Hello all,

I was wondering what happens / may happen to your drone (Mavic Pro) specifically if you enter into NFZ or protected area .. ?  And how does it work : is this the area's radio frequencies protection that blocks your remote or isolates the device, or, they somehow send some radio 'bomb' against your drone .?

I've been on a trip in a tourist area, and, they have a NFZ around some popular area.  There is a helicopter pad and they do flybys to show the place to tourists.  So when my drone, mostly flying on the boarder area seems entered the blocked/protected zone, the remote controller seems, stopped working - the drone wouldn't respond to any controls. How does this work again, frequencies blocked of the controller, or , this is communication with the drone directly from ther air space control ..?   Sorry I'm absolutely out of my waters here.

I did recover my drone however ... but I did panic when it was stuck hunderes of meters away over the sea.

Also, I was wondering if this is logged by the drone log / data files?  Fact that it would have been blocked / lost command & control comm.    I tried to look at the flight log through DJI Go 4 app, and, I saw that it has nothing of this ..  Where would , if it at all, info about it entering NFZ and having the trouble be logged?

There is almost no chance that the NFZ would have any anti-drone electronic countermeasures, they are very common in urban myth, but the truth is that are nearly non-existant in reality. Some highly secure military sites may have them, and now some of the larger airports will have them, but not some tourist trap.

The response from DJI used to be to cause the aircraft to land immediately in the past, but there was such an outcry over this that I suspect they have now changed that to making the aircraft stop where it is and hover, probably until the battery gives out.

Geebax Posted at 12-24 19:12
There is almost no chance that the NFZ would have any anti-drone electronic countermeasures, they are very common in urban myth, but the truth is that are nearly non-existant in reality. Some highly secure military sites may have them, and now some of the larger airports will have them, but not some tourist trap.

The response from DJI used to be to cause the aircraft to land immediately in the past, but there was such an outcry over this that I suspect they have now changed that to making the aircraft stop where it is and hover, probably until the battery gives out.

Hey Geebax,
Thanks for replying.

At least for me, I managed to successfully press / activate return to home, and the drone listened.  No other controls worked.
Otherwise, it would had been lost case ... (that is, immediate landing into the sea / ocean is a bad option).

v01d Posted at 12-24 22:10
Hey Geebax,
Thanks for replying.

In the end, a good outcome. It seems DJI have listened to their customers and modified the behaviour under those conditions. Merry Christmas.

v01d Posted at 12-24 22:10
Hey Geebax,
Thanks for replying.

This is what I have done before and it worked with my Phantom 4 pro.

Could be due to Geo zones, recently implemented.  What the drone will do if you suddenly enter into a Geo zone is a mistery.   If you ask Litchi, Litchi will tell you that they are trapped by DJI's firmware (always answer this, for any difficult question   ).  And if you ask DJI, they will cut and paste the manual or similar to show you what you already know (I do not know why many companies assume that you do not read the manual before contacting them  )  DJI has a special department that address Geo issues.  This is a very hot matter, at least in South America.

Could be due to Geo zones, recently implemented.

What the drone will do if you suddenly enter into a Geo zone is a mistery.  
If you ask Litchi, Litchi will tell you that they are trapped by DJI's firmware (always answer this, for any difficult question   ).  And if you ask DJI, they will cut and paste the manual or similar to show you what you already know (I do not know why many companies assume that you do not read the manual before contacting them  )

DJI has a special department that address Geo issues.  This is a very hot matter, at least in South America.

Geebax Posted at 12-25 11:16
In the end, a good outcome. It seems DJI have listened to their customers and modified the behaviour under those conditions. Merry Christmas.

Yep,  merry (past .. ) Christmas to you too !


Still thinking about this:  what if, my Return-to-Home had a flight height/altitude set 'too high' for the area - say, i've set to to 100 m, but a 'safe' one would have been only 30 m..   . Would the drone return?

These things are sure programmed in the software... DJI hopefully can share.

v01d Posted at 12-27 19:05
Yep,  merry (past .. ) Christmas to you too !

The penalty in that case would be the aircraft would have to climb to 100m first, and that is not good if the battery capacity is low. This is why it is important to set a realistic RTH altitude.

You wont get a comment from DJI on this, their technical people do not participate in forum discussions. And the DJI forum moderators do not appear to be pilots at all.