P3 owners - 500m max height ?

[Phantom751874]

Flying around for any amount of time more then 500m above ground is pointless but if like to man it out and take a snap shot of the landscape or even straight down.

View attachment 18139 Here's a pic I took with my p2vision+

I have seen some pretty cool cloud videos. There are use cases. Is it safe? I dunno, it could be made safe, over water etc. Is it illegal in the US right now, no. So why the limit? They could have handled liability by setting it to 500m by default and then allowing it to be changed in-app with I dunno say 20 successive hot pink colored pop up warning messages? I think their lawyers would have been ok with that.

 

[Cooter3690]

I have seen some pretty cool cloud videos. There are use cases. Is it safe? I dunno, it could be made safe, over water etc. Is it illegal in the US right now, no. So why the limit? They could have handled liability by setting it to 500m by default and then allowing it to be changed in-app with I dunno say 20 successive hot pink colored pop up warning messages? I think their lawyers would have been ok with that.

It isn't illegal as of now. The FAA only strongly suggests keeping it under 400ft. But in my neck of the woods the only air traffic is commerciL flights 20,000 up. I don't have to worry about that. Besides it's 2 ft across. There are far more Hawks and Eagles flying around and far more offer then my phantom. I feel the absolute restriction is pointless. Perhaps near cities and airports there can be made an argument but not near my house.

 

[Turbazz]

Flying around for any amount of time more then 500m above ground is pointless but I'd like to take it up for a minute and take a snap shot of the landscape or even straight down.

View attachment 18139 Here's a pic I took with my p2vision+

How high is that

 

[GB Phantom]

Jet engines are quite robust as shown here..

i don't think a phantom would last long.

 

[davemex]

Yes, if you are in a rural area, it is highly unlikely that you'll run in to an aircraft but small planes typically only fly at a few thousand feet AGL and would not fare as well as a commercial jet if they encountered a UAV.

I realize people don't like being restricted, and I also agree that there are situations where I'd want to go over 500M (flying up mountains, as has been mentioned already) but I would HIGHLY encourage everyone to take some time to learn a little about air space rules and classification before taking a risk with a flight over 400' (in the USA). Since aircraft are forbidden from flying within 500' of man made structures, that almost guarantees that we won't encounter an aircraft while flying within 400' of the ground, which I'd imagine is where that rule comes from.

Make sure you review aviation maps of your area before you accidentally violate controlled airspace. I use http://skyvector.com/ before my flights to make sure I'm not encroaching on class C or class B airspace. I think the Phantom software only flags class B airspace. If we're all responsible fliers, it greatly lowers the probability that our hobby (and in some cases, profession) will be the target of more restrictive laws and regulations.

 

[Cooter3690]

How high is that

Close to 1800 ft. It's where I maxed out on signal.

 

[SilentAV8R]

The point is moot here in the US as the FAA is going to restrict Hobby flying to 400' in any case.

There is nothing is Section 336 of P.L. 112-95 that sets any kind of altitude limit other than the requirement for visual contact (with the ability to sense orientation of the aircraft in order to avoid conflicts with manned aircraft.

 

[F6Rider]

HR 658-67, section 336 (A) (2)
(2) the aircraft is operated in accordance with a community based
set of safety guidelines and within the programming
of a nationwide community-based organization;

You know this means the AMA, and their limit is 400' AGL

 

[F6Rider]

I would really like this lifted. I have done several flights here in California where I've gone up 500-600m resulting in being less than 100m above ground. We have HILLS around here!

And read the specs better - the P3 will fly up to 6000m not 6000'. http://www.dji.com/product/phantom-3/spec

A couple of weeks ago I was flying my P2V+ in Nepal around 4000m - no problem at all, couldn't even notice reduced lift/performance.

Sorry, i did read the spec's, it's my non-metric typing that put the ' and not M. The trouble with flying that high is the long time (close to 4 minutes) it takes for that slow decent the P3 has. I have flown up at 7000'+ at twin lakes in Desolation Wilderness but I hiked up from Dark Lake. There are not many places around here where your bird can climb that high within battery distance, not and have the juice to get home.

 

[F6Rider]

Flying around for any amount of time more then 500m above ground is pointless but I'd like to take it up for a minute and take a snap shot of the landscape or even straight down.

View attachment 18139 Here's a pic I took with my p2vision+

Nice Pic, the trouble is you can't spend any time up that high, not with a 3-4 minute accent climb, and a 4-5 minute decent time, that's 50% of your battery just getting up and down, even without low battery warning at 15% and auto land at maybe 5%. You get time to take a few shots and then start back. But I agree that it is cool. If everyone was a responsible pilot then we wouldn't have restrictions. But thos guy's that hover over a runway to get that shot of the 727 rushing up on them spoil it for all of us.

 

[Cooter3690]

Yeah, now imagine that view from over a gorge, an island, a bay full of boats or a meandering river. Lots of quick photo ops at high altitudes. It's the only reason to fly that high above ground but it's a good reason.

 

[envisionabove]

Yeah, now imagine that view from over a gorge, an island, a bay full of boats or a meandering river. Lots of quick photo ops at high altitudes. It's the only reason to fly that high above ground but it's a good reason.

I just use google earth for that...1 mile up baby!!!!

 

[delirious]

I took mine up to 500m tonight. Noticed that over 900 feet, the phantom would wiggle or there was a shake to the camera. I was being blown off my home point and is suspect that's the case. Do you guys think it's the GPS positioning fighting the wind? Wind at ground level was 10-11 mph. I have video but I don't have it uploaded to you tube currently

 

[BrewserB]

I took mine up to 500m tonight. Noticed that over 900 feet, the phantom would wiggle or there was a shake to the camera. I was being blown off my home point and is suspect that's the case. Do you guys think it's the GPS positioning fighting the wind? Wind at ground level was 10-11 mph. I have video but I don't have it uploaded to you tube currently

Yes it is. It's trying to position itself.

 

[BrewserB]

Sorry, i did read the spec's, it's my non-metric typing that put the ' and not M. The trouble with flying that high is the long time (close to 4 minutes) it takes for that slow decent the P3 has. I have flown up at 7000'+ at twin lakes in Desolation Wilderness but I hiked up from Dark Lake. There are not many places around here where your bird can climb that high within battery distance, not and have the juice to get home.

People that want to fly that high don't care about how long it takes to decend. They want to capture the view. That only takes a couple minutes. You have about 20 min on the battery so I don't understand the comment.

 

[delirious]

ok, here is some video. First time has happened. Took it up to 500 meters tonight for a quick look and then back down. Happened at 1630 feet. wind on the ground was 10 mph. If you look a the video, there's a horizon cant. I made sure gimbal roll was set at around 150 feet up to make sure horizon was level. Is this the wind pushing the bird? and the GPS trying to maintain position? I just went straight up. Also note, that if I turned into the wind at the later part of the video, it stopped. I didn't change anything. this was taken in 4 K 24 FPS. No filter. Converted down to 1080p

 

[CloudsNeverDie]

Bear in mind that when the wind is 10mph on the ground, it's almost 30mph at 1500 feet due to the wind gradient effect. The Phantom was probably tilted 30-40 degrees to keep up with the wind, perhaps putting the gimbal out of its working roll angle range, or perhaps the force of the wind on the side of the camera was more than the gimbal motors could take.

 

[delirious]

Ok, thanks for the input. Won't be often if at all ever at this height again

 

[KillerCut]

I took my p3 up to 980m yesterday. Was hard to maintain signal...

 

[KillerCut]

Hint: rth ignores alt limit.