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

Flying at high altitudes

  • Thread starter Deleted member 65595
  • Start date
Yes. I was referring to elevations around 3500 m, not 3500 m AGL for the flights.
Yeah, obviously. Kind of a stupid question to ask on my behalf. Anyway, if you think those mountains / the area you live at would look good in a video, please say where it is [emoji4]
 
Yeah, obviously. Kind of a stupid question to ask on my behalf. Anyway, if you think those mountains / the area you live at would look good in a video, please say where it is [emoji4]

Location is Los Alamos, NM, in the Jemez Mountains. The nearby Sangre de Cristos, which form the southern end of the Rockies, are probably more photogenic though since the Jemez Mountains have suffered badly from wildfires.
 
Location is Los Alamos, NM, in the Jemez Mountains. The nearby Sangre de Cristos, which form the southern end of the Rockies, are probably more photogenic though since the Jemez Mountains have suffered badly from wildfires.
I see, thanks! Sangre de Cristos is definetely on my bucket list now
 
The Mavic 2 is rated to 5000m above sea level, so 4000m should be perfectly OK. People have apparently gone a good deal higher than that (almost certainly not legally), and although it's not entirely clear how modified those drones were it's very likely that the 5000m is just what DJI considers "safe" rather than an enforced ceiling and the drone would be able to operate higher if pushed and conditions were good.

Air pressure (and hence temperature) drops with altitude, so you'll have colder batteries and the thinner air means that the motors will have to work harder to keep the drone in the air. You'll also typically get higher windspeeds than at sea level, which will again reduce battery life, so expect flight times to be further reduced accordingly.

Check the wind conditions with something like UAV Forecast before you fly, keep an eye on the battery life indicator, make sure you have plenty of battery to RTH, and you should be fine.
Wow, thanks for the feedback! Didn't know they actually had a 'limit' for the Mavic 2 height
 
DJI built the barometric pressure system to read up to 10km/250hPa.
 
I live at about 3000m, so all my flights go up from there. I do get the "Max RPM" message quite often. I fly about 95% in the mountains. I'd say the most challenging aspect is the wind. They can vary greatly just a few hundred feet above the ground. Around here as a front passes, and the sky clears, the 75mph downsloping winds are not far behind. Wind will come out of nowhere in the mountains and can do very strange things.
 
I live at about 3000m, so all my flights go up from there. I do get the "Max RPM" message quite often. I fly about 95% in the mountains. I'd say the most challenging aspect is the wind. They can vary greatly just a few hundred feet above the ground. Around here as a front passes, and the sky clears, the 75mph downsloping winds are not far behind. Wind will come out of nowhere in the mountains and can do very strange things.
What props are you using?
 
I live at about 3000m, so all my flights go up from there. I do get the "Max RPM" message quite often. I fly about 95% in the mountains. I'd say the most challenging aspect is the wind. They can vary greatly just a few hundred feet above the ground. Around here as a front passes, and the sky clears, the 75mph downsloping winds are not far behind. Wind will come out of nowhere in the mountains and can do very strange things.

3000m!! Holy Cow. :oops: And your flights go up from there? :eek: You're at the altitude where pilots will generally go on oxygen any higher. You must have incredible lungs like a sherpa if you live at that altitude.
 
3000m!! Holy Cow. :oops: And your flights go up from there? :eek: You're at the altitude where pilots will generally go on oxygen any higher. You must have incredible lungs like a sherpa if you live at that altitude.

You can get used to it surprisingly quickly, if you're reasonably fit. 3000m is just under 2 miles, and the OP is in Colorado, so almost certainly somewhere up in the Rockies (which go up to about 4400m).

I live more or less at sea level, but on a recent trip I spent a day in Denver, which is 1 mile ASL, then drove the I70 route to Aspen for a night before coming back via Trail Ridge Road through the Rockies the following day. (As an aside, this was late June, the road had only just re-opened after winter, and the snow roadside was still about 3m deep in places!) On the way back I ran maybe a few hundred metres from a parking lot up to a view point at with all my camera gear (about 15kg, incl. tripod) to catch the sunset and only needed a few seconds to catch my breath. IIRC, that was at the Alpine Vistor Centre, which according to Google is about 3,600m ASL.
 
H
3000m!! Holy Cow. :oops: And your flights go up from there? :eek: You're at the altitude where pilots will generally go on oxygen any higher. You must have incredible lungs like a sherpa if you live at that altitude.
HaHa, I guess I missed my calling..
 
You can get used to it surprisingly quickly, if you're reasonably fit. 3000m is just under 2 miles, and the OP is in Colorado, so almost certainly somewhere up in the Rockies (which go up to about 4400m).

I live more or less at sea level, but on a recent trip I spent a day in Denver, which is 1 mile ASL, then drove the I70 route to Aspen for a night before coming back via Trail Ridge Road through the Rockies the following day. (As an aside, this was late June, the road had only just re-opened after winter, and the snow roadside was still about 3m deep in places!) On the way back I ran maybe a few hundred metres from a parking lot up to a view point at with all my camera gear (about 15kg, incl. tripod) to catch the sunset and only needed a few seconds to catch my breath. IIRC, that was at the Alpine Vistor Centre, which according to Google is about 3,600m ASL.
Yeah, I grew up in Denver and moved up here about 10 years ago. Even coming from Denver I felt like I had the flu for a couple weeks, now I don't even notice it.
 
Have a look at your Mavic 2 Pro manual ... you'll see under the spec's on page 61, that the 'Max Service Ceiling Above Sea Level' is stated as '6,000 metres' (that's 19,685 ft).
https://dl.djicdn.com/downloads/Mavic_2/20190124/Mavic_2_Pro_Zoom_User_Manual_v1.8_.pdf
Useful things those manuals ...
Interesting, it seems to be 5000m for the Mavic 1 which I have. Apparently you could go further though, see this quote from the linked article: "Above the service ceiling you should still be able to climb, but climb performance will be less than 100 feet per minute" (or 30m per minute)

DJI Mavic Pro Reviewed With Frequently Asked Questions
 
Interesting, it seems to be 5000m for the Mavic 1 which I have. Apparently you could go further though, see this quote from the linked article: "Above the service ceiling you should still be able to climb, but climb performance will be less than 100 feet per minute" (or 30m per minute)

DJI Mavic Pro Reviewed With Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, I looked up your Mavic 1's specs in my post above; it's 1,000m less than the M2. Nice 20% improvement for the M2 there too, so well done DJI!

As noted, it's only a guide and you can absolutely go higher, even with a stock drone with no mods. The absolute ceiling will depend on the conditions at the time; if it's a fine day with high air pressure and ideal humidity then you would be able to get higher than on a cooler day with low air pressure.
 
Yes, I looked up your Mavic 1's specs in my post above; it's 1,000m less than the M2. Nice 20% improvement for the M2 there too, so well done DJI!

As noted, it's only a guide and you can absolutely go higher, even with a stock drone with no mods. The absolute ceiling will depend on the conditions at the time; if it's a fine day with high air pressure and ideal humidity then you would be able to get higher than on a cooler day with low air pressure.

Performance is actually determined just by air density, which goes up with increasing pressure, decreasing temperature and decreasing humidity.
 
A month ago I went to Italy, and naturally I brought my drone with me. I think mountains are some of the most spectacular things you can capture from a drone. The footage is below.

Now, since this turned out great, I would like to climb a bigger mountain in the summer, like 4000 meters or so. Would the altitude be a problem? Pressure and such isn't exactly the same up there. Any physicists out there? Or anyone with more experience than me?


WONDERFUL ... FANTASTIC...Thank You
 
Interesting, it seems to be 5000m for the Mavic 1 which I have. Apparently you could go further though, see this quote from the linked article: "Above the service ceiling you should still be able to climb, but climb performance will be less than 100 feet per minute" (or 30m per minute)

DJI Mavic Pro Reviewed With Frequently Asked Questions
This has probably got a lot to do with the M2P's motors and prop's. The prop's on the M2P have a pitch of 4.3" while the standard Mav' Pro has 3.0" ... So the combination of more powerful motors and courser prop' pitch allow the Mav' 2 Pro to get higher.
 
This has probably got a lot to do with the M2P's motors and prop's. The prop's on the M2P have a pitch of 4.3" while the standard Mav' Pro has 3.0" ... So the combination of more powerful motors and courser prop' pitch allow the Mav' 2 Pro to get higher.
Interesting... Yes it sounds reasonable
 
Lycus Tech Mavic Air 3 Case

DJI Drone Deals

New Threads

Forum statistics

Threads
130,584
Messages
1,554,108
Members
159,588
Latest member
gfusato