I saw an article on the spark and became interested in getting one for myself. Now I could have just gone out and buy one and possibly ended up with a very expensive paper weight. See, my home, a small farm fall within a 5NM range of a small airstrip.

The thing is when I look at Google maps, I see these little runways all over the place in the nearby area. I'll have to travel at least 50km away, to get away from these little airstrips and then I would also have to ask some stranger permission to fly on their property. And that for a flight that only last about 15min.

But I can't see, if I were to stay low, why I can't fly something as small as the spark, on my own property. What about an even smaller drone? Where do one draw the line? Unfortunately I can't find any reference to minimum size that our local law apply to. I did come across a figure of 1kg, but that was just a forum post, nothing official.

So I thought I would just go ahead and get a spark and fly it anyway. Doing so discreetly, on my own property and only when there are no planes around, which is most of the day anyway. Then I read about DJI's NFZs. Sigh... I had a look at DJI's NFZ map for my country and it is only the big commercial airports that are marked as No Fly. So the spark should fly on my property whether it is legal or not. However my fear is that in the future DJI may add all these little airstrips to their NFZ map as well and suddenly my little spark becomes useless.

I've also read that the spark has a toy mode, that restrict the height to 30m and distance to 50m in which case the NFZ restrictions don't apply. Is this true? How do one get it in toy mode then?

So I was very disappointed to learn how controlling DJI is acting over something the customer has bought and paid for, making me reluctant to buy a spark. The spark is however probably the best on the market for its size.

My question to DJI:

1) Why not give the user an option to sign a waver that he/she will take full responsibility and then lift all the NFZ restrictions for that user or at least change them to warmings only.

2) DJI seem to have complete control over each drone's profile. Would it be possible to set a custom "toy mode" for a spark user. The 50m distance restriction is to restrictive to my liking. I'd like to be able to fly my whole property. A 150m restriction would be more acceptable for me. Height isn't that important to me, so I'd be happy to stay below 15m or even 10m. Any manned aircraft flying that low over my property will hit power lines and other obstacles and crash anyway.

Also, I know of at least two rc clubs situated inside these 5NM radiuses. Assuming they have the legal right to operate inside the restricted area. How would one go about flying a DJI drone with NFZ active at such a club? However I would much rather fly within the privacy of my own property, than having to fly with several other planes, dodging them and probably having to adhere to even more rules.

Any comment or advice and a response from an official DJI rep would be much appreciated.

I live within 5 miles of NFZ and still fly like a wild bird.

My sparked popped up "warning unpaved runway, fly with cautions" (or something similar), but I didn't have any problems.

There is a small light aircraft strip near us - 6 miles away and this warning pops up most of the time. It is not in a DJI NFZ or have an airport NFZ overlay. I just use the UK guidelines for flying drones and keep my eyes peeled. If I hear a light aircraft I bring her down to a good safe height. With the height you are planning to fly at I doubt you would have any issues at all. The only problem would be aircraft taking off and landing but only if your property is on the flight path. Just for info I always use the UAV Forecast App to plan routes and where to fly. This also gives me the NFZ template overlay so I know where to and where not to fly. Hope this helps a little.

imagine the drone was sucked into the engine...

Alternative, you can also contact the tower to seek advice.

eylneb Posted at 2017-7-17 23:05
imagine the drone was sucked into the engine...

Alternative, you can also contact the tower to seek advice.

Fortunately those big birds don't fly anywhere near us, besides I would be to worried of losing my expensive toy to fly like that.

Thanks for the replies, that do make me feel a bit more confident. I am however still concerned that DJI might clip my wings at any time in the future. Wish a DJI rep responded to the thread. I do recall reading somewhere, can't remember where, that DJI is planning on implementing a ceiling slope, based on the approach angle of planes, i.e. the further away you are from an airfield, the hiegher you can fly. That would be awsome! Anyone know if there is any trueth to that?

can try this?

https://uavcoach.com/drone-pilot-contact-air-traffic-control/

eylneb Posted at 2017-7-18 21:34
can try this?

https://uavcoach.com/drone-pilot-contact-air-traffic-control/

That's US law, similer, but not exactly the same. My complaint though is DJI's attempt to force feed the law to its users.

Imagine if Fararrie devised a system that determin your location and limit your speed to the speed limit of the road you are driving on. Now imagine you have the peddle to the mettal, with your speed limited to what is lawful and an old style VW beetle come racing past you. Not cool at all.

I see DJI to be the Ferarrie of the drone world. Else I might as well get a VW and fly where i want to.

djiuser_LMfSch8 Posted at 2017-7-19 22:26
That's US law, similer, but not exactly the same. My complaint though is DJI's attempt to force feed the law to its users.

Imagine if Fararrie devised a system that determin your location and limit your speed to the speed limit of the road you are driving on. Now imagine you have the peddle to the mettal, with your speed limited to what is lawful and an old style VW beetle come racing past you. Not cool at all.

well in some countries like mine.. our cars has a 'limiter' where it will cut off or limit the engine capabilities..

or countries like those in EU has limit to the power of the transmission of the remote, where spark's remote is limited to 500m instead of 2km due to regulations.. so no choice... DJI is big enough to be worldwide brand.. so they have to follow some regulations n so fourth...

2.412 - 2.462 GHz (unobstructed, free of interference)
FCC: 1.2 mi (2 km); CE: 0.3 mi (500 m); SRRC: 0.3 mi (500 m)
5.745 - 5.825 GHz (unobstructed, free of interference)
FCC: 1.2 mi (2 km); CE: 0.18 mi (300 m); SRRC: 0.7 mi (1.2 km