Some more testing with Litchi Beta this morning, that didn’t actually involve any flying! I 'd wondered if Litchi uses the DJI Fly Safe database so this morning headed down to our local airport for a test. Ran up the Mini 2 and Litchi in the car park of the museum there and it came up with ‘Cannot takeoff in a no-fly zone’, so it does. I have a CAA permission to fly withing the 5km ‘no drones’ zone around the airport but there didn’t seem to be any way to activate that from Litchi. So I started Fly and inported the DJI permission, then shut down again and started Litchi and it would have allowed me to fly there. So a bit of a convoluted way round, but it can be done! No actual flying done as that would have involved negotiating with ATC !
There’s an onboard database that is independent of device/app.
You don’t need a device to be attached to your RC to be able to fly … and the NFZs will still be active.
It is in the Firmware of the drone, by using the Fly app you unlocked it.
Litchi doesn’t have all the settings so you may need to switch apps sometimes
There is a thread about the Litchi Beta app Here
I installed Litchi for the first time yesterday. First thing it did when I launched the app was download a DJI database, very likely the NFZ.
I had an email that somebody had posted a reply to this topic questioning if I was bothering about complying with the regulations, but I can’t seem to find it here and my email reply was rejected. So just to put the record straight for the poster (I won’t mention who in case they though better of it and deleted the post) and anybody else who thinks that I’m flouting the regulations by flying with Litchi, here was my reply:
’ I presume you’re talking about UK or EU legislation. What’s DMARES? I live and fly in the Isle of Man where we have our own Civil Aviation Authority and regulations regarding drone flying:
Incidentally, they are so much simpler than the overly complex EU/UK ones which were presumably written by a committee, possibly of people who had never actually flown a drone. Our IOM regulations were drafted by our CAA after consultations to which all island based holders of the (then) commercial permissions were invited to attend and contribute ideas to, I think that 12 out of the then 15 holders were at the meeting. My aviation background is as an Air Traffic Controller (retired) and former pilot’s licence holder.
So, my permission to fly within the 5Km exclusion zone is based upon my Operations Manual submitted to and approved by the CAA. What checks are required for flying in the 5Km is between myself and them, but the basic premise is that I need to contact ATC at Ronaldsway Airport and agree a mode of operation applicable to the traffic situation on the day.’
Licences storaged in the drone firmware. Once you activated your permission license in DJI fly app, then after you can fly using Litchi also or any other you want…
Thanks for that, so hopefully the next time I need to fly there the drone will be ready to go, I should do another ground test. I did one a few years ago for demonstration purposes with a Phantom 4 inside the visual control room at the ATC tower. Took forever to get a GPS lock depite all the windows around (although they do have heating elements in the glass which may reduce signals), but eventually it told me I couldn’t fly there which impressed the controllers!