Hi

I've just been flying my M3 here in the UK at this location in Birmingham B5 5JU and I hit a hidden flight restriction zone which isn't listed in the DJI Geomap, CAA map or the NATS App.

To make matters worse it only comes into action once the drone is in the air, and rather worryingly it locks it in that mid air poistion and pressing RTH had no effect. The only control I had was up and down on the sticks. Luckily I was over a roof which I had access.

If anyone has had experience of this could you give me some advice?

Cheers

Phil

Is your fly safe database up to date,   it could have been an old one thats been removed. Also I would check the log file at http://phantomhelp.com/logviewer/  and see if there's any more details in there.

Database up to date. I'll check the logs. Thanks for speedy reply!

Hi Webevision,

     I have never had this type of scenario, but am worried about it happening. The only time I had a FRZ is when the president was flying by my area in a helicopter and I could not take off at all due to temporary flight restriction. I think I actually heard the helicopters passing by as there was more than one helicopter and even an  hour after when these helicopters already landed to where the president was flying to, the restriction was still there. In order to take off, I had to apply for freeze removal via my cell phone and after submitting bunch of personal information I got an approval on my cell phone connected to my drone controller and was able to take off. I think this was with DJI Go 4 using Mavic 2 Pro at that time. Hope this helps.

Thanks, Mike.

Interesting behaviour. You're right that there's no FRZ in the area and nothing which should restrict the drone. I fly a LOT in Birmingham, central included and haven't seen this happen before.

My question would be about the GPS lock and if it was adequate for the drone to know precisely where it was. You've got the airport not too far away and a weak signal could make it think that it's not where it actually is.

Finally, was this a repeatable issue? You must've been filming for a gig so had to get whatever the shot that was needed.

Imho if it only happened once and next time it did not happen in the same area, it could have been a temporary freeze due to someone booking this area for flyby i.e. helicopter. I had experienced it once with president Trump at the time  flying by my area.

After a bit of digging it seems that BalfourBeattyVinci also know as HS2 contractors who are building the terminal opposite have something in place which you can request to switch off.....which makes me think they have one of these. It would have been nice to know beforehand!

https://www.dji.com/uk/aeroscope

Ah that's interesting, good to know there is an explanation to it all...

To me this is an extremely dangerous event and out of our control. I'm going to approach the CAA about this,  as how can you mitigate against something like that on your risk assessment when you don't know this device is being used.  Crazy!!

I seemed to have a week of issues. The other was finding Battersea Heliport wanting £25 to fly in their FRZ, which was a rather unpleasant surprise! I fear this so called 'admin charge' is something that could spread  to other organisations, making our job even harder! As they say ...Onwards and upwards!

Good luck bud, hope CAA gets attention to this matter before this trend get spread to other areas like this. Taking a stand with you there , +1.

I was not aware that the Aeroscope could set up a temporary NFZ, I thought it was a purely passive system which showed drone location and info, as well as operator location.

Can someone with any experience give us a breakdown of exactly what an Aeroscope can do, as this is slightly concerning.. Failing that I'll get on to a reseller and ask them myself.

Okay, so the latest. The Aeroscope doesn't stop drones, it just notifies the user that a drone is in their airspace.

BalfourBettyVinci don't have anything to stop or jam the drone. So I retract that statement ‘Me lord, with a full apology’!

So all fingers point to DJI, who have been brilliant by the way, responding super fast.

Here’s there response, I might add the unlock was correct I suspect their mapping was incorrect

We found that the area you unlocked was incorrect, so it didn't show up on the map.

To solve the issue sooner, I have unlocked this area for you with a customized solution.

The customised solution involved the usual process of unlocking a zone.

This was their response to Aeroscope

After confirming with the R&D department, DJI Aeroscope has no function to block any area, please check it again.

So we can all rest easy!! Panic over…although I’ve got to go back again to finish the job, so I’ll keep you posted if it happens again.

Webevision Posted at 7-12 23:42
Okay, so the latest. The Aeroscope doesn't stop drones, it just notifies the user that a drone is in their airspace.

BalfourBettyVinci don't have anything to stop or jam the drone. So I retract that statement ‘Me lord, with a full apology’!

Interesting.

I was about to get my wallet out to buy an aeroscope if it did allow temporary NFZs, as that's a whole new business I could get into.