DJI Mavic, Air and Mini Drones
Friendly, Helpful & Knowledgeable Community
Join Us Now

3000’ eh?

akdrone

Well-Known Member
Premium Pilot
Joined
Nov 18, 2021
Messages
2,084
Reactions
3,614
Age
72
Location
North Pole, Alaska
Pics will have to follow but I have to say, the combination of 3000’ and goggles is really quite something. I am normally flying in areas that don’t allow climbing to 3000’ but were in some nearby hills that allowed me to follow the landscape up to 3000’ and look over the valley In FPV. Just spectacular. If you have a Mavic and are near enough to a 3000’ area I highly recommend viewing the world FPV from 3000’. As many here know, I used to fly hang gliders and this was such an incredible reminder. Spectacular.
 
Pics will have to follow but I have to say, the combination of 3000’ and goggles is really quite something. I am normally flying in areas that don’t allow climbing to 3000’ but were in some nearby hills that allowed me to follow the landscape up to 3000’ and look over the valley In FPV. Just spectacular. If you have a Mavic and are near enough to a 3000’ area I highly recommend viewing the world FPV from 3000’. As many here know, I used to fly hang gliders and this was such an incredible reminder. Spectacular.
Ive heard about this...Is there any setting I need to enable to insure this feature will work on my M3? Im up to date in firmware. Any good articles or threads that can get me set up to use this feature. Looking forward to seeing your images.
 
You simply have to be within 15 miles away from the center of a zone that does not allow the 3000 foot limit. If you were outside that zone and all of your firmware is up-to-date, it will be able to fly to 3000 feet. Check the setting for your maximum flight altitude, if it does not show your ability to fly to 3000 feet then you can’t. DJI has a website that I am sure you have seen GEO something and when you set the type of drone at that website to Mavic you will see the areas that I am talking about in large Circles. Those areas are only visible at the Geo website when it is set for mavic.
 
You simply have to be within 15 miles away from the center of a zone that does not allow the 3000 foot limit. If you were outside that zone and all of your firmware is up-to-date, it will be able to fly to 3000 feet. Check the setting for your maximum flight altitude, if it does not show your ability to fly to 3000 feet then you can’t. DJI has a website that I am sure you have seen GEO something and when you set the type of drone at that website to Mavic you will see the areas that I am talking about in large Circles. Those areas are only visible at the Geo website when it is set for mavic.
It's actually only available in those limited, very remote areas, that are at least 50 km from the nearest airport. In those remote locations, it permits mountain climbing to 1000m above your launch point, but still no more than 400 feet AGL, as you fly up and down the slope. Everywhere else in the world, the max DJI height is still the original 500m above your launch point.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Torque and Suren
Thanks for the correction on that distance. Very remote. It does mean driving … 50km…
 
Thanks for the correction on that distance. Very remote. It does mean driving … 50km…
You are probably one of the few users who can make good use of it. In the rest of the United States, virtually every mountain worth climbing is within 50km of at least one airport!
 
I remember when it was first announced. I looked at the DJI Geo map and my eyes widened as I looked at states in the lower 48. I drive regularly in between Fairbanks and Anchorage and almost that entire 350 mile stretch is open to flying at altitude and the highway is bounded by beautiful mountains on both sides that are often times close enough to fly up against.
 
  • Like
Reactions: GadgetGuy
You are probably one of the few users who can make good use of it. In the rest of the United States, virtually every mountain worth climbing is within 50km of at least one airport!
Eastern Oregon and Northern Nevada are very remote. I camp in areas where the nearest 'airport' is well over 50 miles away, and that is really just an airstrip in a town of less than 2500 people. No commercial service at all

it is the Great Basin Desert. Beautiful country but it can have some really deceptive and gusting wind

I've been looking forward to taking the Mavic 3 there this summer
 
I remember when it was first announced. I looked at the DJI Geo map and my eyes widened as I looked at states in the lower 48. I drive regularly in between Fairbanks and Anchorage and almost that entire 350 mile stretch is open to flying at altitude and the highway is bounded by beautiful mountains on both sides that are often times close enough to fly up against.
Even 1000m may not be enough in your ideal case!
 
Eastern Oregon and Northern Nevada are very remote. I camp in areas where the nearest 'airport' is well over 50 miles away, and that is really just an airstrip in a town of less than 2500 people. No commercial service at all

it is the Great Basin Desert. Beautiful country but it can have some really deceptive and gusting wind

I've been looking forward to taking the Mavic 3 there this summer
It definitely has some uses, but it crippled everyone else in DJI's kludgy manner of implementation that forces turning off all Altitude Zones even where they are really needed, like around airports, just to see the maps!
 
It definitely has some uses, but it crippled everyone else in DJI's kludgy manner of implementation that forces turning off all Altitude Zones even where they are really needed, like around airports, just to see the maps!
that confuses me a little bit?

I am under the impression that when I turn on the drone and the Fly app when I'm more than 30 miles outside any restricted airspace, the app/drone will recognize that I'm outside the restricted areas by GPS

do I have to jump thru some kind of dumb hoops before I go to these areas?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Torque
Eastern Oregon and Northern Nevada are very remote. I camp in areas where the nearest 'airport' is well over 50 miles away, and that is really just an airstrip in a town of less than 2500 people. No commercial service at all

it is the Great Basin Desert. Beautiful country but it can have some really deceptive and gusting wind

I've been looking forward to taking the Mavic 3 there this summer
Plenty of Mountains here in the west that are futher than 50 km from an airport with restrictions. Mt. Rainier is 77 miles (124 km) from a major airport. And where I'm from in eastern Utah, and western Colorado, there are a large number of remote mountains worth flying.
 
Plenty of Mountains here in the west that are futher than 50 km from an airport with restrictions. Mt. Rainier is 77 miles (124 km) from a major airport. And where I'm from in eastern Utah, and western Colorado, there are a large number of remote mountains worth flying.
for sure, and those are more populous states. I can imagine hundreds of opportunities for 3000' ceilings in Montana and Wyoming. Also Northwest Arizona and Northern New Mexico.

I live in Western Oregon, but if I go 30 miles east of Bend, and 30 miles south of the Columbia river there are about 30,000 people living in 45,000 square miles, and most of those are concentrated in 3 larger towns. There's only about 5000 people living in SE Oregon, most in 1 town (Lakeview), and that's about 25,000 square miles. And I think Lakeview only has a private airstrip
 
that confuses me a little bit?

I am under the impression that when I turn on the drone and the Fly app when I'm more than 30 miles outside any restricted airspace, the app/drone will recognize that I'm outside the restricted areas by GPS

do I have to jump thru some kind of dumb hoops before I go to these areas?
No, but when you fly anywhere else, where you are still limited to 500m, you can no longer see your map, as it is obstructed by the new, gray 500m altitude limit, which was unnecessary before, because it was universal! Now, the only way to see behind the obstructive gray 500m altitude limit layer is to continuously keep your finger on the screen, or completely turn off the Altitude map layer, which is often needed when there are nearby airports, with altitude limits along their runway extensions several miles away, that you will be limited by, but can no longer see on the map! To be clear, the actual limit is metric and is 50km away, so it is actually slightly over 31 miles.
 
Last edited:
Even 1000m may not be enough in your ideal case!
Humorously, before I understood how this all works, both my flying buddy and I read about the altitude limit of the Mavic 3 before it came out, which is some ridiculous number like 20,000 feet (no clue) and I was quite excited to be able to fly over nearly all our local mountains. I was clueless about the realities involved but got schooled quite quickly. My friend was devistated when I clued him into reality as we got our TRUST tests completed. Whoops!
 
Humorously, before I understood how this all works, both my flying buddy and I read about the altitude limit of the Mavic 3 before it came out, which is some ridiculous number like 20,000 feet (no clue) and I was quite excited to be able to fly over nearly all our local mountains. I was clueless about the realities involved but got schooled quite quickly. My friend was devistated when I clued him into reality as we got our TRUST tests completed. Whoops!
You are supposed to stay within 400 feet above the ground level below the drone, so it is perfectly legal to fly up a 20,000 foot mountain top from the base, if you can keep the drone in sight by following it, but DJI can't measure AGL and assumes the earth is flat, which is how they arbitrarily came up with 500m, now upgraded to 1000m in the boonies, to assist with mountain climbing, but they don't live in Alaska like you do! Earlier drones had altitude bypass hacks to legally fly any mountain top you could reach from the base and return from, before VLOS. Sadly, pretty much locked down now. That relatively recent and pesky VLOS requirement also gets in the way now, too!
 
Last edited:
Lycus Tech Mavic Air 3 Case

DJI Drone Deals

New Threads

Forum statistics

Threads
131,343
Messages
1,562,225
Members
160,277
Latest member
greg190