Airport 5 mile geo fence disable?

Sticks · Feb 14, 2016

You guys that are so bitter about the NFZs, why don't you just sell your Q500 sets and be done with it.

Nobody forced you to buy them, nobody is forcing you to keep them. I'm sure that with your Local Craigslist, you can sell them off for only a slight loss.

Colin · Feb 14, 2016

So Yuneec is incapable of getting anything wrong, is that what you're saying sticks?

John O' · Feb 26, 2016

What happens if I take off near the "border" of a NFZ and while airborne the drone fly's or attempts to fly into it, what will happen?

bb1040 · Aug 17, 2016

I live about 4 miles from a small airport that gets ,on a good day about 1 or 2 planes in. it sits on top of a hill, my yard where I fly is about 400 feet below the runway surface.......I very seldom fly above my trees, that may be close to 60 feet high and well below the runway surface in a town of just over 6,000 people, I am out in the country, but that 5 mile circle covers the whole little town and a lot of the farms in the area, that is a chunk of land 10 miles across and almost all of it would put the 400 foot limit, well below the legal flying altitude for those small planes that can use the airport ...I just ordered a Q500 4K if it turns out it won't fly here, I will have to turn around and sell it and settle for my older drones without GEO FENCE installed...I do most of my flying in my yard and the field out back, if it won't fly there...it is worthless to me...I am 69 years old now, not many things to enjoy these days but flying my multi-copters safely is enjoyable to me....Over the years seems like everything I have enjoyed doing , somebody has come along and put so many restrictions on them that they are no longer fun to do...soon all fun things will be regulated out of existence.....................................By the way..If I ever flew my copter up to 400 feet I couldn't see it anyways.....I couldn't even get as high as the runway,let alone reach the planes above it.......

Ren57 · Aug 17, 2016

bb1040 said:
I live about 4 miles from a small airport that gets ,on a good day about 1 or 2 planes in. it sits on top of a hill, my yard where I fly is about 400 feet below the runway surface.......I very seldom fly above my trees, that may be close to 60 feet high and well below the runway surface in a town of just over 6,000 people, I am out in the country, but that 5 mile circle covers the whole little town and a lot of the farms in the area, that is a chunk of land 10 miles across and almost all of it would put the 400 foot limit, well below the legal flying altitude for those small planes that can use the airport ...I just ordered a Q500 4K if it turns out it won't fly here, I will have to turn around and sell it and settle for my older drones without GEO FENCE installed...I do most of my flying in my yard and the field out back, if it won't fly there...it is worthless to me...I am 69 years old now, not many things to enjoy these days but flying my multi-copters safely is enjoyable to me....Over the years seems like everything I have enjoyed doing , somebody has come along and put so many restrictions on them that they are no longer fun to do...soon all fun things will be regulated out of existence.....................................By the way..If I ever flew my copter up to 400 feet I couldn't see it anyways.....I couldn't even get as high as the runway,let alone reach the planes above it.......

It sucks I know. Not all airports are included in the NFZ. Unfortunately, the only way to find out if the airport near to you is included or not is to try your Q there. If it's only a small airport it might not be. You'll know straight away if it is included because the motors on your Q won't start. Even if you disable the GPS they still won't start. Try finding someone else that has a Q and see if they'll try their bird at your location.

bb1040 · Aug 17, 2016

Ren57 said:
It sucks I know. Not all airports are included in the NFZ. Unfortunately, the only way to find out if the airport near to you is included or not is to try your Q there. If it's only a small airport it might not be. You'll know straight away if it is included because the motors on your Q won't start. Even if you disable the GPS they still won't start. Try finding someone else that has a Q and see if they'll try their bird at your location.

Unfortunately I seem to be the one who starts these things around here...I thought the Q500 4K was everything I was looking for in my final drone , it looks and flies great according to the YouTube videos and research I have looked at. it has everything I wanted...now I am afraid my Cheerson cx 20 may be the last drone that will work in my yard, where I do all my practice flying.......just because of that stupid GEo fence built into it....the video looks great with that Q500 4K ....It should arrive on Friday and if it won't start, I will have to take a loss and sell it on E-bay and get some of that money back......

bb1040 · Aug 18, 2016

Unfortunately my work shop where I work on my drones is in my house, and if it will not start, how am I going to work on it and get it ready to fly, have to drive down the road a few miles and sit on the berm of the road to do any work on it . Pretty dumb to program it so it won't even start, inside of my house.........I have been testing and practicing with drones in my back yard for the last two years with no problems at all. I am no threat to any airplane , unless the airplane comes down below the tops of my 80 foot maple trees , then he probably has a bigger problem than some plastic drone, putting around in my back yard.......and this drone also will not fly over 400 feet, so it would still be below the surface of the runway at the airport sense it is about 400 feet high on a mountain outside of town....sad to pay that much money , and not even be able to start it up inside my own house..............it is such a great drone with everything I wanted, other wise I would not have come up with that much money to buy it..........now I wish I hadn't spent the money......Yuneec ........if this is what we have to expect, I guess I will have to learn how to build my own drone from scratch with the programming I want ,and the features, for my purpose.....and I can test in my home shop................

bb1040 · Aug 19, 2016

bb1040 said:
Unfortunately my work shop where I work on my drones is in my house, and if it will not start, how am I going to work on it and get it ready to fly, have to drive down the road a few miles and sit on the berm of the road to do any work on it . Pretty dumb to program it so it won't even start, inside of my house.........I have been testing and practicing with drones in my back yard for the last two years with no problems at all. I am no threat to any airplane , unless the airplane comes down below the tops of my 80 foot maple trees , then he probably has a bigger problem than some plastic drone, putting around in my back yard.......and this drone also will not fly over 400 feet, so it would still be below the surface of the runway at the airport sense it is about 400 feet high on a mountain outside of town....sad to pay that much money , and not even be able to start it up inside my own house..............it is such a great drone with everything I wanted, other wise I would not have come up with that much money to buy it..........now I wish I hadn't spent the money......Yuneec ........if this is what we have to expect, I guess I will have to learn how to build my own drone from scratch with the programming I want ,and the features, for my purpose.....and I can test in my home shop................

OK it arrived today and it flies in my back yard............................................................

Cosmin · Sep 26, 2016

Ren57 said:
Ren57 here in the UK. I am a professional UAV pilot, having passed all the Civil Aviation Authority exams and submitted and had passed my operations manual. My problem is with the Yuneec Q500 that I use for my work. As you have stated, this aircraft is geofenced not to fly within a 4 mile radius of airports here in the UK. As stated elsewhere in this discussion, it is perfectly acceptable to fly within this zone as long as you inform the ATC. This is really restricting the areas where I can work and is costing me money in lost jobs that I can't do because of this limit. The Q500 won't even fly within this limit even if you disable the GPS, motors won't even start! So my question is, just how do you disable this geofence feature? You've stated above that you can disable it if you have ATC permission but just how do you disable it? Anyone know? I have contacted Yuneec directly and they flatly refuse to tell me how to go about it, saying that it's only available for the Police and Fire Service. And yet I have the same flying qualification as these 2 services. It's a great aircraft but if you can't disable this feature, then I wouldn't recommend that anyone buy a Yuneec product if you intend to use it for your aerial work.

So i live near a small airstrip used only by small aircrafts , and I have an App on my phone called UAV Forecast (Android )
It tells you all the parameters that you would need to know for a safe flight , including all the NFZ (DJI, Small, medium , Big Airports and HeliPads)
I dissable the GPS and the thing flyes without a problem.It s not as locked in and you do fly it only in Angle mod (since you don t have a GPS anymore but it does take off )

Ren57 · Sep 26, 2016

What aircraft are you flying? The Yuneec Q500 comes with NFZ built into its firmware. If you are flying a Q500, the small airport that you are flying near might not be included in the NFZ firmware and that's the reason why it will fly. Try it with all the GPS enabled, if it still flies then the airport that you are near isn't included in the NFZ firmware. Beware of firmware updates though, as an update in firmware might include the NFZ for your airport! I live 3 miles from a major international airport and when I tried to start the motors on my Q they wouldn't start. I also disabled the GPS but it made no difference the motors still wouldn't start. This is because there is also GPS built into the controller as well.

Obviously, this is a pain. My original point was that there is no legal reason to have this NFZ firmware. As long as you're not being a complete idiot and flying under the take off and landing flight paths of aircraft. It is quite acceptable to fly near an airport, as long as you inform the control tower (ATZ) that you intend to do so. I'm thinking here more for people that are flying their drones for a living and not hobby flyers. If I need to photograph a house that is a mile away from an airport, then I'd be losing money if I was unable to do so.

I completely understand why Yuneec have included this NFZ firmware in their products. They want to be seen as responsible manufacturers and having no fly zone firmware is one way they can say to authorities that their products should not be capable of flying anywhere near an airport, so there should never be a problem with near misses with commercial aircraft. All drone manufactures are now doing the same and you can thank the people that HAVE flown their drones near commercial aircraft for that. We are our own worst enemy in that respect. There are rules when flying a drone (for hobby fliers as well as commercial fliers) and if everybody just stuck to those rules we wouldn't get half the **** thrown at us that we do!

bb1040 · Sep 26, 2016

Ren57 said:
It sucks I know. Not all airports are included in the NFZ. Unfortunately, the only way to find out if the airport near to you is included or not is to try your Q there. If it's only a small airport it might not be. You'll know straight away if it is included because the motors on your Q won't start. Even if you disable the GPS they still won't start. Try finding someone else that has a Q and see if they'll try their bird at your location.

Well my Q500 4K flies just fine in my back yard and my neighbors field next door, no NFZ problem , I guess the small airport in not in the firmware yet.......when I looked it up on Yuneec's NFZ map, it was on the map, that is why I got so upset....Just thankful it works in my back yard, that is where I do just about all my flying and practice......I am retired and right now I don't have a car to haul it miles away to fly it, even if there was a place open to the public to fly at............

KBflyer · Sep 26, 2016

Call Yuneec and ask for the NFZ firmware. You sign a paper and send it back to them. They send you the firmware. Disables the NFZ. Lots of people have done that. People even hand it out freely over the internet on forums and facebook if you know the right people.

Aerovista · Jun 26, 2017

Hi Ren57,
I'm in the same position as you, with a Typhoon H, and the real prospect of doing some work actually on an airfield. Can you share the contact details of the Yuneec person you dealt with to get the revised firmware?

Mike

Ren57 said:
Let's not knock Yuneec too much on this subject. The reason Yuneec put this geofence in their drone firmware is to make them look like responsible manufactures. DJI are now doing the same. The reason that I don't like it is because it severely restricts where I can work as a professional pilot. I contacted Yuneec in Europe (because I live in Europe) their offices are Germany, I asked them if they could disable the firmware. They said that they will only disable the geofence for the police or fire service and no, they wouldn't do it for me! I told them I had a better flying qualification than these agencies, but still no go! After chewing it over for a few days, I contacted Yuneec in the USA, I asked the same question. They asked me for proof of where I lived and wanted the serial number of my Q500. That done, the next e-mail I got from them contained an attachment with the firmware to disable the geofence. I have installed it via the GUI and it works! My problem is solved. Now they're not going to do this for hobby flyers but if you're a professional pilot contact Yuneec in the USA, at least they are willing to listen. So I say, well done Yuneec, their customer service really is a cut above other drone manufactures.

Ren57 · Jun 27, 2017

Aerovista said:
Hi Ren57,
I'm in the same position as you, with a Typhoon H, and the real prospect of doing some work actually on an airfield. Can you share the contact details of the Yuneec person you dealt with to get the revised firmware?

Mike

Mike,

Sorry, it is getting on for 2 years ago now. The e-mail I had has long ago been deleted I'm afraid. All I can suggest is you contact Yuneec. What part of the world are you at? I live in the UK and at that time, the nearest Yuneec office was in Germany. They just didn't want to know! So I contacted Yuneec in the USA. After a couple of e-mails, proving who I was and giving them the serial number of my aircraft, they sent me the firmware to disable the geofence. Since then, I believe that they have opened up an office in the UK. If you explain that you're a professional pilot (and can prove it) they'll probably send you the firmware. Other options! I don't know if this works, I've never tried it. Start your aircraft indoors, well away from any GPS signals and power up your controller. Put it in manual mode (GPS Disabled) start the motors and then you'll have to physically carry your H outside, with the motors running! I've heard that you can then fly in manual mode? But obviously you'll have no GPS lock. Might not work because the moment it picks up a GPS signal it might just cut the motors? Might be worth testing it to see if that does work though.

Failing that (and if you live in the UK) you're more than welcome to borrow my Q500 to do your work, providing you're not too far from where I'm at in south Manchester!

Good luck!

Ren.