2 years in a time warp

[sdtag]

OK so I haven't flown my Phantom in close to two years now.
It's a Phantom 2 Vision Plus.
I drug it out a week ago and tried to charge the batteries and they would not charge or do anything. I asked some questions. It looks like they died.
I bought a couple of batteries on Amazon and I got them yesterday. I charged them up and popped one into the Phantom and powered everything up. I left the props off because I was in my home office.
I was worried about the video feed but everything looks like it is functioning. So far so good. Although of course it could not acquire any satellites in my office. But I could see video and control the camera pitch so I think I'm good. I even started and shut down the motors. I'm going to try a quick flight this morning from my house.
So what has changed in two years? Where can I fly now? The school that I used to fly at all the time is in a class D airspace now. My house is ok, barely. I video a friend of mine's company summer picnic and looking at that on B4UFLY that park is in overlapping controlled airspaces now. Long Beach class D and DOD NSUFR. Whatever that means.
Has stuff really changed or are these maps wrong? I just fly for fun as a hobby and I don't want to get into trouble, but, I don't want to be limited to just flying up and down my driveway either.
Any guidance will be greatly appreciated.
I feel like Rip Van Winkle haha I woke up in another world haha

Also, I guess I should add that I don't plan on updating any software or firmware. It all worked a couple of years ago and I'm afraid if I update something it will stop working now. So now I am really in a time warp. haha

Something else to add, I have Litchi and Ultimate Flight. And of course the DJI app. I have read about Litchi stopped working for the P2V+ after updates. I don't like Litchi anyway. I prefer Ultimate Flight. I tried it last night and it seemed to work. I'll try it again this morning for real.

 

[snowghost]

You'll need to take the FAA Trust exam.

 

[sdtag]

Well it works.
It works better than I do haha.
I was pretty rusty and I flew low and slow, but I have control and was recording video and flight data.
It doesn't spin on a dime, I need to calibrate it, but it is good enough to fly.
I'm relieved. Now I just need to practice a little.
FAA trust exam... here I come.

 

[Ooops!]

You'll need to take the FAA Trust exam.

Excuse my ignorance but what is the FAA Trust exam and what's the purpose? If there's a concern about flying near a restricted airspace, why can't an update be created that just restricts your altitude instead of not allowing any flight period? If I'm, say, a mile or more from an airport, and my P4P is made incapable of exceeding 50 feet of altitude from the actual terrain, what damage can I do? In reality, where I live is not a problem with controlled air space, but I hear a lot of hobbyists aren't even able to fly to the height of their eyeballs. Just seems to me to be a problem that can be solved with technology...at least allow drones to get off the ground and not have to sit in closets for years while their batteries die.

 

[Recoveryone]

Your concerns/issues do not take in the possibility of those that do not follow the rules. Flying drones, or driving a car it only takes a few bad apples to get new rules/regulations imposed on the rest of us. I take it the OP is from Long Beach Ca and the military (DOD) warning is for the Los Alamitos airbase. I would suggest to the OP and any other who has been out of the loop for a while to go to
1. DJI drone zone (for the DJI Geofencing)
2. FAA visualize it map to show the most recent airspace classification and grid flight altitudes

 

[sdtag]

Good call, yes I was in Long Beach at Marina Vista Park.
speaking about bad apples and not following the rules...
I met a friend in San Dimas yesterday. He has a DJI Mavic something or the other. He was at the campground next to Brackett Field Airport. He said his Mavic would not even launch, it had all red lights. I had to try my Phantom. Remember it's been in a time warp for almost 2 years now. My Phantom launched. It launched as if I was out in the middle of the desert somewhere, not right next to an airport! No problems, no alerts. I took it up to about 6 feet, then 15 feet. I was off to the side of the airport and not in the direct flight path. I flew it in a circle for about a minute just to see what would happen. I should not have been able to do that! I could see planes and helicopters taking off from Brackett Field. I was pretty nervous but my Phantom was not even higher than the trees that were around me. I was keeping it low.
I can only assume I could launch because I have not updated anything in two years. I hope I don't get into any trouble for posting this. I do consider myself to be a good drone pilot. I don't fly over crowds or freeways and I always maintain LOS. I'm too nervous about my 1200 dollar toy flying away!
But really the bottom line is I was under the impression that even two years ago my drone knew where it could and couldn't fly. This test was weird.

 

[Recoveryone]

Good call, yes I was in Long Beach at Marina Vista Park.
speaking about bad apples and not following the rules...
I met a friend in San Dimas yesterday. He has a DJI Mavic something or the other. He was at the campground next to Brackett Field Airport. He said his Mavic would not even launch, it had all red lights. I had to try my Phantom. Remember it's been in a time warp for almost 2 years now. My Phantom launched. It launched as if I was out in the middle of the desert somewhere, not right next to an airport! No problems, no alerts. I took it up to about 6 feet, then 15 feet. I was off to the side of the airport and not in the direct flight path. I flew it in a circle for about a minute just to see what would happen. I should not have been able to do that! I could see planes and helicopters taking off from Brackett Field. I was pretty nervous but my Phantom was not even higher than the trees that were around me. I was keeping it low.
I can only assume I could launch because I have not updated anything in two years. I hope I don't get into any trouble for posting this. I do consider myself to be a good drone pilot. I don't fly over crowds or freeways and I always maintain LOS. I'm too nervous about my 1200 dollar toy flying away!
But really the bottom line is I was under the impression that even two years ago my drone knew where it could and couldn't fly. This test was weird.

Without doing any geofencing updates, your drone is flying off of old data