enforcement.

But what I can state definitively is that Transport Canada states that I shouldn't be inside a 9km ring of an airport, and I believe the FAA says something similar to the effect of 5mi.

So... I wanted a way to find out just what that 9km ring is, as well as help find the lesser known regional airports that I might not even know existed. Then I just use those apps to find out where that no mans land is, and use that info to make the best decisions I can.


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To further that thought, I see it like this (and I could very well be wrong)...

First, I can't ever see myself calling Air Traffic Control, unless I'm desperate to fly in that particular area. I couldn't be bothered to even try to figure out how to call them, nor do I think it would be easy to actually reach the tower.

On top of that, maybe it's just me, but I don't believe whatever controller I get on the phone would feel obligated to relieve my concern about where I'm flying a drone. WAY too many variables... so I'm of the opinion they would just defer to the Transport Canada or FAA or wherever you are regulations... which negates the necessity of a phone call.

That said, I just practice due diligence instead. But if I happen to think what looks like a great field actually has a regional airport beyond the tree line that I can't see, I'd like to at least know about it.

Hence, the apps come in handy.

If it ever gets to the point that I feel I need to call air traffic control, I'm sure there is somewhere else I can go where I'm not going to be pushing the limits of flying dangerously close to commercial aircraft.

To the OP... unfortunately since this isn't a direct answer to a direct question, hopefully what you can glean from all this is a better understanding of how to make flight decisions when you are in, close to, or flying around a NFZ.


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Yea I agree, these apps will help us prepare for our flights and give us a better understanding of the airspace we are about to fly into. I don't see myself calling an airport either. Even if I decided to fly inside a radius it would always be very low to the ground. I'm also aware It will only take some idiot running into a jet with their drone and cause a disaster which would most likely cause the govt to freak out and make even more regulations.


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