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400 foot maximum altitude and mountains

Is it noT true that within 400’ of the cliff face you would be legal... likened to flying up the slope of a very steep mountain? Honest question only, for my info.
had been planning a flight from the Mogollon Rim..., 12 feet laterally from 6’ AGL to 2000’ AGL immediately below the drone.

Afraid not. It's all about the ground directly under the aircraft.

Now would there be any conflicting aircraft along the edge of a cliff? Probably NOT but that doesn't make it legal.

The 400' with rule applies to the ground directly under the aircraft only.

If Part 107 if you're within 400' of a Structure there is an allowance but a cliff is not a structure and not part of Hobby regs.
 
Though technically illegal, I doubt it would be enforced strictly on those terms, much like having to speed a bit to pass a nuisance vehicle that is traveling at the speed limit wouldn't usually be enforced.
 
I cannot get higher than 500m from where I started.
Even flying uphill I cannot get higher than 500m from where I started.
500m is the limit, even if I fly up the side of a mountain.
The altitude counter, in the lower left corner of the app, starts counting from where I start and stops at 500m.
500m is the maximum hight limit I can set in the app.

How's this even possible? Or since when is this possible? From post #6?
 
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I cannot get higher than 500m from where I started.
Even flying uphill I cannot get higher than 500m from where I started.
500m is the limit, even if I fly up the side of a mountain.
The altitude counter, in the lower left corner of the app, starts counting from where I start and stops at 500m.
500m is the maximum hight limit I can set in the app.

How's this even possible? Or since when is this possible? From post #6?

That's strictly enforced by the device firmware and there is no way around it. (besides landing and taking off again, which resets the 500m counter)
 
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Though technically illegal, I doubt it would be enforced strictly on those terms, much like having to speed a bit to pass a nuisance vehicle that is traveling at the speed limit wouldn't usually be enforced.

How can a vehicle travelling at the speed limit be a nuisance?

Just asking...
 
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This confused me when I started a while back. I have been doing SAR and often come up against cliffs and have to fly over the top, so obviously I have to fly up to my max 400ft the keep VLOS i.e. the cliffs are about 300ft + 400ft. This means that I have to override my max alt settings (from where I am standing) which takes valuable time away. Is there any quick way of overriding the max alt setting quickly and switching it back again without disabling the optical avoidance system?
 
Is it noT true that within 400’ of the cliff face you would be legal... likened to flying up the slope of a very steep mountain? Honest question only, for my info.
had been planning a flight from the Mogollon Rim..., 12 feet laterally from 6’ AGL to 2000’ AGL immediately below the drone.
That's is an interesting point but you could look at it from another angle. If the cliff face was at 45 degrees then you would be legal to fly 400 feet from any point off that face. So if the cliff face 45, 50, 60 ,70,80 or 90 degrees and say 1000 ft high and you were standing at the base then technically I would assume you can fly up to 400ft outwards and continue upwards from that face to 1400 ft from your standpoint. 1601757490914.png
 
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That's is an interesting point but you could look at it from another angle. If the cliff face was at 45 degrees then you would be legal to fly 400 feet from any point off that face. So if the cliff face 45, 50, 60 ,70,80 or 90 degrees and say 1000 ft high and you were standing at the base then technically I would assume you can fly up to 400ft outwards and continue upwards from that face to 1400 ft from your standpoint. View attachment 114363

No, it is 400ft vertically from the aircraft to the ground beneath it and not 400ft at any angle to it.
 
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That's strictly enforced by the device firmware and there is no way around it. (besides landing and taking off again, which resets the 500m counter)
I've experienced that first hand!
I followed the contour of the mountain as I climbed it, but DJI Fly stopped me at 500m above the home point.
 
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I've experienced that first hand!
I followed the contour of the mountain as I climbed it, but DJI Fly stopped me at 500m above the home point.
Read again. You really talking meters. Issue is in feet. 500m is a hard programmed limit.... ps, it can be defeated w/o software.
 
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No, it is 400ft vertically from the aircraft to the ground beneath it and not 400ft at any angle to it.
I get your point exactly...
 
I've experienced that first hand!
I followed the contour of the mountain as I climbed it, but DJI Fly stopped me at 500m above the home point.
Do you normally have your max altitude set to 400ft.
 
This throws up another question,,, I have only flown up cliff faces and over the top. In my case the cliff face was about 150-200 feet and I went about the same over the top so I never reached my 400ft limit set in the Max Altitude settings.So if you fly up a 45 degree slope for example 100ft and your uav is 400ft perpendicular to the ground does the mavic 2 pro calculate height from the take off point or update continuously from it's VPS sensors on the ground below thus maintaining the height within the Max altitude setting of 400ft OR does it stop ascending as soon as it hits 400ft barometric altitude from the takeoff point.
 
This throws up another question,,, I have only flown up cliff faces and over the top. In my case the cliff face was about 150-200 feet and I went about the same over the top so I never reached my 400ft limit set in the Max Altitude settings.So if you fly up a 45 degree slope for example 100ft and your uav is 400ft perpendicular to the ground does the mavic 2 pro calculate height from the take off point or update continuously from it's VPS sensors on the ground below thus maintaining the height within the Max altitude setting of 400ft OR does it stop ascending as soon as it hits 400ft barometric altitude from the takeoff point.
All height used by the drone is AGL...eg, calculated from take off point. If you need to go higher on a slope then landing in VLOS (when landed) and TO after 20 seconds or so, the drone resets and the new TO point is treated as 0’ AGL. If you do this you have to manually fly home to original (first) TO point and manually land. I used the trick to get over the top of the Santan Mtns behind my house... you get something like my vid below after editing out the landing at distance.

just be sure to keep AGL at 400’ or less throughout the flight.
 
Read again. You really talking meters. Issue is in feet. 500m is a hard programmed limit.... ps, it can be defeated w/o software.
I understand that the original message was in regard to the rules about flying less than 400 feet above ground. I was responding to dawgpilot who brought up the 500m hard programmed limit. I was just saying that I had hit the 500m limit in the video that I posted. I do understand that I could have defeated that limit by landing part of the way up the mountain, resetting the home point and taking off again, but that was a little on the risky side given the location and terrain.
 
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