Arbitrary Posted at 6-1 09:45
I was under the impression that the serial number of the "flown away" drone would somehow be "blacklisted" so that it would essentially be useless.

How would that work?

Arbitrary Posted at 6-1 09:45
I was under the impression that the serial number of the "flown away" drone would somehow be "blacklisted" so that it would essentially be useless.

Great idea ... except that the drone doesn't communicate with DJI and there's no way DJI can communicate with it.

sadly pilot error, try plan Your flights to no comeback agains wind also honestly You did break a lot of actual rules about flying drones...
https://uavcoach.com/drone-laws-in-portugal/
so for Your own "safety" remove all logs and traces - fines can be pretty harsh there - for future - plan better, and fly safe

Labroides Posted at 6-1 16:46
Great idea ... except that the drone doesn't communicate with DJI and there's no way DJI can communicate with it.

Drone communicates with app, app already communicates with servers to get firmware, flysafe database and more. No reason that data couldn't also include a list of serial numbers it should refuse to work with. They could even embed a list in the firmware and app itself. So a stolen drone could at best be used with old fw and old app (if the app will even activate without an internet connection, can't remember the details from when I first started it)

Arbitrary Posted at 6-2 15:11
Drone communicates with app, app already communicates with servers to get firmware, flysafe database and more. No reason that data couldn't also include a list of serial numbers it should refuse to work with. They could even embed a list in the firmware and app itself. So a stolen drone could at best be used with old fw and old app (if the app will even activate without an internet connection, can't remember the details from when I first started it)

Many owners fly in areas with no WIFi or cellular communication, so that wont work. And DJI are not interested in maintaining a list of missing serial numbers anyway..

Arbitrary Posted at 6-2 15:11
Drone communicates with app, app already communicates with servers to get firmware, flysafe database and more. No reason that data couldn't also include a list of serial numbers it should refuse to work with. They could even embed a list in the firmware and app itself. So a stolen drone could at best be used with old fw and old app (if the app will even activate without an internet connection, can't remember the details from when I first started it)

app already communicates with servers to get firmware
Only if you allow apps to auto-update

if the app will even activate without an internet connection
If you buy a used drone (or find or steal one), there's no activation required.
You just download the app and start flying without any complication.
Or if you already have the appropriate app, you can fly any other drone on the app.

PauloACSilva Posted at 5-27 07:22
fly-away can be also interpretated as a TOTAL LOSS, my aircraft was impossible to retrieve so the difference is not so much... THANK YOU AGAIN DJI !

Excellent you got a replacement.  This was indeed very much due to errors made in the flight that you could avoid next time.  Have a watch of this and hopefully you'll keep out of trouble.

Again, a lot of commonsense in your videos Ian, but as before, good infomation. I'm constantly amazed at the number of people who choose to fail to take into account wind speed and direction before flying.