Oddity with NFZ and abilty to take off.
I've been flying a Downtown City Construction site ( 1 full city block) for nearly 2 years. Always received an In-App popup warning about a Jail in the vicinity (8-10 blocks away) and I was able to touch a little radio button icon that acknowledged the warning & indicated I took responsibility. Done, and able to fly.
Today, I was prevented to fly due to Jail in vicinity... same Jail that previously required “in app acknowledgment“ over last few years. Got a similar looking DJI Popup Warning, but without any method to acknowledge and accept the responsibility to fly safely. Today’s Message stated a Jail was in the vicinity and Jail was restricted and needed to apply on non-cellular browser, had to be a regular full site PC type browser to request a FLYSafe Approval.
I gave up efforts on-site freezing my butt & fingers and went home to make request... very frustrating! Spent over an hour on-site in 14F temps... cold & getting no where. As of 2 weeks ago, this didn't exist! I simply acknowledged the jail warning and continued with my flight plans.
I made the DJI request, stipulated within “Reason of request... the Jail restriction” Within request, you need to specify intended altitude... recall I wasn’t even able to take off... altitude wasn’t a factor... but I threw in 400 ft. I had already received LAANC approval for 2 hour operation window at 400 ft & submitted insurance of 1 hour... both approved for location the previous evening.
The DJI Request came back REJECTED. They provided a email to communicate. I inquired why it was rejected, and why it even required a off-app approval that needed to be requested prior to day’s planning. They promptly responded it was rejected due to altitude being above the FAA sector grid limitation of 100 ft. Now that’s odd... I wasn’t limited to altitude, I wasn’t able to simply take-off... motors kept shutting off with warning of jail in vacinity.
I replied, and sent my today’s LAANC approval, along with the last 12 previous LAANC approvals, and a screen shot showing all the grid sectors indicating 400 ft for the area of city.
They responded again, stated based on supplied information, they have now “approved the flight“ and the procedure to enter the approval in both App and craft. Which didn’t help today since time period to safely fly had passed... I fly early Sunday morning before traffic on downtown roads.
I asked if restricted flight based on “Jail in vicinity” would continue or was corrected. They responded the 100 foot ceiling limitation was still in place and I’d need to resubmit each time with explanation. We have a disconnect here... it’s not altitude and that isn’t even within the Go4 App process to get off the ground. Two separate issues and DJI doesn’t seem to grasp the NFZ block their app is presenting... I wouldn’t even know of the altitude limitation until airborne. They seemed unaware the jail was blocking, almost like the in-app self approval was still available as previous... unaware the self acknowledgement wasn’t available.
Due to cold weather and downtownthe location, Construction company requests redundant heated batteries. I use the Inspire 2 with X4S & X5S payloads normally. I normally don’t have major issues with NFZ and normally able to self approve unblocks. But this is ridiculous, and will probably utilize other options to work around the NFZ Jail block. Not one to normally take these steps, but apparently there’s a disconnect and resulting in an unwarranted block. I’m able to obtain a US Marshal‘s document authorizing flights as in other locations, but in this instance it shouldn’t be required so I’ll take a different method to eliminate the problem for good.
Curious if any one else has experienced this recently?
I've been flying a Downtown City Construction site ( 1 full city block) for nearly 2 years. Always received an In-App popup warning about a Jail in the vicinity (8-10 blocks away) and I was able to touch a little radio button icon that acknowledged the warning & indicated I took responsibility. Done, and able to fly.
Today, I was prevented to fly due to Jail in vicinity... same Jail that previously required “in app acknowledgment“ over last few years. Got a similar looking DJI Popup Warning, but without any method to acknowledge and accept the responsibility to fly safely. Today’s Message stated a Jail was in the vicinity and Jail was restricted and needed to apply on non-cellular browser, had to be a regular full site PC type browser to request a FLYSafe Approval.
I gave up efforts on-site freezing my butt & fingers and went home to make request... very frustrating! Spent over an hour on-site in 14F temps... cold & getting no where. As of 2 weeks ago, this didn't exist! I simply acknowledged the jail warning and continued with my flight plans.
I made the DJI request, stipulated within “Reason of request... the Jail restriction” Within request, you need to specify intended altitude... recall I wasn’t even able to take off... altitude wasn’t a factor... but I threw in 400 ft. I had already received LAANC approval for 2 hour operation window at 400 ft & submitted insurance of 1 hour... both approved for location the previous evening.
The DJI Request came back REJECTED. They provided a email to communicate. I inquired why it was rejected, and why it even required a off-app approval that needed to be requested prior to day’s planning. They promptly responded it was rejected due to altitude being above the FAA sector grid limitation of 100 ft. Now that’s odd... I wasn’t limited to altitude, I wasn’t able to simply take-off... motors kept shutting off with warning of jail in vacinity.
I replied, and sent my today’s LAANC approval, along with the last 12 previous LAANC approvals, and a screen shot showing all the grid sectors indicating 400 ft for the area of city.
They responded again, stated based on supplied information, they have now “approved the flight“ and the procedure to enter the approval in both App and craft. Which didn’t help today since time period to safely fly had passed... I fly early Sunday morning before traffic on downtown roads.
I asked if restricted flight based on “Jail in vicinity” would continue or was corrected. They responded the 100 foot ceiling limitation was still in place and I’d need to resubmit each time with explanation. We have a disconnect here... it’s not altitude and that isn’t even within the Go4 App process to get off the ground. Two separate issues and DJI doesn’t seem to grasp the NFZ block their app is presenting... I wouldn’t even know of the altitude limitation until airborne. They seemed unaware the jail was blocking, almost like the in-app self approval was still available as previous... unaware the self acknowledgement wasn’t available.
Due to cold weather and downtownthe location, Construction company requests redundant heated batteries. I use the Inspire 2 with X4S & X5S payloads normally. I normally don’t have major issues with NFZ and normally able to self approve unblocks. But this is ridiculous, and will probably utilize other options to work around the NFZ Jail block. Not one to normally take these steps, but apparently there’s a disconnect and resulting in an unwarranted block. I’m able to obtain a US Marshal‘s document authorizing flights as in other locations, but in this instance it shouldn’t be required so I’ll take a different method to eliminate the problem for good.
Curious if any one else has experienced this recently?