Town Hall & warehouses now a Restricted School Zone?

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Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA
I went out in my front yard this week to fly my Phantom some and was forced to do a update for the restricted areas list.
After the update I got a Restricted Airspace warning for the first time.
Apparently, in the past week, DJI decided that the warehouses and businesses as well as the Town Hall complex across the street from my home are now a school.
So now, when I try to take off from my front yard near, Google Maps , I have to go through the checklist saying that I'm allowed to fly in this area and accept responsibility blah blah. AAArrrgggghhh.
It's not "Sunshine School" or whatever they claim it is. Unless the Mayor is running a daycare out of his office, which he isn't. There is no school here. Just the city offices and departments and the nearby warehouse and light industrial buildings, even a convenience store.

And it's not just DJI. I logged into AirMap to check it on their map. AirMap shows it, here- AirMap Web App .
sunshine restricted zone.jpg

OK, 25 or 30 years ago the place where the Town Hall is was a small elementary school. But that was more than 25 years ago. Why is the entire city block now highlighted in yellow?
How do I go about having this reversed since there is no school here? Is there one central authority doing this that DJI, AirMap and the others use for their data?
Thanks.
 
This is a video I made earlier this month flying over the area in the late afternoon time.
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The Town Hall looks great with its lighting as the sun was setting. I got a nice shot of a train going by. The advantage of flying over this area on weekends and late afternoon is that the Town Hall and most of the businesses are closed for the day and if my Phantom falls out of the sky about the only thing it would hit is the roof of a warehouse or land in an empty parking lot. In fact, that whole yellow box shown in the AirMap photo is pretty much my normal flight area when I am home.
 
I feel your pain , Dji should not be controlling our flights . It's one thing to give warning or notification on the software but to jump through hoops to fly is not their job . Total control through regulation . hell it's not even regulations it's company control over their products after sale , talk about corporate over reach ,their taking the roll of government
 
Google Maps clearly shows it marked as the Saint Gabriel City Hall complex and the other buildings with the names of the companies. I'm not sure why DJI and AirMap would be marking it down as a school. This makes me wonder about the accuracy of any of the other areas they have on their maps.
st gab dji school zone.jpg
 
I sent an email to flysafe@dji and got an automated reply...
Dear Steve,
Thank you for contacting DJI Support.
Your request REDACTED has been received and is being reviewed by our technical support representatives.
We will contact you soon. (Business hour: Monday to Friday, from 09:00 am to 18:00 pm GMT+8:00)
尊敬的大疆客户,
您好,感谢您联系DJI。
我们已经针对您的请求REDACTED开启了一个邮件。我们的技术支持代表将会很快与您联系。(工作时间:周一至周五09:00-18:00)
感谢您的理解和支持

DJI Technical Support
 
So, after several back and forth emails the DJI rep tells me that their maps don't show that location as being in a Authorization or Warning Zone. And if I get the pop up warning again just to check the 2 boxes to allow my flight in this area which they say isn't listed.
Talk about a waste of my time. It's not a geofenced or Authorization or Warning zone (according to them) but I will still get the warning that I'm flying in a restricted area and have to check the boxes.
I was told that the geofence system is there to provide general protections to sensitive areas. But my point was, THIS IS NOT A SENSITIVE AREA.
 
I am curious, I work at an Elementary School, and 2x a year they have me fly and take photos for them. I have my 107. I have never had any warnings come up. Is this something new in the last few months?
 
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It seems to be something they are adding to the maps. AirMap has had schools listed for recreational pilots for quite some time. Go to AirMap.io and click on Recreational and watch your ma fill up with little yellow circles covering "sensitive areas" including schools, nursing homes and more. I have found several errors like my City Hall and warehouses being listed as schools or similar sensitive areas.
 
It seems to be something they are adding to the maps. AirMap has had schools listed for recreational pilots for quite some time. Go to AirMap.io and click on Recreational and watch your ma fill up with little yellow circles covering "sensitive areas" including schools, nursing homes and more. I have found several errors like my City Hall and warehouses being listed as schools or similar sensitive areas.
Easy: Litchi for DJI Mavic / Phantom / Inspire / Spark Done!
 
How do I go about having this reversed since there is no school here? Is there one central authority doing this that DJI, AirMap and the others use for their data?

Very good questions! I wish someone had the answers.

A good friend of mine lives down the road from me and owns 200 acres. It's a great place to fly from since his house is on a hill in the middle of his wooded landlot... you can see far in all directions.

Problem: all the flight apps show a heliport 1/2 mile from his house - in the middle of the woods! And I have to fill out the DJI questionnaire every time I power everything up.

I called the number listed for the heliport and got a woman who told me this was a private phone number and was quite irate about the call - obviously I wasn't the first to call her. I called the AMA and they gave me a couple of FAA phone numbers which I called and got no help whatsoever.

I would love to know what Fed department or entity is in charge of the database all these flight apps get their info from, and if there is a procedure for making a formal request for change.

This 'supposed' heliport is not on the current Atlanta Sectional, but is on all the following apps:

Airmap
UAS Forecast
Hover
B4Ufly
Kittyhawk
 
Is it listed in the FAA's AFD?

I don't know... i googled 'FAA AFD' and followed several links but don't know how to search for it.

All the apps call it Georgia Baptist Urgent Care Heliport, which is actually in downtown Atlanta iirc.

Also a puzzle to me is how the wrong Lat/long AND phone number got put into the database!?
 

Thank you! for taking the time to chase down that info... would have been long and tedious for me.

I'll look over those pages and see what i can find out.

EDIT:
Unfortunately, both those pages are full of the same mis-information as the Android flight apps I've used.

Wrong:
phone and contact info
Lat/long - (which causes the following to be wrong)
zip code
map excerpts from Sectionals
METARs
nearby airports with instrument procedures
etc etc

At least now I have a physical address I can snail-mail a letter to!

Thanks again @SilentAV8R
 
Last edited:
No surprise. These all use the FAA database for their source. So if the FAA database is incorrect, the all that apps that pickup the info from that database will reflect/repeat those errors. Seems like the FAA needs to be contacted to help them correct this error that will only get propagated across all information sources.
 
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