I Have a Dumb Question about altitude

[Dale D]

I have a question which I should already have known by now after flying for 3 years. On my recent Montana Flyfishing trip, I flew my Mavic 2 Pro starting at an altitude of 11,000 feet from the top of the Beartooth Highway, The take off point was at least 11,000 feet high on the pass. I immediately got a red warning that I was exceeding my altitude, or some words to that effect. It scared me but I continued flying without incident, and made several other flights at that altitude, each time with the same warning. My settings have been set at the USA legal limits of 394 feet or 400 feet to round it off. Is that the reason I got that warning?

 

[Deleted member 103366]

I would suspect that the drone was thinking that the air is thin up there, although the ceiling is supposed to be 6000m, so it should have been ok.
If you replay the flight via the records section at the front of the app do you see the warnings?
If not, can you post the logs?

The 400ft up to 500m ceiling thing, that you can set in the app, is relative to the take off point, it IS NOT relative to sea level (your 11,000ft ) so it would not be the cause of warnings as the drone takes off

 

[Amckim2084]

I’ve always got the warning around 394ft and I just drop it to 390ft. Was your warning immediately after take off? If not, I think DJI just puts out the warning at 394ft so that you see it before you actually go above 400ft.

 

[vindibona1]

It's not a dumb question, Dale. DJI has some built in warnings that can appear for a variety of reasons. I'll be interested to hear what others have to say about this question.

 

[Meta4]

I immediately got a red warning that I was exceeding my altitude, or some words to that effect. ... Is that the reason I got that warning?

Without knowing what the warning was, no-one can answer your question.
Post the flight data, and it will show the actual warning message and possibly also have some relevant information to help understand what it was about.

 

[umanbean]

Without knowing what the warning was, no-one can answer your question.

Best answer, as usual...

People call me to come work on their computer. When I get there, they say "It said so-and-so, or something like that"... Well, without knowing the exact message, how can I fix it? I charge by the hour, so I just dig in and start figuring it out and by the time I done, it costs the customer a lot more that way.

Fortunately, drones have logs.

 

[wardtom084]

Everyone should be using AirData and just post the flight.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

Everyone should be using AirData and just post the flight.

For DJI drones with unencrypted logs I think the phantomhelp page is better but both get you there in the end I suppose.

 

[JimWest]

This is just wild speculation. I sometimes get a warning "Extended flight distance detected" before I even take off with my M2P. The only thing I can figure is that for some reason the drone is retaining information about the location where it last flew. This might explain things if your drone thinks its still in Miami.

 

[Smooth Rhythm]

Dale, I’ve been flying drones for over two years now, but I’m beginning to believe there are almost no dumb questions regarding altitude (yeah, maybe one or two, but not yours…lol), most are intriguing. Hopefully you can post your flight data and I too look forward to reading what our more experience pilots have to say.

 

[Meta4]

The only thing I can figure is that for some reason the drone is retaining information about the location where it last flew. This might explain things if your drone thinks its still in Miami.

When you power the drone down, all location data goes.
When you power up again it has no location data until it picks up GPS again.

 

[umanbean]

The only thing I can figure is that for some reason the drone is retaining information about the location where it last flew.

As Meta4 said, When the drone is powered off, it 'forgets' where it was last time you flew... all previous location data is gone. It doesn't remember you were 'in Miami' last time you flew.

BTW, it's just like a computer's RAM memory, after power off (not sleep) RAM is blank at startup - until it reads the BIOS, and starts reading drivers and Windows OS files from the hard drive (and by the time it stops on your Home screen, it's occupying a lot of your RAM )

 

[Zbip57]

I’ve always got the warning around 394ft and I just drop it to 390ft. Was your warning immediately after take off? If not, I think DJI just puts out the warning at 394ft so that you see it before you actually go above 400ft.

Here's a video from Old Mr. Kent showing this same warning message. There are actually several issues happening in this video. He gets a warning which he didn't understand about the 492ft (150m) GEO Altitude Zone from a nearby airport. And his video signal then completely froze up.

But at 1:15 you see the popup warning message about exceeding 393ft, along with a blinking red 400ft indicator at the bottom of the screen. Is that the same warning?

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[tlswift58]

I’ve always got the warning around 394ft and I just drop it to 390ft. Was your warning immediately after take off? If not, I think DJI just puts out the warning at 394ft so that you see it before you actually go above 400ft.

He was not at max altitude from what I read. He got the msg because of his Above Sea Level altitude of 11,000 ft - which like others have said - should not have happened.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

With regards to the extended flight distance during warm up etc.
As speculation.....often if I fly in the house ( insufficient GPS locks) a replay of the flight will show me to be in the middle of the Atlantic ( I presume a 0, 0 Lat and long, or something like that).
Assuming that happens to other folks too then, if the drone initially thinks it is in mid atalantic and subsequently finds itself 'over land' it may think it has flown a LOOOONNNGGGG way and issue the warning.
I do not remember that happening with my but I am fairly certain I have seen a replay that showed a flight path from mid atlantic to the UK.

 

[umanbean]

Assuming that happens to other folks too then, if the drone initially thinks it is in mid atalantic

That could only possibly? happen if the operator (pilot?) didn't wait for the drone to acquire a sufficient satellite lock to know where it is now before takeoff.

 

[Dale D]

When you power the drone down, all location data goes.
When you power up again it has no location data until it picks up GPS again.

This was not the first time I turned on and flew the drone in Montana. I had already made many flights there after arriving from Miami. The warnings came when I got to the top of the Beartooth Highway pass which is about 11,000 feet. The warning was a red box with warnings that I had exceeded my altitude. I had the drone nearby above my head and it seemed ok so I just went ahead and flew it around away from me. I continued to get this message until I came back down from altitude.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

That could only possibly? happen if the operator (pilot?) didn't wait for the drone to acquire a sufficient satellite lock to know where it is now before takeoff.

True or the drone was booted indoors and moved out of doors

 

[Dale D]

True or the drone was booted indoors and moved out of doors

NEGATIVE for both! I heard the little lady first. There was no "indoors" within 30 miles

 

[umanbean]

True or the drone was booted indoors and moved out of doors

If you move it outdoors to a spot where it has a clear shot at the open sky, and wait a minute, it will acquire the necessary satellites... same with the compass.

I've started my Mavic on my porch on top of a metal table, gotten the 'compass error' message... then, after checking all settings, moved it outside to my lawn and the compass error goes away. Soon as it get sufficient sats, I takeoff... no problems.