Closed area for dji flights. Where can you not fly a drone in Ukraine? (cards)

First of all, we warn you that in the large cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg a network of jammers is being systematically installed, where you have flown before, the situation on the air may change at any moment. It is better not to fly in the city center at all, check the location of the intended flight on the map of prohibited areas http://fpln.ru and on the map http://wikimapia.org

This algorithm will only reduce the likelihood of not losing the drone in the interference zone!

1. If there is a tracker/beacon, activate it. And don’t forget to put your phone number in a visible place on the drone.
2. Set the correct return altitude above the highest point in the flight area
3. We exhibit RTH mode Landing
4. We take off strictly above ourselves and carefully look at all the warnings on the screen. If we plan to fly at an altitude of 50 meters, we fly up 2 times higher for reconnaissance, then descend.
5. If there are no warnings, then switch RTH to return-to-home. We use the hover mode only where there is a chance of flying behind some very tall building or tower (TV tower, skyscraper, etc.) and where there is no chance of jamming the GPS signal.
6. If at a certain altitude a wave of warnings about magnetic interference begins, automatic transition to atti, and the ru signal disappears - we land immediately.
7. We fly strictly within line of sight, constantly monitoring messages and warnings.
8. If messages appear far enough away, the first thing we do is descend to the lowest possible altitude and fly towards the Home point. We carefully look at the messages and quality of the ru. Sometimes it’s better to hover, set the rth hover and approach the drone yourself, rather than fly into the danger zone again.
9. In large cities, we do not use the RTH button; we bring the drone to the Home point only manually, using the map, using landmarks.
10. We never go on flights with a discharged remote control or smartphone.

In any danger, we run after the drone, we are not shy.

On windy days and in especially stormy places, we carry out preliminary reconnaissance of the wind speed and direction at the working altitude:
— flew up above ourselves to a working altitude, hovered for 5-10 seconds, and landed. We synchronized with a paid account on airdata.com and got an accurate picture of what was happening.”

P.s. Colleagues of our forum are trying to draw up a map of dangerous zones on their own. We have no desire to go against the special services and fly to spite someone. All the problems for a copter operator in a large city are due to ignorance of where strategic objects are among the houses, and from a craving for beauty, for architecture, for a bird’s eye view of this beauty...

Pps As a nonsense: if you still really need to take a photo on Instagram, but somewhere nearby there is a jammer that sometimes works, but doesn’t, you can take the risk of flying up, having first tied the drone to the fishing line of a spinning rod. And be sure to hang a weight on the fishing line, about a meter and a half from the drone :)

Currently, the Chinese company DJI is one of the leading manufacturers of multicopters for the consumer market. However, authorities in many countries around the world, including the United States, have recently seriously tightened the rules and prohibit drone owners from flying their devices near military installations, prisons, airports, and so on.

Authorities repeatedly issued warnings to DJI and fined the company, as a result of which the manufacturer nevertheless agreed to play by the rules and began to use geofencing and speed limits in its devices.

The firmware of the company's devices essentially has GPS blacklists that, for example, prevent flights within a 15-mile radius of Washington or near airports. Also recently, company representatives decided that they would fight terrorism and the ISIS organization banned in Russia, which is why almost the entire territory of Iran and Syria became a no-fly zone. And while some restricted areas can be flown (the user will only see a warning), others are completely closed to drones, and can only be “unblocked” by DJI employees who review the relevant applications, or are available only to DJI users with verified accounts.

No-fly zones in the USA

There have been many debates about the use of geofencing since its inception. The fact is that no other vehicles or devices have similar restrictions. For example, having bought a car, the owner can drive it anywhere, including behind a closed military facility, onto an airfield runway, or ram a fence and drive into his neighbor’s backyard. Although in all of these cases the car owner will most likely be arrested, he Maybe do it all. DJI, in turn, decides for its users, and many believe that this is not entirely correct.

Given the current circumstances, it is not at all surprising that users are increasingly choosing multicopters that do not have GPS blacklists, or are looking for ways to free DJI devices from restrictions. This is how a small Russian company Coptersafe arose, essentially offering jailbreaking of aircraft.

Coptersafe offers its customers hardware and software modifications for almost the entire DJI product line. The company's solutions allow you to bypass speed limits and geofencing, after which you can easily fly drones in no-fly zones. Mods like these can be very useful, as the alternative is to completely disable GPS functionality on DJI devices, which may cause some functions (such as Return to Home) to stop working.

Representatives from Coptersafe told Vice Motherboard that DJI's engineers' focus on safety is commendable, but restrictions should still be set in accordance with local laws, and not at the will of the manufacturer itself. The fact is that the idea of ​​jailbreaking drones originated after a small company engaged in aerial photography(and owned by one of the founders of Coptersafe), was unable to operate in a certain area due to DJI restrictions, although all necessary permits from local authorities were obtained.

The DJI pilot community is already actively discussing Coptersafe products and is even trying to organize a crowdfunding company to check the legality of such modifications. It is worth noting that the majority is inclined to believe that such mods and their use are absolutely legal. In addition, there are many other ways to hack multicopters and bypass blocking, that is, Coptersafe solutions do not radically change the situation.

It's hardly surprising that DJI officials condemn such products. Thus, the company stated that “DJI considers any attempts to disable security systems extremely undesirable,” because in theory, this could trigger the failure of other drone systems, after which the behavior of the device will become unpredictable.

Friends! Before continuing to get acquainted with the proposed topic, we simply must remind you that any product that comes off the assembly line of any manufacturer must meet certain standards and norms. In the case of drones, these standards and regulations, among other things, also include future safety, which, for obvious reasons, ultimately significantly limits the maximum potential of the drone. Remember, safety comes first!

Introduction

Not long ago, the resource “coptersafe.com” appeared on the global Internet, which offers a wide range of software thanks to which your Phantom 4 (Pro/Adv), Phantom 3, Inspire 2, Ronin, Mavic Pro will fly faster, higher and without restrictions "No-Fly Zones" In addition to the fact that the software is largely considered illegal, not everyone can buy it, since any of the proposed upgrades cost several hundred dollars. We suggest taking a look at one of the results of such a firmware update:

In turn, this resource links to another SkyHack.ru, which offers a wide range of services for repair, maintenance and modification at the software and technical level of such drones as: Phantom 4 (Pro / Adv), Phantom 3, Inspire 2, Ronin, Mavic Pro.

Range

The range of upgrades is wide, for example you can increase the lift speed of your Mavic Pro from 10km/h to 35km/h. The same mod will allow the drone to descend faster. Impressive isn't it! Or, for example, another mod that allows the drone to rise above 500 meters. The software also resolves the issue with “No-Fly” zones.

There is also an equally interesting offer that allows you to install a FLIR thermal imaging camera on a drone and transmit high-quality images from it via a FullHD link. An excellent alternative to the expensive Zenmuse XT, which DJI offers for the Inspire 1 series.

You can also install cameras such as Flir Duo or Flir Vue on Phantom 3.

Prices

The price range, depending on the task of modernization, ranges from $200-1400. For example, the “Super Sport” mode for Mavic and Phantom 4 Pro/Adv drones will cost the consumer $200 (increases the overall speed of your drone in Sport/Atti modes).

CopterSafe warns:“When using Super Sport mode, do not unnecessarily overload the drone's power with crazy flights. Be careful!"

Conclusion

What can you say about this? On the one hand, the CopterSafe software poses a threat to public safety, on the other, it allows you to unlock the true potential of the drone. DJI has already touched on the topic of changing such settings for drones of its own production: “Disabling restrictions can lead to unpredictable consequences that may arise during operation.” Therefore, the purchase of software of this kind, with all its number of advantages, will also connect the owner with a number of serious risks. Before using this software, consider whether it is really necessary.

I think many DJI users are concerned about the problem of flight bans in some parts of our country and not only our country. Moreover, very interesting objects often fall into the no-fly zone - churches, architectural monuments, parks, etc., which are simply located next to completely uninteresting ones - such as stadiums and airports.

A story from my own experience: immediately after the New Year I went to the glorious city of Voronezh. Despite the cold, in which you can’t fly, I still flew. And then I came across something interesting - the locals know it - the “Accordion House”, not a particularly remarkable Soviet-era building when viewed from the outside, but promising when viewed from above. And so, inspired by my ideas about the shapes of a building when viewed from above, I quickly take out the copter, standing between two buildings 4-5 floors high, quickly prepare it for flight at -22C, taking the warm battery out of the car, without calibrating the compass, I quickly take off, without waiting for the copter will see the satellites and remember the point of home and begin the ascent. All of the above is the apotheosis of sloppiness. You shouldn't do that. I take off to 50 meters, approximately taking just a couple of frames along the way, and suddenly the copter understands where it is, having caught satellites - only 4, but this was enough, and reports that we are in the No Fly Zone. It starts blinking red and goes down. At the same time, it does not react at all to the right stick. The decline goes vertically downwards. At an altitude of 4-5 floors, the satellites disappear again, but the descent continues, while the copter begins to blow away from me - well into an open place - the center of the car circle. Here all I had to do was walk a couple of tens of meters and pick it up. The sensations are not pleasant, but some things have been removed, although not all.

So what am I talking about? When my location was found, the map also loaded, and this is what I saw:

I was on the very edge of the no-fly zone, in the center of which there was a stadium that I didn’t need for nothing. Also, later, the same no-fly zone prevented me from flying near the most beautiful temple. More precisely, I didn’t even try, because I didn’t want to experiment, especially in such cold weather.

And yes, what is all this for - the system developed jointly with the Airmap organization was announced quite a long time ago. It should provide the ability to temporarily cancel the No Fly Zone for those who are authorized to fly in this area (or simply really want to), in exchange for providing information about themselves by verifying their phone number or credit card. Until now, there has been no need for this in the Russian Federation, as the system does not yet work here.

Recently, rumors began to spread online about a complete ban on flights over Moscow, which for quite a long time was considered fiction and Photoshop. However, it's true. Although it is not yet possible for an ordinary user to run into this widespread ban. Many have seen this picture:

You can get this effect by installing beta firmware V01.07.0043 on Phantom 3 adv/pro or Inspire 1, as well as V01.04.00.63 on Inspire Pro. Plus, you need to install the beta version of the DJI Go application on your Android smartphone by first downloading the APK file. Users who install the application through the Play Market and firmware from the DJI update section will not see such a picture.

Getting this image inspired me to try the system in action. To check how everything works, go to the DJI.com website in the “Geo System” section, the link to which is currently located “in the basement” of the DJI website page. Next, you need to click on the “Advance Unlocking” link

The next step will be to choose the place where we want to fly. The Russian Federation is still completely, as I understand it, under a flight ban and there is not a single point to verify the cancellation. That's why we're going to the USA. There is something to experiment with there. In theory, red marks points where nothing can be canceled at all, orange points where by default you cannot fly, but you can cancel this ban, yellow - we fly with caution without authorization, green - we generally do what we want

So, having chosen a place

1 - click on the desired point
2 - its name appears at the bottom.
3 — enter the flight start date.
4 — enter the serial number.

There are a couple of interesting points here. First, permission is given for 2 days. And it expires on the 3rd day. It’s not yet clear to me what will happen if there is no Internet at the place of flight. In principle, you can give yourself permission to fly in advance. At the same time, turn on the program and smartphone so that everything is updated. The second important point is that the serial number has nothing to do with the serial number of the copter - this serial number must be looked at in the program itself and it appears when the remote control and the copter are turned on. Maybe this is some kind of duplicate account serial number or something else. It is also not clear what will happen if several devices are linked to the account or different phones and tablets are used. We don't have a way to test this yet.

After everything is selected and entered, click on the “Submit” button and see the next window, where it is written how to behave and that if anything happens, they will come for you, as everything further is under your responsibility. Put two checkmarks and click “Proceed”.

The next step is choosing a method of identity verification - in my opinion, a bank card is the best.

Enter all the necessary card details

And so! Activation confirmation!

And one more check - open the DJI Go application, go to information about yourself - then the item My Inlock NFZ Application and in the menu that opens - a list of allowed zones.

That's all. The system is working. Many questions remain, but for now this does not concern us, as the system is not yet operational in the Russian Federation. Now you can uninstall the application and flash it back to the official firmware.

ps. Everything described here is at your own peril and risk. Always follow safety standards, calibrate your compass and do not take off without satellites and before fixing the “home point”.