so ive been trying to figure this out for like two weeks and im honestly just confused at this point. i went on the FAA DroneZone and ran my location through LAANC and it said i was good to fly up to like 200ft no authorization needed. but then when i fire up the DJI fly app it lights the whole area up red and wont let me unlock it without going through some whole process.

im flying in an area thats like 3 miles from a small regional airport, not a major hub or anything. the airport doesnt even have commercial traffic really, just small cessnas and stuff. so which one do i actually trust here? is DJI just being overly cautious or is the FAA app missing something? and if i get authorization through LAANC does that automatically unlock the DJI geofencing or do i have to do that separately somehow

yeah this trips up a lot of people. LAANC and DJI's geofencing are completely separate systems and they dont talk to each other automatically. getting LAANC approval doesnt magically unlock your DJI drone, you have to go through DJI's own self-unlock process on their website, log in with your account, and request the unlock for that specific location. it's annoying but thats just how it works. the two systems use slightly different radius boundaries too so thats probably why they're giving you different answers about whether you even need authorization at all.

also for what its worth i'd trust the FAA data over DJI's in terms of what the actual legal requirement is. DJI tends to draw their zones a bit larger as a buffer. but legally speaking you still need to follow part 107 or the recreational rules regardless of what either app says.

omg same thing happened to me last month it was so frustrating. i ended up just doing the DJI unlock thing through their website and it worked but it took like a day to process. honestly didnt even realize LAANC and DJI were different until i read a thread on here