Byroman wrote on Feb 19:
Regarding your comment about 8000' elevation ceiling... this all depends on where you fly. This restriction is one of my gripes to Yuneec as I live in a corner of Montana where there is the ability to fly at elevations beyond 8000' (some nearby peaks are right at 8000'). The Q500 manual is very specific that this is not an AGL height - but an elevation restriction. I'm hoping they modify this to an AGL setting and restrict it to perhaps 1000'.
Guess in the meantime I can fly my Vision in the higher country!
Byroman, have you found out any more from Yuneec whether there is a way to disable this restriction or why they imposed it? I have a Phantom 1 and it flies just fine at 9000', albeit with reduced battery life due to the props having to put out full power more often and being a little less responsive. When I tried the Yuneec Q500 at 8500' at a ski resort here in Utah, I saw the warning on the ST-10 but figured OK, fine and tried to start the quad. That is when I found out they disabled the start capability via software for altitudes above 8000'.
My questions relate to whether this is an arbitrary limit imposed by Yuneec to reduce potential conflicts with manned aircraft assuming the drone was being flown at a sea level/lower altitude or whether it has been verified by flight testing and if flight tested, was it a safety concern or something else. Being an engineer, I know how they impose safety limits by doing theoretical calculations, in this case regarding lift and L/D ratios, then adding a safety factor of 1 to 2X.
Wonder if there is any hope of ever being able to eliminate this restriction or at least set it higher via the GUI? Also wonder if the GPS is disabled and the Q500 set up for manual flying if the quad will start and then if it could be switched to the GPS mode while airborne?
Love the Q500 as a stable camera platform, but not being able to use it at 8000' or above eliminates a lot of my planned use here in Utah.