DRONE NOOB
- Thread starter AIRWOLF-A567W
- Start date
i cant see the need to go to exactly 400 ft 120m is 396ft and leaves a bit of wiggle room for error ,the small amount is not going to make any difference overall ,the barometer in the drone is not that exact and can be several feet out depending on conditions and weather my MPP maxed out at 378ft above my take off point a few days ago
WDKZoom
Well-Known Member
It’s not a need, it’s a want to do it.....chances are after I hit that ceiling, I will dial it back to 120 meters as I have no desire to be illegal. Just a note as I said at “122” meters, I maxed out at 396 feet as an example of the variances of the barometer. I should have dialed in 123 then to see what it would do but I was low on battery and fumbling with my settings so I brought it on home landing with 21% battery.
WDK
Just as a heads-up. Wind can be your enemy at altitude. 18 gusting to 25 at the surface can easily be triple that at 100 meters. Do some reading on this forum and you'll find dozens of Mavic Mini owners who went to altitude, flew out a thousand feet or so, and could not get their drone to fly back to them. They hit the "Go Home" button thinking it would come back, only to see it drift away in the wind.
I would suggest that a carte blanche setting for ceilings is a bad idea, especially high ones. Admitedly I often leave mine alone but my usual is 30m to 40m, I need 25m to clear the trees around my home. If I want to go high then it's increased to meet my needs and reduced when not needed.
One other thing, the maximum height setting limits the maximum RTH height and an unnecessarily high RTH height is a bad idea in my opinion, it wastes battery power in both the ascent and descent. With the mini I think it is possible to accidentally drag the RTH ceiling slider whilst adjusting other limits and this, combined with the maximum ceiling being set to near 900ft ( I took off from the base of a cliff and wanted a looksee over its top so gave myself plenty of clearance), led to a failsafe RTH which caused the mini to climb from 60ft to 875ft, (I now know how to stop such a climb once connection is re-established but I didn't then).
To Airwolf, the above raises one other point, the CAA 400ft ceiling is measured from the ground beneath the drone (AGL). So, take off from the base of a 500ft hill and you could set you max height to 900ft and use it when flying up the hill PROVIDING you remain no more than 400ft above the ground. Conversely if flying from the top of that hill and outwards you must descend to remain within the 400ft AGL ceiling.
The drone measures all normal height relative to the take of point so negative heights will be encountered if you descend below the take off point.
There is an absolute ceiling in the mini's software of 500m above the take off point.
One other thing, the maximum height setting limits the maximum RTH height and an unnecessarily high RTH height is a bad idea in my opinion, it wastes battery power in both the ascent and descent. With the mini I think it is possible to accidentally drag the RTH ceiling slider whilst adjusting other limits and this, combined with the maximum ceiling being set to near 900ft ( I took off from the base of a cliff and wanted a looksee over its top so gave myself plenty of clearance), led to a failsafe RTH which caused the mini to climb from 60ft to 875ft, (I now know how to stop such a climb once connection is re-established but I didn't then).
To Airwolf, the above raises one other point, the CAA 400ft ceiling is measured from the ground beneath the drone (AGL). So, take off from the base of a 500ft hill and you could set you max height to 900ft and use it when flying up the hill PROVIDING you remain no more than 400ft above the ground. Conversely if flying from the top of that hill and outwards you must descend to remain within the 400ft AGL ceiling.
The drone measures all normal height relative to the take of point so negative heights will be encountered if you descend below the take off point.
There is an absolute ceiling in the mini's software of 500m above the take off point.
Not to mention that the wind will generally be stronger the higher you go so this could potentially prevent a successful RTH.
But there’s a problem with doing this if you set that height for RTH to avoid the high ground. Once the drone flies away from the hill, it then technically breaks the rules for maximum height.
True but once you are clear of the hill you can, from memory, manually reduce the height during the RTH. As far as I remember during my 875ft high RTH once the drone was safely back in the 'control zone' I had the throttle fully closed for most of the return trip even whilst, I think, it was in RTH mode.
It's a fairly eay thing to check but I don't have any charged batteries at the moment
It's a fairly eay thing to check but I don't have any charged batteries at the moment
WDKZoom
Well-Known Member
I violated FAA rules today testing my barometer which is for sure only accurate to a percentage, mine plus or minus 3 feet. I tried 123 meters and my max height was 399 feet so I set it for 124 meters max and that got me to 404 feet.....I am done now, my max altitude is now set for 120 meters.
WDK
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