Hello Fellow Pilots!  I bought my first drone, a Yuneec Q500 4K last June.  A couple of weeks later I found the Yuneec Breeze in Walmart complete with charger, battery, and, remote control for $150.  Could not pass that up!  I think it was august of last year I bought the Spark. I enjoyed flying all three drones around my home as i became familiar with their capabilities and function.  I live about a mile and a half from our regional airport.  Probably around October of last year I started having issues with the Spark and NFZ restrictions.  I was no longer able to fly my Spark in the yard of my residence even though I maintain a very low altitude.  Meanwhile, both Yuneec aircraft continue to fly whereever I take them.  I have had many discussions with DJI support about this problem.  They blame the problem on ever tightening restrictions by the FFA. Question.....why do these restrictions only affect my DJI drone?  They told me I could unlock these restrictions by going to their flysafe unloack site .  This worked a couple of times but has become totally unreliable.  My efforts to resolve the issue with DJI support has been pretty much wasted time.  I'm finding it difficult to find place that i can fly my Spark free of these NFZ restricions.  It seems now that may Spark has become an expensive rock that simply sits in it's case.  I'm planning on offering aerial photography and video as part of my photography business, therefore i'm considering upgrading to a one inch sensor.  I have been talking with suppliers to whom I have voiced my concerns about DJI's inability to correct my NFZ issues.  They are aware of the problem and believe that those restrictions are there because DJI is catering to their professional clients that buy the DJI Inspire and other high end DJI products.  So if I understand correctly, DJI is imposing these restrictions against their base consumers to protect their professional base.  Have any of you experienced this issue as I have?  Please advise.

I think you should google : nolimitdronez

Flying a drone less than 8km from any airport is prohibited. The law is the law. DJI has this restriction on his drones because he cares about safety. The other manufacturers do not care. But very soon, in most countries, only manufacturers that respect the laws and restrictions can sell their drones.

Aurelian Irimia Posted at 3-28 05:45
Flying a drone less than 8km from any airport is prohibited. The law is the law. DJI has this restriction on his drones because he cares about safety. The other manufacturers do not care. But very soon, in most countries, only manufacturers that respect the laws and restrictions can sell their drones.

Can't be that bad, don't you think?

" They told me I could unlock these restrictions by going to their flysafe unloack site .  This worked a couple of times "

Perhaps you should try this. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=gov.faa.b4ufly2

S-e-ven Posted at 3-28 05:49
Can't be that bad, don't you think?

" They told me I could unlock these restrictions by going to their flysafe unloack site .  This worked a couple of times "

In Europe you can fly in restricted areas only with the permission of the air safety agency.

I’ve been battling a similar problem with DJI, as Fotoman the creator of this thread, since 2014. DJI originally created their own definition of NFZ’s as a knee jerk response to a much publicised  incident involving a Phantom and the Whitehouse Lawn. Their solution was to place a 20mile exclusion zone around the DC area and 5mile restrictions around all airports. Around airports means anywhere a landing strip had been registered including private grass strips that had little or no traffic at all.

Prior to this implementation I had quite happily, and legally, been flying my Datalink equipped F550 Hex at my local BMFA/CAA certified flying field until these restrictions were embedded into the IOS App used to control the Datalink system. At first DJI were apologetic saying that the next release of the APP would have this issue corrected. However this never came to be. I too have the Yuneec Q500 which at the time of purchase had a similar NFZ database. But in this case it took just one of email explaining the situation for Yuneec to send me an alternative firmware without the NFZ’s. Earlier this month new flight restrictions came into force, some good, some bad. The good is that we now have a 1000ft height exemption at our flying field. The bad is that there is no 250g exemption so it is now illegal to even throw a paper plane within four miles of an airport.

It has been implied that DJI are now intending to work closely with the relevant air authorities to make their NFZ database concurrent with official laws and regulations. Unfortunately for me they dropped all support the Datalink system in 2016 even though it is still being sold, and as the Spark is now rumoured to be out of production I envisage support for it will cease by the end of the year.

Regards

Nidge.