Hello,

Trying to see if anyone has run into this or knows what I can do to avoid this from happening again.

My company uses the Zooms for roof inspections of residential homes. I have run into numerous instances of pilots reporting the drone suddenly starting to auto land while mid flight. In each case the pilot took off and got an alert while mid flight that they were in a NFZ and the drone begins to auto land. Manual controls to prevent landing did not work and drone decended to land on the ground. Today it happened again with another pilot and this time the drone hit a tree branch on the way down causing a crash. Pilot could not avoid the crash as control input would not stop the auto land descent.

What is up with this? This seems EXTREMELY UNSAFE and a huge potential for liability. Am I missing something with a setting to turn this off or a way to cancel the auto flight???

Overall, this issue and the inconsistent geofencing preventing us from flying the drone in many areas has started to frustrate myself and many of our pilots (We are all Part 107, use Kittyhawk for LAANC and airspace pre-flight checks). I have started looking into alternatives from other companies, but if anyone does know how to counter this issue please let me know. Thank you.

The DJ No Fly Zone map is often different from the FAA altitude and restriction zones.   You should check the DJI Go 4 apps to ensure you are not close to a No Fly Zone (NFZ).  I have read about case where a pilot has flown into an NFZ and the craft been forced to land.

I have a Mavic Air 2 and was flying near an NFZ military base and received a warning tell me I was approaching.  I broke off and returned to the area I was previously in to avoid further problems.  I was out over the ocean so a recovery was not an option.

I do not know if entering a NFZ will cause a force landing or just for the drone to stop progress.

Hello there Moghz.  I am sorry to read and to know what happened and thank you for reaching out. Since there was a crash that happened before and this unfortunate event happened I would recommend you to contact our DJI support team at https://www.dji.com/support?site=brandsite&from=nav for further assistance. We have a team that will do there best to evaluate the said DJI drone and will give out the best resolution for this issue. If the said DJI drone is still under the warranty period and it is evaluated as a non-pilot error, the warranty service will be provided. Again I am sorry for the trouble and thank you for your understanding.

LAANC is what you need to stay legal if in controlled airspace and don't have a waiver. But you have missed the fact DJI's NFZ has nothing to do with the legality. You should always check https://www.dji.com/flysafe/self-unlock to be sure the address in not in a NFZ and if so get yourself a unlock then import that from the app to the drone.

I have an M2Pro.

I have an a/p 1.5 miles from me.....the DJI red zone goes right thru my property.....I can take off from my driveway and fly west or south, but I try flying north and the bird simply stops over my garage.

There is NO hint of landing, auto or otherwise.   

Your auto landing "may be" caused by a low battery.  NOW, before you say,  But my battery was at 60%  I want to know what your cells were telling you about voltage????  Did you start your flight/s
with a fully charged battery within 24 hrs of being charged?  Or did you start with batteries that had been sitting charged for 2 to 5 days?

Posting your flight records for these flights with auto landing would provide much insight into what's going on.....

Aerial Traffic
Randy

Hmmmmm ??
Not much to go on here!

Aerial Traffic
Randy