At least up to 400 ft above the bridge between the mountains, up to 400 ft above the mountain at the top of the mountain, and graduated altitudes in between. Because flying at those levels or below does not endanger NAS.
400 Foot Altitude Quiz
- Thread starter Jimmymac
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This doesn't make sense to me simply because not all "ground level" starts at 0ft elevation (at sea level). If what you say is accurate, the recommendations/limits would be based on SEA level as opposed to GROUND level.
For example, my house is on the top of a mountain, 500ft above sea level. What I think you're saying would mean that I wouldn't be able to fly in my backyard at all (and planes flying at 500ft would crash into my house).
Therefore, I believe the answer to your question is, yes, you can simply move to a higher spot and fly up to 400ft above that point and still fall within FAA guidelines.
If you look at it from a digital evidence perspective, if a case ends up in court, you can use the logs to prove you were within the 400ft AGL limit from the point where the aircraft was launched, no matter if that was at sea level, or 1000ft above it.
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I believe your #3 is incorrect, simply based on the fact that the app measures your altitude from the point where the drone is launched. Wherever you set your drone on the ground, you can fly 400 feet above that plane (no pun intended) and be within FAA regulations. That is the only way it can currently be enforced and therefore that is the measurement to use.
Forest Hill Bridge is 900 feet above the river below. The mountain tops are another 400 feet above the bridge level. I'm standing at river level, how high can I fly my drone?
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Well it all depends where you take off from. If you take off from the road by the river, as shown in the picture, your limit is 400ft AGL, not my "opinion number" this altitude is set by the FAA. However, if you take off from an area at bridge road level then you have 400ft AGL from that point, which appears to be 400ft above the river road. You still have 400ft AGL to fly and your P3 will actually fly lower than what it knows to be ground level. Or, if you really want to be adventurous, you can take off from the hill top, which you stated to be another 400ft above the bridge and now you have another 400ft AGL to fly since your P3 knows the hill top to be ground level. See, it is all based on how you look at it. According to the FAA it is 400ft AGL from the point you departed.
Not sure if someone has already mentioned this, I didn't read all 3 pages of responses.
Jeff
FAA Safety Guidelines are only recommendations. They are not laws nor hard fast regulations. Enforcement is a hard problem. FAA officials are not issued range detectors. They don't have the manpower nor the resources to enforce their "guidelines". If you have and "lost and found" your drone the FAA should be able to help you recover your drone. Try and fly smart and safe.
I think you missed my point.
I do understand that it is the only way that it can currently be followed which is precisely my point as it is not in the spirit of what FAA recommended.
Unless I misunderstood you and you meant to say that FAA recommendation is for us to fly under 400 feet AGL from the point where we take off. If so, I disagree that is what the FAA recommendation is, but DO agree that's what's currently feasible which is why I brought it up for all those "purist" that saying we ALL need to STRICTLY follow the guideline when it simply can not be done.
I'm not a licensed pilot but one would think the altitude recommendation logically means "x min/max altitude above AGL or the highest structure." Otherwise flying a Cessma "500' AGL through New York City" might be technically legal but the outcome would prove rather disastrous. In this case you have the peaks of these hills are obviously at least 900' above the valley floor below. You could ascend from the peak 400' & be perfectly legal. It isn't reasonable to expect you to precisely conform to the Earth's contour in terrain such as this.
Forest Hill Bridge is 900 feet above the river below. The mountain tops are another 400 feet above the bridge level. I'm standing at river level, how high can I fly my drone?
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Unless your terrain following radar is set at 900'. Then it becomes a rather loud noise! 
I am a pilot and I have not met one that thinks that way. It's just another way to fly. Like it or not, if you are operating an aircraft, you are a PILOT.
NO 400ft AGL of the aircraft from the ground it is directly flying over.
It seems you have trouble delineating what is legal and what the UAS is capable of.
Most of us know the difference.
I see, so you own the canyon. "OUR" canyon? Nice story of how you almost killed someone. WTF is going on here!
I disagree. I've seen it at small airports, AMA fields, along with other industries. Where your a noob or outsider aND look down their nose at you.
And yes I know pilots of small aircraft who don't want to share airspace with anyone other than others who fly as they do.
I guess there is always someone somewhere. Newbe's are always treated different in the beginning. I have found the "pilot" community to be extremely welcoming. The airspace belongs to all of us.
No, you are misunderstanding me (or I mis spoke). Im saying you can be 400' above the ground directly below your copter. We are probably agreeing.
We were 20 feet above the river and maybe 30 feet from his prop that was blasting us with dust and debris. I was looking down at him, we weren't at eye level. He easily heard me yelling at him because he was only 50 feet away from us just above the water. There were people below me next to the shore, running for cover because they were at the waters edge and getting hammered by his props blasting the water and everything else out sideways. He was in the wrong for flying under his minimum altitude and putting plenty of people and their children in danger. Some pilots just don't realize where they are until it's after the fact... Just because it looks so beautiful down there... doesn't mean you should fly down there without looking around first. He lived, got scolded, knew he had messed up. If he had been paying attention and not breaking the law, he would have never heard me... When it was all said and done, I smiled at him while shaking my head, we all make mistakes, he tried to smile back but was really smelling his shorts at that time
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Congratulations to the OP. Great topic. You definitely started the fire on this one. MY thoughts changed several times reading this post.
My thoughts.
1. If the FAA says the limit IS 400 ft, but does NOT state AGL, AMSL or other reference, then how are we supposed to know? If I launch from the bottom of the canyon, the P3 says, at 400 ft above launch site, I'm maxed out, but if I move horizontally, I may actually only be 50 ft AGL.
2. Hell, I forgot my other points........
I'll be back.
My thoughts.
1. If the FAA says the limit IS 400 ft, but does NOT state AGL, AMSL or other reference, then how are we supposed to know? If I launch from the bottom of the canyon, the P3 says, at 400 ft above launch site, I'm maxed out, but if I move horizontally, I may actually only be 50 ft AGL.
2. Hell, I forgot my other points........
I'll be back.
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I think we are saying the same thing, but to me there are two different viewpoints. Here's how I interpret it.
To keep it simple, Figure 1, below (not to scale) is how the DJI app measures your altitude. It measures it from the point where you launched the drone. If it were up to them, you wouldn't be able to fly above the dotted line. Now, if you take off from a different spot, like halfway up the mountains, then your 400ft ceiling would be raised. To reiterate, that's how the DJI GO APP measures your altitude. Everything is measured from where you take-off and the measurement doesn't change as you fly over higher or lower ground.
Figure 1:
The FAA guideline, however, can be interpreted such that you can maintain a 400ft max elevation above ground level.... period. This means the dotted line rises as the ground elevation rises, or lowers. DJI imposed a 1,640ft (500 meter) limit overall as they feel this is a reasonable ceiling to prevent people from getting into trouble with their drones. In short, that means you can go up to 1,640ft high (from your take-off point), as long as you don't go over 400' AGL altitude at any given time (to remain within FAA regulations/guidelines). See Figure 2 below.
Figure 2:
But, what about if you take-off from the top of the mountain and fly straight across the valley?
According to the FAA guidelines, you would be flying too high (more than 400' AGL in many spots), yet your flight logs would show that you were never above 400' altitude. This is where I think things could get 'sticky'. See figure 3.Figure 3:
The bottom line is there's some work to be done if the FAA expects to be able to enforce their 'guidelines'.
Does all this make sense, or am I delusional?
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Well, according to FAA, you should be flying BELOW any surrounding obstacles when possible. So much for RTH.
bullet item 2
Recreational Users | Know Before You Fly
So much for RTH. bullet item 2
Recreational Users | Know Before You Fly
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