Folks,

I have noticed that DJI have coded in some no fly zones that do not appear anywhere else. One such zone is Northerly Island, on the Lake Michigan shoreline, near Soldier Field. This zone only appears to be covered by any restrictions when there is an event going on, but in the Pilot App, and therefore when flying the Phantom 3, you are prohibited from flying there.

What gives? Have DJI decided to be ultra-conservative and prohibit flying anywhere there MIGHT be a restriction, even if it would be a Temporary Flight Restriction? This is unfortunate, as a favorite place of mine to fly used to be out on Northerly Island early in the morning, when there are no crowds and minimal wind.

Northerly Island can be seen in the middle of this screen grab from Airmap.io, and the only restricted space is the Midway Airport COA in the lower lefthand corner, yet I cannot fly my Phantom out on the island.

Even DJI's No-Fly site doesn't list Northerly Island as no-fly.

You can see the No-Fly zone coming up in red in the screen grab of the simulator (not out flying right now, but the behavior in the sim is identical to what happens when I'm physically there).

Help?

Hi im a newbie here. Are you saying that the app literally does not let you fly in certain areas? I live in Miami and there are a ton of airports around here. According to Airmap.io there really are only a few places that do not have the 5mile recreational red circle in my area. Will I not even be able to take off in those red areas, even if I am on the edge of them or flying below a few hundred feet?

Thanks in advance.

Yes, that is exactly what I am saying. The app and the firmware in the bird will not allow you to fly in GPS mode. People have reported putting aluminum foil over the top of the Phantom and flying in ATTI mode is possible.

The challenge I face is that DJI have apparently decided to capriciously add no fly zones to those listed in legitimate places like AirMap.io . This no fly zone isn't even showing up on the DJI No Fly site.
The entirety of Northerly Island here in Chicago (was an airport, closed and turned into a park 12 years ago) is a no fly zone, but the DJI No Fly site doesn't show this.


This is a very popular UAS site, but those of us having P3's or Inspires cannot fly there, and the reasons are lost on me.

Yes ok I see them now in my app. Would be nice if they had a correction request page that you can send coordinates to so that they can investigate an area a little more closely. Something like Google maps has. I have to imagine its hard to sift through all the data from around the world on what areas are considered no fly zones. Your situation seems to me an easy fix as it would seem pretty straight forward to figure out that a landing strip is no longer in active operation.

Any DJI employees watching this thread? Is there anyplace users can suggest edits to no fly zones?  

Dave, I contacted DJI US via the web site, told them this particular no fly zone doesn't appear anywhere else, included their own DJI No Fly web site, and included numerous links and screen captures. I've heard horror stories of how bad their customer service is...my first bad taste. They replied with a link to their No Fly web site, basically telling me that while I took quite a bit of time to contact them, including screen shots and links, they took maybe 15 seconds to respond with a canned answer.

Oh, great.