An open request to DJI,

Considering the recent news story of the A380 being filmed at close proximity by a drone, I am hoping that you can escalate a request to your NFZ team (https://www.dji.com/flysafe/geo-map) to expand the size of the NFZ around the main airport there, as shown below the current DJI NFZ (https://www.dji.com/flysafe/geo-map) for the area barely covers the runway, it is far too small and permits DJI drones to fly directly in the approach path of large and small-scale aircraft.



The incident that I mention is described in detail in the following two videos. Please could you pass this request ASAP to your NFZ team for consideration, the NFZ should extend much further South in order to prevent drones from flying in the approach path.

nice sharing

Been discussed at length on here and elsewhere.  DJIs NFZs outside the US are very small and circular and based on the centre of airport.  This by its nature means they're going to be close to the end of the runway.  Not a lot they can do without expanding everyone in the world and potentially wiping out huge areas of completely legal flying areas.  Once you leave the USA, DJIs geofencing mostly consists of "dont fly it ON the airport"Its also likely the A380 was filmed by an Anafi drone (digital zoom is used at one point) which doesnt have Geofencing anyway.

gnirtS Posted at 2018-7-30 05:12
Been discussed at length on here and elsewhere.  DJIs NFZs outside the US are very small and circular and based on the centre of airport.  This by its nature means they're going to be close to the end of the runway.  Not a lot they can do without expanding everyone in the world and potentially wiping out huge areas of completely legal flying areas.  Once you leave the USA, DJIs geofencing mostly consists of "dont fly it ON the airport"Its also likely the A380 was filmed by an Anafi drone (digital zoom is used at one point) which doesnt have Geofencing anyway.

It wasn't filmed by an Anafi drone, that drone wasn't event on the market/announced when this footage was filmed (as explained in Part 2 above). In addition, the Mavic also has digital zoom, so the Anafi rumour is an unevidened odd one.

DJI have extended NFZ's and removed them on request in the past, I am hoping that they can assist here.

Why that one airport and not the other 16,000 or so in the world?  Why is it more likely someone is going to do the same again there and none of the others?
Every country has its own (and changing) definitions of airport NFZs.  Its absolutely impossible for DJI to accurately code those in.  There's also the risk if they apply a one-size-fits-all worldwide it'll be even more of a mess than the geofencing in the USA is currently in terms of blocking out large legal flying areas.

Geofencing just stops people who dont know what they're doing from accidentally straying too close.

In this particular case the guy clearly knew what he was doing regarding altitude and positioning and likely had practice flights.  In which case he could easily spend 5 mins online and read how to disable geofencing in the first place.

gnirtS Posted at 2018-7-30 05:43
Why that one airport and not the other 16,000 or so in the world?  Why is it more likely someone is going to do the same again there and none of the others?
Every country has its own (and changing) definitions of airport NFZs.  Its absolutely impossible for DJI to accurately code those in.  There's also the risk if they apply a one-size-fits-all worldwide it'll be even more of a mess than the geofencing in the USA is currently in terms of blocking out large legal flying areas.

This one airport yes, because an incident/near-miss has occurred there and it would be responsible of DJI to therefore increase the NFZ. Yes the other airports should also have expanded NFZ's, but DJI won't do that so lets instead be responsible operators and petition DJI to increase those where people are flying irresponsibly - a tropical island holiday location is a good start.
And no geofencing won't stop everyone, but it'll stop the idiots that aren't capable of bypassing it and are dumb enough as to attempt these kinds of flights.

Hi. Thank you for this request. Rest assured I will be forwarding this to the proper DJI Department for further development of the product.

DJI Stephen Posted at 2018-7-30 09:13
Hi. Thank you for this request. Rest assured I will be forwarding this to the proper DJI Department for further development of the product.

Hi DJI Stephen, can you ensure that it is passed to your NFZ department (https://www.dji.com/flysafe/geo-map) as this isn't a software development request, its a data change.

sergeant Posted at 2018-7-31 04:24
Hi DJI Stephen, can you ensure that it is passed to your NFZ department (https://www.dji.com/flysafe/geo-map) as this isn't a software development request, its a data change.

Hi. Thank you for the additional information. I will certainly do that.