FAQs and Troubleshooting

LAANC is the Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability, a collaboration between the FAA and Industry. LAANC directly supports UAS integration into the airspace. Specifically, LAANC provides drone pilots with access to controlled airspace at or below 400 feet, awareness of where pilots can and cannot fly, and air traffic professionals with visibility into where and when drones operate.

B4UFLY is available to the public and is designed to help recreational drone flyers understand important safety and airspace information prior to flight. Recreational Flyers must operate below 400 feet at all times.

B4UFLY displays controlled and uncontrolled airspace, maximum authorized altitudes near airports, restricted or prohibited airspace and other important safety information.

Yes. AirHub Portal is a LAANC supplier, allowing pilots to log in and submit drone operations using the most accurate federal and community data available today.

Airspace Link has developed AirHub® Portal for use by State and Local Government users to provide drone pilots in their community with local, authoritative ground risk data and advisories combined with airspace data in real-time to help pilots plan safe operations.

The FAA regulates all of the airspace in the U.S. Advisories are an opportunity for communities to input critical and time-sensitive information to pilots flying in their area, increasing their situational awareness when operating and allowing them to fly safely and compliantly.

Advisories may be related to incidents, events, assets, special ordinances, emergency operations, or infrastructure throughout the community (e.g., schools, hospitals, helipads, prisons, stadiums, public spaces, etc.).

All Recreational Flyers must pass the TRUST Safety Test and register their drone if it weighs more than 0.55 lbs. (250 grams). Recreational flyers must operate below 400' AGL. If your drone is registered, it must be Remote ID compatible. Additionally, recreational flyers must request airspace authorization if operating in controlled airspace. B4UFLY services within AirHub Portal is a great airspace awareness tool that indicates where LAANC authorization may be required.

First, what is a DJI GEO Zone? The DJI GEO zones were generated by a DJI app that prompted DJI drone users that their drone could not take off and had entered a Restricted Zone. At first glance, this seemed like a great idea. However, DJI drones are used worldwide, and maintaining an accurate list of everywhere a drone can and cannot fly is a tall order.

DJI designed GEO Zones around areas considered hazardous to drone flight. Many of these areas in the US are in LAANC or other airspace that may not be truly restricted but need coordination with the FAA or another entity.

So, what do you do now?

You use Portal for all of your flight requests, including LAANC. DJI drones will no longer be barred from flying due to the GeoZone app. For more information, see the link below.

https://viewpoints.dji.com/blog/geo-system-update

Pulling directly from the FAA’s definition: “A NOTAM is a notice containing information essential to personnel concerned with flight operations but not known far enough in advance to be publicized by other means.” Here is the FAA’s official NOTAM website: https://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/notam/what_is_a_notam

When you have a NOTAM in or near your airspace, our Portal application displays NOTAM information and other airspace information in our Advisory map widget. This guy.

When you click on the NOTAM it should look like this.

Ensure you note or copy the NOTAM number, in this case, KPBI 11/013, and then click the arrow in the upper right to take you to the FAA’s NOTAM search page.

Change the drop-down menu from Location to Free Text on the NOTAM search page. In the Free Text search box type your NOTAM identifier, in this case KPBI 11/013, and the NOTAM information will be presented to you.

NOTAM:

This common issue usually relates to how you signed up for the Portal application. When you sign up for a Portal account, you are presented with several options for creating your account. You can sign up directly through the Portal interface by clicking the Sign-up button and using an email address as your login name and a password of your choosing.

When you submit a Forgot password request and you have signed up for a Portal account using the Sign up link, you will receive an email link to reset your password.

However, if you sign up with either ‘Continue with Google or Continue with Apple,’ you will use your Google or Apple ID information to sign on to the Portal application. If you attempt to reset your password using the Forgot password link and have signed up using your Google or Apple information, you will not receive a reply. You will have to use your Google or Apple ID to log in.

If you have created a LAANC operation and have received an automatic LAANC approval for your operation, you cannot edit or delete that operation unless you cancel the LAANC authorization. You will receive an error message, as you can see below.

To cancel a LAANC authorization, click the three dots, or ellipses, next to your LAANC approval. Then click Cancel and then click Proceed.

Your LAANC authorization has now been canceled, and you can edit or delete your operation and/or resubmit your LAANC request.

For most operations in LAANC airspace, you submit an automatic LAANC request and finish prepping for your flight. However, if you submit a LAANC request for an altitude higher than the LAANC grid allows, 200’ in a 100’ or a 0’ flight height ceiling, you will be prompted to request Further Coordination from the FAA.

Click the Add Justification button. You will be presented with a dialog box with a 2000-character limit for your request. The FAA needs to know exactly why you need to fly in this airspace at your requested altitude. In addition, please provide your aircraft and pilot information and how you will fly safely and stay within PART 107 rules.

Please be aware that the FAA requires you to submit your request at least three days prior to your operation. We recommend at least a week of lead time so that the FAA can reply and you can edit and resubmit if your request is denied.

Finally, the FAA can take up to 90 days to respond. However, we typically see much quicker response times.

https://www.faa.gov/uas/getting_started/laanc

There are situations where you cannot request LAANC authorization, nor are you offered the option of submitting a Further Coordination request. If you request to fly in a 0’ LAANC flight height ceiling in restricted airspace, or you are requesting to fly in airspace that has a grid flight height ceiling but is not LAANC enabled, you may encounter these situations. See visual below.

In this instance, you will be presented with the following message.

If you encounter this situation, please access the FAA’s drone zone using the following link. https://faadronezone-access.faa.gov/#/ For more information on the DroneZone, see the links below.

https://www.faa.gov/uas/getting_started

https://www.transportation.gov/individuals/privacy/faadronezone-0

https://x.com/faadronezone?lang=en

When you are looking for the correct mobile Airhub Portal application, look for the following in the iOS store:

Or from the Android Play store:

If you see the application below, it is a different company with a similar name and is not affiliated with Airspace Link or Airhub Portal.