Demonstration of why Altitude Limits should be removed

[Unique]

Started at ground level in the valley and flew to 2400 feet altitude yet was never more than ~400 off the ground.

PILOTS should be responsible for their actions, NOT DJI. DJI is missing a huge hole in their safety program. Buy maintaining strict control over the hardware, DJI is opening itself up to lawsuits. Why would one sue or charge only the pilot when DJI is publicly pushing flight restrictions in the name of public safety? I'd go after DJI for the failure of it's advertised safety features, no matter what mods are made to the craft. Coupled with the fact other drone manufactures are now selling drones with 'no geofencing' as a feature is proving DJI has done more harm than good to the industry.

The problem remains that too many pilots are not responsible for their actions. In an ideal world, everyone would have the freedom to do what they want, but there are always those who spoil it for others so restrictions are imposed to stop them. Just imagine the restrictions we would get if a drone brought a commercial aircraft down!

Maybe a license system will one day be introduced where tested controllers will be able to apply for the restrictions on their UAVS to be lifted.

 

[Donald Brent]

If you want to legally fly above the 500M hard limit (like following up the slope of a mountain), you do have the option of starting up your Phantom in a vacuum environment (inexpensive Plexiglas box with sealed lid and a port to create the vacuum). Once the homepoint is established, you can break the seal on the box and the Phantom will now think it has descended several hundred meters (depending on how much of a vacuum you created - it doesn't take much). No hacking required, just a little physics application. There is even a YouTube video of someone doing this although the subsequent flight in the video would not have been legal in the U.S.

 

[The Roach]

If you want to legally fly above the 500M hard limit (like following up the slope of a mountain), you do have the option of starting up your Phantom in a vacuum environment (inexpensive Plexiglas box with sealed lid and a port to create the vacuum). Once the homepoint is established, you can break the seal on the box and the Phantom will now think it has descended several hundred meters (depending on how much of a vacuum you created - it doesn't take much). No hacking required, just a little physics application. There is even a YouTube video of someone doing this although the subsequent flight in the video would not have been legal in the U.S.

LOL - that's thinking. Next drone accessory - shop vac? Since they enabled 120M bypass, allowing 500M, it hasn't been as much of an issue for me. East Coast mountains are tiny compared to others.

 

[John Locke]

If you want to legally fly above the 500M hard limit (like following up the slope of a mountain), you do have the option of starting up your Phantom in a vacuum environment (inexpensive Plexiglas box with sealed lid and a port to create the vacuum). Once the homepoint is established, you can break the seal on the box and the Phantom will now think it has descended several hundred meters (depending on how much of a vacuum you created - it doesn't take much). No hacking required, just a little physics application. There is even a YouTube video of someone doing this although the subsequent flight in the video would not have been legal in the U.S.

I've simply turned off the height limit, much easier, quicker and cheaper. Ya gotta love .509 firmware in the P4P.

 

[Meta4]

LOL - that's thinking. Next drone accessory - shop vac? Since they enabled 120M bypass, allowing 500M, it hasn't been as much of an issue for me. East Coast mountains are tiny compared to others.

Since they enabled 120M bypass, allowing 500M, it hasn't been as much of an issue for me.
You have always been able to do that.

 

[The Roach]

Since they enabled 120M bypass, allowing 500M, it hasn't been as much of an issue for me.
You have always been able to do that.

No I haven't. But I did take the time to verify that what you say it true. Not sure why but I was never able to set it above 120, across three aircraft. It's possible I was a temporary idiot but I don't recall ever getting a prompt to allow. Yet, there it is on the DJI forums from 2015. I actually put my DJI drones down for 6 months while thinking about selling them. When I fired up the P4P and updated, I gave it another shot and it worked. Self induced angst?