So where do I begin on my rant.
I am a licensed and insured drone pilot and I fly mostly for Real Estate agents. I’ve been doing this since the beginning of the year and business is going well. I have flown several times in airport airspace, but I call every time and get permission (which is the law). Recently there was an update done to improve the “Geo Fencing”. From my understanding, it restricts unauthorized access in airport airspace. That is all fine and dandy, but here are my BIGGEST issues:
As I said, I’m commercially certified. Whenever I fly near an airport, I have to call EVERY time I fly in their airspace. If I get caught flying without authorization, I could lose my license, pay a fine, and probably go to jail. Without a license, I’m out of a job. Not sure why I need DJI's approval when I already have the airports approval.
So I called and got permission to fly. I attempted to fly, just to find out the software would not allow me to take off. Oh, and this was after driving 45 minutes to the property. After contacting DJI about this, I was informed I have to email “ FlySafe@dji.com” for authorization. After not hearing anything from them within a few hours, I contacted DJI again. I was told it could take 24-48 hours for them to respond AND it’s only for authorization for one day. SERIOUSLY?!?!?!?!
While I agree that DJI/FAA need to improve security/safety for airport airspace from idiots, why should law abiding licensed pilots suffer? My idea (to improve on this):
Reasoning: We still have to get permission to fly in the airport airspace, and if we don’t, we lose our license. For those of us that live near an airport, this is a lot of bureaucratic paperwork that is needless, so why should we have to go through the ringer? Time is money.
Can I get a managing representative to discuss this issue. There is only so much a customer rep can do for me, and the ONLY way to contact the flight authorization department can only be reached by email.
Thank you,
Ethan
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