Trying to launch within 5 miles of an airport designated as a NO Fly Zone...on take off a popup appeared asking to go online to get permission.  Except my mobile device does not have a SIM card nor WiFi connection.  GROUNDED.  This is not cool.  I just needed to take off inside in a warehouse.  

Well that sucks.  Considering you were inside you could have taped aluminum foil over the GPS sensor and taken off in OTI mode and completed your flight.

See my other post about a foil cover over where the GPS sensor is and then fly in OPTI mode.

Hello there. We apologize for the inconvenience. You have to send an email to flysafe@dji.com to get a permission to fly in a restricted zones.

Hummingbird.UAV Posted at 2018-6-24 20:46
Well that sucks.  Considering you were inside you could have taped aluminum foil over the GPS sensor and taken off in OTI mode and completed your flight.

Interesting solution.  Clever

Last weekend i tried to take some pictures of a football stadium in Switzerland. The drone suddenly stopped and the message popped up that there is a no fly zone. Actually according to the BAZL it is not. The BAZL is responsible for the permissions and regulations of the air traffic.
I have contacted DJI now many times and told them to help unlock this area. It really looks like they do not care about my issues.
Also in Switzerland there are almost no rules for drones below 500 gramms and and since I am flying with the mavic air I do not fall under almost any regulations.
I am quite upset at the moment because they did not even answer my E-Mails anymore, nevertheless I have sent them the pictures and website that shows the full regulations in Switzerland.
Really really dissapointing to get rules applied in Switzerland from a company in China that are not even aware about the regulations.

I will continue to try and send E-Mails till they at least try to help their customers that spend thousands of dollars for their products.

These are examples of why I and a lot of people do not like geofencing. It is not always accurate. Plus, as mentioned, you do not need a wifi signal to fly but if you need to do so in a restricted area and have permission DJI's hurdles to unlock require cell service or that you email them and await a response which I understand can take days. There have been pilots that have lost business for some of these reasons...

There is another thread where many people actually said they *LIKED* having geofencing. I guess until it bites you in the a$$ its easy to have that view.

I understand the reason of the geofencing because there are a lot of stupid acting people around but it would be much better if there were only a notification instead of a blocking.
At the end, everyone has to be responsible for their behavior and not the manufacturer of the product.

What I totally cannot accept is to not get no feedback from DJI regarding this issue also after providing official information that their software is not according to the national regulations.

I really starting to understand why some people have rooted their devices because it is their property.