Here's another DJI story which demonstrates their incompetence. At EAA Oshkosh 2017 (the premier event of the year for private pilots and experimental aircraft fans of every stripe), DJI had set up a large tent to show off their newest drones. I walked in and asked to see a demo. Mind you, they had an outdoor flying area adjacent to the tent that was fully enclosed with netting. There was no way a drone could have escaped.

"Can't do a demo," the DJI rep said. "We're waiting on a firmware upgrade from China. None of the drones are working."

"Um, why?" I asked.

"Because the firmware in the drones contains a database of all known aircraft control towers and every drone has GPS. When it sees the drone is within [a few] miles of a control tower, it shuts down the drone. And right now we're only about 100 feet from a control tower."

"But you're inside a netted enclosure?"

"The firmware doesn't know that. The new firmware we're waiting on includes an exception for this location."

I don't know if the upgrade ever arrived, but this episode taught me I don't want a DJI product. DJI probably lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales because of that boneheaded move.