I updated my Inspire 3 firmware the other day to the latest version available. I then took the drone to a parking lot that I know is in a restricted area to see if the drone would fly and it wouldn't. The location is perhaps .5 miles from a small county airport and not directly in line with the runway approach. It's my understanding that locations like this are what the firmware update eliminating geofencing is supposed to apply to. Is the Inspire 3 still supporting geofencing?
Geofencing Exceptions?
- Thread starter haefnerphoto
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I found Chinese geofencing of American territory so erroneous and arbitrary that I had to hack around it. Now, I "self geofence" by simply flying smart.
For example, governed by the Chinese geofencing, one can't fly one's drone at George J Maloof Memorial Air Park, which is a park specifically built for hobby model flying.
The park lies 3.2 miles from Double Eagle airport (Class D airspace) and has for decades, but is completely out of the flight path of both runways. I imagine that this was done on purpose (pilots is smart). For as long as there has been model aircraft, we ALWAYS kept a ceiling of < 400' AGL. ALWAYS (See AMA rules since the stone age). This is probably where the FAA came up with their 400' rule.
Less than a mile to the East of the airfield is my girlfriend's house. To the West of her house (between Maloof Air Field and her house) lies a nice, open field perfect for drone testing and drone software testing. Because both airfields are up on a bluff, this test field is actually 80 feet BELOW both airfields' ground levels.
Unfortunately, any DJI product will be goefenced (grounded) in this area. Fortunately, I have hacked all my drones and I can not only fly in the test area, but I can also fly in the model airplane air park that was built and dedicated specifically for that purpose.
Chinese geofencing almost cost me thousands of dollars and a possible lawsuit...
I had a mapping job (photogrammetry) about 100 miles North of my hometown up in White Rock, NM. In addition to me, a survey crew was deployed for the purpose of setting Ground Control Points (GCP's) at a cost of thousands of dollars. I usually arrive on a given jobsite a couple hours after the crew so they have time to lay out all the GCP's. On this particular day I decided to fly my SPARE drone, which is NOT hacked. With all permits in order and nowhere NEAR an airport, wouldn't you know it, as I tried to launch, this ChinEnglish message pops up:
So here I am at the job site in a complete state of panic for about 10 seconds until I realize that I was trying to launch the unhacked drone. I merely switched to the hacked drone and flew the mission. Had I not hacked my drone, not only would I have lost the invoice income ($2K if memory serves), but I would have had to pay for the survey crew (thousands of dollars).
I recommend hacking your drone and use your own common sense. Be hyper aware of your environments BEFORE and DURING flight. Learn to recognize things like helicopter landing pads at hospitals and other not-so-obvious controlled airspace. Look. Listen. Be aware. Don't rely on firmware / geofencing. It's unreliable, erroneous and often arbitrary. If it can ground your drone where no NFZ's exist, I imagine it could also make mistakes in the opposite direction, allowing you to fly where you shouldn't. I don't trust it as far as I can throw it.
Best of luck.
D
For example, governed by the Chinese geofencing, one can't fly one's drone at George J Maloof Memorial Air Park, which is a park specifically built for hobby model flying.
The park lies 3.2 miles from Double Eagle airport (Class D airspace) and has for decades, but is completely out of the flight path of both runways. I imagine that this was done on purpose (pilots is smart). For as long as there has been model aircraft, we ALWAYS kept a ceiling of < 400' AGL. ALWAYS (See AMA rules since the stone age). This is probably where the FAA came up with their 400' rule.
Less than a mile to the East of the airfield is my girlfriend's house. To the West of her house (between Maloof Air Field and her house) lies a nice, open field perfect for drone testing and drone software testing. Because both airfields are up on a bluff, this test field is actually 80 feet BELOW both airfields' ground levels.
Unfortunately, any DJI product will be goefenced (grounded) in this area. Fortunately, I have hacked all my drones and I can not only fly in the test area, but I can also fly in the model airplane air park that was built and dedicated specifically for that purpose.
Chinese geofencing almost cost me thousands of dollars and a possible lawsuit...
I had a mapping job (photogrammetry) about 100 miles North of my hometown up in White Rock, NM. In addition to me, a survey crew was deployed for the purpose of setting Ground Control Points (GCP's) at a cost of thousands of dollars. I usually arrive on a given jobsite a couple hours after the crew so they have time to lay out all the GCP's. On this particular day I decided to fly my SPARE drone, which is NOT hacked. With all permits in order and nowhere NEAR an airport, wouldn't you know it, as I tried to launch, this ChinEnglish message pops up:
So here I am at the job site in a complete state of panic for about 10 seconds until I realize that I was trying to launch the unhacked drone. I merely switched to the hacked drone and flew the mission. Had I not hacked my drone, not only would I have lost the invoice income ($2K if memory serves), but I would have had to pay for the survey crew (thousands of dollars).
I recommend hacking your drone and use your own common sense. Be hyper aware of your environments BEFORE and DURING flight. Learn to recognize things like helicopter landing pads at hospitals and other not-so-obvious controlled airspace. Look. Listen. Be aware. Don't rely on firmware / geofencing. It's unreliable, erroneous and often arbitrary. If it can ground your drone where no NFZ's exist, I imagine it could also make mistakes in the opposite direction, allowing you to fly where you shouldn't. I don't trust it as far as I can throw it.
Best of luck.
D
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After a couple days of trying to figure out the geofencing/FlySafe situation I finally solved the problem. I thought the most recent firmware update would remove the geofencing but in addition to the firmware update you need to update the FlySafe database. Once that is accomplished the drone will fly where ever you want it to. Updating the drone's firmware was straightforward but it took me a fair amount of time to find the FlySafe database. I got to it by tapping the Max altitude info on the window that proceeds the camera view. It should open a map which at the bottom has a button called FlySafe database, open that and you'll see the option to update the database. Once accomplished (and you restart the controller and drone) you'll be good to go!
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- Joined
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AMEN BUT THE HACKS ARE ALWAYS HARD TO FIGURE FOR ME l HAVE A INSPIRE 1 I DID BEFORE 1ST FLIGHT AND IT HAS NO PLACE IT CANT FLY MY GIRLFRIEND LIVES RIGHT UNDER THE NO FLY ZONE OF ALBUQ INTERNATIONAL BUT EVEN WITH NLD MAVIC 2 PRO WILL NOT BUDGE
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