Good point - I assumed that @wolf~928 was asking whether the aircraft FC cared about that. Rather than the FAA or any other related question.
Mechanically, how high can I go?
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Good point - I assumed that @wolf~928 was asking whether the aircraft FC cared about that. Rather than the FAA or any other related question.
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Ok, sorry that I'm not getting this,,,when I take off I'm at 0 altitude,,when I go straight out from take off point I'm at 0 altitude,,but the bird is physically 200' off the ground,due to where I live,,so if I accend to 400' will I not be at 600'. That's all I'm thinking,,right ?
It's rapidly becoming apparent that almost every answer can start with "It depends"...
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But it is limited by firmware so the only answer you need to give is that it can go to 500 metres.
The rest is unnecessary complication to the people casually asking you how high can that fly?
You will be at 200 ft indicated altitude (above the takeoff point) and 600 ft AGL in that scenario. So if your limit is set to 400 ft then you could still ascend another 200 ft; to 400 ft above takeoff and 800 ft AGL.
Yes and no... just like the OP asked, some people want to know how high it could actually go with no limitations. Sometimes you can tell by the way they ask the question…
My father-in-law once asked me how high it could go… I started by saying that in Canada, 300 feet is the suggested guideline, but the craft self could actually ascend to 500 m if it wasn't limited by firmware.
That led him to ask how you could go if it wasn't limited… I said 6000 m.
That led him to ask…
Wait for it...
"How high is that?"
[emoji848]
Ah - that's a fine goal, but in your situation described, then setting the software limit to 400 ft will not necessarily achieve that because the aircraft FC does not know that the ground dropped away when you flew over the edge of the mesa. On the other hand, I don't worry too much in that situation since there are unlikely to be manned aircraft flying below, or even close to, mesa top level. So while technically that could be outside the FAA guidelines, it's still within the spirit of them.
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Your app only tells you how high your Phantom is above (or below) launch point.
It will not tell you how high your Phantom is above the ground (agl), that's something you have to work out yourself.
But if you're worried about flying over a high cliff, don't.
Unless you want to fly way out from the cliff, you won't be in real aircraft territory.
Planes also have horizontal separation rules and won't be zipping along a cliff face.
I understanding the readings here, but from an FAA perspective, is he not in contravention of the guideline at any point that he is above 400' over ground level?
My interpretation is that you have to stay within 400' above the ground or any fixed object (building etc) that you are flying over.
Is that correct?
In this scenario, wouldn't you have to descend to the point in blue if you flew over that cliff, to comply with FAA guidelines?
Technically yes. Although to complicate the interpretation slightly, under Part 107 the rule is 400 ft AGL or remain within 400 ft of a structure, which means that you can fly up to 400 ft above a structure provided you remain within 400 ft (approximately) laterally of that structure. One could extend that interpretation to terrain features, such as cliffs. The intent, of course, is to keep the UAV out of places where aircraft are likely to be flying, hence my comment about flying from the tops of mesas.
In this scenario, wouldn't you have to descend to the point in blue if you flew over that cliff, to comply with FAA guidelines?
Technically, yes.
So to further expand on that, there is no software, no indicator, no intuitive on screen display in the DJI app that's going to tell you what you need to know (if you are concerned about exact to-the-foot AGL height) when you are flying over uneven terrain... correct?
And I'm talking "technically", for the sake of conversation. I know it's virtually impossible to be that specific.
Correct - that would require both a digital elevation model (DEM) for the terrain plus a database of all structure heights, potentially even tree heights etc. The DEMs exist, although would be a bit of a memory hog, but I'm not sure the structure database even exists.
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