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Hello, everyone. Details are out about the new Phantom No Fly Zones and how exactly they restrict your flying. This new feature will be activated if you update your Phantom 2 series quadcopter to the newest firmware (3.0). If you do not want to be subject to this new restriction, you may elect not to install the update. You can also switch your Phantom to Naza-M mode. (Update: R&D confirms that the feature does affect Naza-M mode in Phantoms, but not the standalone Naza-M controller).

The No Fly Zone restrictions are different than are the restrictions in Ground Station, which are more conservative and do not let you set waypoints within 5 mi (8 km) of any major airport.

DJI categorizes airports as being in Category A or Category B. Category A airports are big airports. In the USA, they are classified by the FCC as being Class B airspace airports like SFO and LAX (there are 37 in the USA). Outside of the USA, large international airports are included. Category B airports are smaller.

Category A Airport Flight Restrictions

• No-fly zone: 1.5 mi / 2.4 km around airport (red circle, below)
• Restricted-altitude flight zone: From 1.5 mi / 2.4 km to 5 mi / 8 km. At 2.4 km, your AGL altitude (above ground level) is restricted to 10.5 m. At 8 km, your AGL altitude is limited to 120 m. Between those distances, your altitude limit is linear: draw a line from 10.5 m at 2.4 km to 120 m at 8km to get your altitude limit. (blue volume, below)

Category B Airport Flight Restrictions

• No-fly zone: 1 km around airport

If you power on your Phantom and do not yet have GPS lock yet, you may take off anywhere, but as soon as the Phantom gets a lock, flight restrictions will take effect if you are close to an airport. If you happen to be airborne in a no-fly zone when this happens, your Phantom will no-fly auto-land. During no-fly auto-land, you cannot control throttle, but you can control pitch and roll so you can guide your bird to safety.

If you fly from outside a no-fly zone into one, your Phantom will no-fly auto-land with the same constraints (allowing you to control lateral movements, but not throttle).

If you are in the restricted altitude flight zone without GPS lock and are flying above the altitude limit, your Phantom will descend to the limit when it obtains GPS lock.

Notifications

If you are flying the Phantom 2 Vision or Vision+, you will get OSD messages via the smart phone app. The Phantom 2 communicates its status using its rear LEDs. During flight restriction, the rear LEDs will flash red quickly for 3 seconds. It will then switch to your current flying status indicator for 5 seconds, and then go back to the fast red flashes for 3 seconds, repeating the alternating patterns.

A full list of airports and a browsable map of restricted flight areas can be found at http://www.dji.com/fly-safe/category-mc.

I Don’t Want This Update

If you do not want this feature, do not update your firmware. To do IMU calibration and other settings adjustments, you should continue to use Phantom 2 Assistant Software v2.00, Main Controller Firmware v2.00, and Central Board Firmware v1.0.1.24. These downloads are still available on the DJI download pages for Phantom 2 and Phantom 2 Vision/Vision+.

I Should Be Able To Fly, But I Can’t

If you find errors in the airport list (either you should be able to fly somewhere, or there is an airport that we missed), please send the following information to DJI at flysafe@dji.com:

1. Your name and email address
2. Your Phantom model and firmware version
3. The GPS coordinates where you noticed the problem (location of the aircraft). You can find your current location by using the build-in Compass app on iOS. On Android, you can use an app like this.
4. What airports are nearby.

If you regularly fly as part of an official RC club location near an airport, please also send us an email with the above location with documentation of the certification you have that gives you permission to fly there. Unfortunately, we can’t promise that we will whitelist RC field locations, but will make decisions on a case-by-case basis.