Why do your products auto land in no fly zone? This has to be the most unsafe thing you can possibly do. The location where it is auto landing could be over water, over buildings, cars, and even worse over people!!! Why not just have it return to home along the same path it took to get to the no fly zone area???? Doesn’t that make much more logical sense!??? Or why not just stop and not allow the user to fly into that area to begin with?

  

Here is the issue, what if a person had flown into a no fly zone and was allowed to by the DJI software because at that time not ALL the no fly zone had been downloaded for a particular area. Then all of a sudden that area gets downloaded and now it realizes it’s in a no fly zone and auto lands right into water. Or auto lands in a crowd of people. Simply returning to home is so much safer!

Your supposed to be all about safety yet this has got to be the most unsafe thing you can do! An uncontrolled landing forced by software? Really? Terrible...

  

I'm pretty sure it would not update software mid-flight... so it's not an issue..??

I agree, the "GEOFENCE" should stop the aircraft

Sounds like someone complaining about something he obviously doesn't understand!

Wirezfree Posted at 2017-12-8 10:33
I'm pretty sure it would not update software mid-flight... so it's not an issue..??

Happened to me...

ghostrdr Posted at 2017-12-8 11:08
Sounds like someone complaining about something he obviously doesn't understand!

Pretty sure YOU are the one that does not understand. Because this DID happen to me. Rather than returning to home which would be the safe thing to do the craft goes into a non-abortable auto land sequence. This is completely unsafe and I was lucky to be able to move the craft away from the water it was flying over and just barley land on the shore.

Please do not reply with ignorance, it does not serve you well.

Dirty Bird Posted at 2017-12-8 11:06
Agree completely.  I reported this to tech support more than a year ago when a buddie's P4 touched an NFZ near Baltimore's M&T Bank Stadium (Raven Park) & went into a non-abortable auto-landing.  It was a miracle the bird didn't land on the freeway or people.  I haven't experienced this since & had hoped they had addressed this.  The aircraft should do as you suggest or simply stop further progress into the NFZ & allow the pilot to back out.  Worked with the Phantom 2 why not now?

Sorry this happened to you too, but glad to see that others are having the same issue. I cant believe this still is not addressed.

STRIDE8 Posted at 2017-12-8 10:40
I agree, the "GEOFENCE" should stop the aircraft

Absolutely right, STOP or RETURN, haven't experienced this situation yet but I know it will happen someday. DJI you need to fix this ! At a minimum NFZ's should be shown in Maps within the Go/Go4 app, preferably with a pop up and audio warning " You are approaching a NFZ fly with caution" we get them for every other instance that something is amiss !!

Interesting. I’m wondering why are you flying close enough for this to be an issue. Curious 5 miles right.

Were there any third party apps used to familiarize the pilot with the area in which he chose to fly? Did the pilot use any form of sectional chart for up to date referencing when flying in unfamiliar areas?   If nothing else, B4UFLY is recommended by the FAA who created the NFZ.  If a familiarization was done why did the pilot make a the decision to fly so closely to that known NFZ that he couldn't tell how close he was. If no familiarization was performed, pilot error is suspect.

Then this question: where inside this NFZ did the auto land take place? Four miles? Three miles? Two miles? One mile? Did it stop just inside the zone?
Does the pilot believe the NFZ was created after he launched? Seems to be suggested.
The FAA oversees these activities. They have the latest information on NFZs and pass it on regularly with others
Look into a relationship with them to stay informed.
Use DJI to build Drones.
Use your head to keep yourself informed

The details are vague. Complaints are very clear.

Woe Posted at 2017-12-22 15:37
Interesting. I’m wondering why are you flying close enough for this to be an issue. Curious 5 miles right.

Remember the NFZ can also apply to heliports which arent' as clear.  And it's easy to be less than 5 miles away from a small airfield if you're in an unfamiliar area.  WHat's bad is that it allows you to take off, then realises you're in a NFZ, then initiates an autoland without any ability to control whats happening, so you land wherever you are.

There is no reason why they couldn't amend the programming to simply descend to say 60 feet and allow you to fly back under your own guidance.  I remember reading a thread on a guy who lost his Mavic into water because of a sudden NFZ that kicked in after he'd taken off.

Cheers

Ian

This is an interesting post! But I can see where you're coming from.

Dirty Bird Posted at 2017-12-23 05:21
In my friends case the auto land was triggered by a small NFZ surrounding a stadium.  The NFZ was NOT identified on the map & the irreversible auto land was initiated the moment he touched the zone.  The stadium has major highways all around & it was truly fortunate he was able to have enough time & wits to guide it over the sole vacant lot before it sunk below LOS & beyond his control.  He was able to retrieve the bird (P4) undamaged.

Sounds terrible, glad he got his bird back. I haven’t experience this and hope not too.

ghostrdr Posted at 2017-12-8 11:08
Sounds like someone complaining about something he obviously doesn't understand!

Nope. I agree that this is horrifically unsafe behavior. Any condition/"feature"/etc. that _intentionally_ disrupts control of the aircraft is a catastrophic safety issue no matter what the circumstances are that led up to it.

Manned aircraft that suddenly became unresponsive to pilot input and tried to "autoland" upon entering a restricted area, etc., would probably bring about swift action by the FAA in the US. Not to mention lawsuits and everything else that would come from groups concerned about the safety of persons and property on the ground, or the families of victims killed by the aircraft's behavior....

If DJI were an American company, they'd probably be in really hot water for something like this right about now....

Wellsi Posted at 2017-12-22 23:40
Remember the NFZ can also apply to heliports which arent' as clear.  And it's easy to be less than 5 miles away from a small airfield if you're in an unfamiliar area.  WHat's bad is that it allows you to take off, then realises you're in a NFZ, then initiates an autoland without any ability to control whats happening, so you land wherever you are.

There is no reason why they couldn't amend the programming to simply descend to say 60 feet and allow you to fly back under your own guidance.  I remember reading a thread on a guy who lost his Mavic into water because of a sudden NFZ that kicked in after he'd taken off.

Even that is very unsafe; like I said an aircraft out of the control of the pilot is always an aircraft out of control of the pilot and everything else that results from that. Even the forced auto RTH that DJI copters do in normal circumstances is pretty iffy safety-wise - mainly because it takes over the aircraft unless the pilot intervenes to stop it. And of course, the conditions could be such that the pilot is unable to do that at the time.

Ultimately, in terms of safety, that's as bad as just flying out of range and losing control that way.

But even if we accept that behavior, going completely out of pilot control because of wandering into a NFZ is a horrible safety hazard. It negates the purpose of the NFZ in the first place. Among other hazards, it compounds the problem of an aircraft in a NFZ by simply replacing that situation with a now-out-of-control aircraft still in a NFZ.

This is really bad behavior, very bad safety hazard.....

There is a no fly zone near my home. It is a correctional facility. If I inadvertently get too close, the app advises me and I'm always able to turn around and withdraw. It is marked on the map and I've never been foolish enough to actually enter to see what happens. I keep my no fly database on the app updated  before I fly. I have never had the app try to update when I am flying. It always has prompted me before doing so and it gives me to opportunity to decline. If this is happening while a pilot is flying, it is indeed aa problem and needs to be fixed immediately!

luciens Posted at 2017-12-23 08:33
Even that is very unsafe; like I said an aircraft out of the control of the pilot is always an aircraft out of control of the pilot and everything else that results from that. Even the forced auto RTH that DJI copters do in normal circumstances is pretty iffy safety-wise - mainly because it takes over the aircraft unless the pilot intervenes to stop it. And of course, the conditions could be such that the pilot is unable to do that at the time.

Ultimately, in terms of safety, that's as bad as just flying out of range and losing control that way.

I can easily see a defendants defense, "DJI took control of the aircraft not allowing me to avert the incident/accident" This is one of the many issues facing driverless automobiles here in the US. Who would be liable should the "Hardware/Software" fail resulting in an accidental collision or pedestrian fatality.

QuadKid Posted at 2017-12-23 10:55
I can easily see a defendants defense, "DJI took control of the aircraft not allowing me to avert the incident/accident" This is one of the many issues facing driverless automobiles here in the US. Who would be liable should the "Hardware/Software" fail resulting in an accidental collision or pedestrian fatality.

Exactly. The temptation to take active control to avoid liability for the stupidity of others can perversely make _you_ liable for any consequences that occur. So ironically this move to try to escape liability by interrupting control of the aircraft when A,B, or C happens could backfire on DJI eventually if the right circumstances just happen to finally arise.

That said, it's understandable to be concerned about liability generally when you make a product for sale to the public. You have only very limited control over what someone may do with it. So I can definitely understand the motivations behind these limitations.

The problem is those same limitations make your product that much harder to use also for _legitimate_ users of your products. So kind of, nobody wins when you cripple your own products.

Very sad to say that this just happened to me over my hometown - have had the drone for a couple weeks after buying it from a friend. It's a very small town located close to an aerodrome, so the entire town is an NFZ :/ What's weird is that I've been flying this drone around here at low altitude with no problems. Just needing to check the authorization boxes before flight.

Now today, as I was flying over one of the busy streets, the drone just initiated a auto landing because of the geofence.... I tried my best to get it to one of the quiet roads to land. As it was coming down my controller lost visual feedback and from some people who were around, they said it hit the side of one of the buildings next to the road a flipped down.

Ran to the road and found the drone upside down with two arms flipped inward and the blades are screwed :/ Very unhappy

I agree that DJI should fix this to rather do a return to home. Initiating an auto land and completely removing control from the pilot is a safety hazard. My drone literally could of hit one of the people in the road that saw it come down...

Does anyone have any experience with this? Would it be possible for me to send my drone in and get a refurbished one? It just doesn't feel right that that actually happened.

Please let me know!

Very sad to say that this just happened to me over my hometown - have had the drone for a couple weeks after buying it from a friend. It's a very small town located close to an aerodrome, so the entire town is an NFZ :/ What's weird is that I've been flying this drone around here at low altitude with no problems. Just needing to check the authorization boxes before flight.

Now today, as I was flying over one of the busy streets, the drone just initiated a auto landing because of the geofence.... I tried my best to get it to one of the quiet roads to land. As it was coming down my controller lost visual feedback and from some people who were around, they said it hit the side of one of the buildings next to the road a flipped down.

Ran to the road and found the drone upside down with two arms flipped inward and the blades are screwed :/ Very unhappy

I agree that DJI should fix this to rather do a return to home. Initiating an auto land and completely removing control from the pilot is a safety hazard. My drone literally could of hit one of the people in the road that saw it come down...

Does anyone have any experience with this? Would it be possible for me to send my drone in and get a refurbished one? It just doesn't feel right that that actually happened.

Please let me know!

Same here. Totally dangerous. One of our inspire’s auto land in the water. NFZ was unlocked. Dji replaced the unit under warranty.
The reason for me to not update the NFZ database.

There is a thread in the mavic forums where a pilot reported that he took off in an area miles away from a baseball stadium. IMO there was a lot of unnecessary flack given to op. There are always lessons to be learned and to bottom line it he went up in an area with no flight restriction or a TFR. Baseball game was going start a while later and at some point they threw up a TFR. He was in the TFR before it was a TFR. Perhaps he should have know this was gonna happen before he flew there but bottom line is the craft went into auto landing with the pilot having very little control (direction only). Again, in MHO opinion pilot did not have enough time to ensure a safe landing much less put it down where it could be easily recovered. This is DANGEROUS!

I’ve just had my inspire auto land into a lake, but I had contacted the local air tower and they told me because I was under 400 feet it was not an issue for them so dji need to update their software to a warning with perhaps a time limit before automatically landing

Well absolutely check all notams and preflight info before launching for every flight but currently just landing the aircraft is bad news, very bad news. Has anyone tried to shut down Go4 app completely and try to get out of the bad situation you got into or has the command been sent to the aircraft and not coming from the app? DJI should come up with a better solution than landing an Inspire class aircraft on somebody’s baby stroller.  The fix is as bad as the problem.  Good grief.

I lost my Mavic drone a month ago by autoland being triggered by a NFZ.  I live on a sailboat in South Pacific. I had flown my drone repeatedly of boats in the same area in days and weeks prior to this incident. There is a very small airfield on the island nearby to where I am anchored. ON previous flights Before I updated the software I got a warning that an airfield was nearby and to take care. I would click OK and carry on. Then I made the fatal mistake...I update the DJI software. Now when I turned on the drone it told me I was in a No Fly Zone and there was no way I could override it. The drone would not start.
The day after updating the software I had an assignment to videograph a yacht under sail... we sail out to an area where I had flown before ... The controller was still shown No Fly Zone ... drone would not start.... so I got the captain to sail away from the island. After about 2 km the NO FLY ZONE popup disappeared from the controller.  I thought I was now safe .... I started the drone and launched it off the moving sailboat.
These are the Flight warning
time 2019-09-25 14:03:18 . The home point was recorded 30m.
time 2019-09-25 14:03:33 . auto landing in 7s .           ( I had not requested auto landing)
time 2019-09-25 14:03:40 . you are in a no-fly zone auto Landing . (the controller had previously not shown I was in a no Fly Zone and allowed me to take off... no it going into a forced landing over water)
time 2019-09-25 14:03:50 . command failed . (kept trying to cancel the auto landing.... with no luck. )
time 2019-09-25 14:03:57 . command failed . (kept trying to cancel the auto landing.... with no luck. )
time 2019-09-25 14:03:59 . weak signal. Adjust antenna and avoid signal block . (it flew straight into the water and signal was lost. )

I am really disappointed the DJI controller completely over rode all my commands which would have allowed me to save the drone. I only took off after the No Fly Zone had turned off on my controller.

I have emailed DJI over the last couple of days and the response has been really disappointing. First they asked questions about date of purchase and secondly to upload Flight data.

I did both.

The response I got back this morning from DJI Support was depressing. Because the drone is outside of warranty they don't even want to look at the flight data. I was told point blankly go buy a new drone.Secondly if I wanted they to analyse the flight data I would have to pay them. What's the point of me paying them to analyse the flight data if they won't replace the drone.

DJI  this sucks.

I think the DJI software system is really bad when it one minute tells you that you are not in a No Fly Zone and the next minute say you that you are and goes into an Autoland over which you have no control.

DJI Still has no response to this issue after all these time... SAD

ghostrdr Posted at 2017-12-8 11:08
Sounds like someone complaining about something he obviously doesn't understand!

From your earlier comment based on one scenario You put away a man boy who still live at home don’t have many friends and definitely have been laid in a while- A person asked a question because he does not know the answer and he don’t need you to give Question his mental capacity-  I am on my seventh Drone Bob Dji 3021 Pro to Spark one magic and a piece of ... that I bought to practice with- I am always radiant to something that’s malfunctioning or never happened before - These roads are not cheap and you have to be somewhat successful to afford one so back off with that I know it all attitude- Treat people respect and maybe you get some in return-

HFS Posted at 6-7 13:06
From your earlier comment based on one scenario You put away a man boy who still live at home don’t have many friends and definitely have been laid in a while- A person asked a question because he does not know the answer and he don’t need you to give Question his mental capacity-  I am on my seventh Drone Bob Dji 3021 Pro to Spark one magic and a piece of ... that I bought to practice with- I am always radiant to something that’s malfunctioning or never happened before - These roads are not cheap and you have to be somewhat successful to afford one so back off with that I know it all attitude- Treat people respect and maybe you get some in return-

Just as an FYI, you are responding to a comment that is 2.5 yrs old.  

I had this problem today with air 2s I took off with a iPad no problem started hovering above the water then got geo zone warning and tried to bring it in but the aircraft wouldn’t fly back only out to sea left or right  and started a auto landing in the middle of the inlet 2 times I was able to stop it luckily by pushing up  I eventually barely hit land and it forced landed and I couldn’t stop it that time the problem I think was that I needed to do the geo zone agreement phone number thing because the geo zone was right over the park but my iPad had no service so I had to hotspot my phone agree to everything then I was Abel to fly no problem it never lets me take off in a geo zone before without authorization that was a scary 5 min I think this needs to be looked at and having to have service to unlock them is frustrating for me I don’t fly with my phone i like using a iPad thx guys my first problem that iv had  with this drone I love it besides that ow ... moment excuse my French .

For sure it should stop or return home.  I was flying near Japan Town in San Francisco and the Chinese Embassy is right next to it.  It started to auto land when I got too close to Chinese property. Lucky for me I got it to abort after about 8 seconds of the auto land sequence.