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

I'm confused.

Status
Not open for further replies.

grgguy

Active Member
Joined
Jul 12, 2018
Messages
41
Reactions
19
Age
52
I've tried to shorten my story up a bit. I've also tried to clean up my many grammatical errors...


So I'm flying my mavic pro in the hills above the city I live in. These are some foothills that have a gentle but definite rise to them.. Now I am flying away and up from me. As the the hills rise I raise my drone to compensating for the rise of the hills. The hills are remote. The next city is 10-15 miles away. So I've got a great signal on my Mavic. Its doing everything they said it would and doing it well. Here is my question at 2 miles or 12,500' away from me I've had to also raise the altitude of the drone to its maximum hieght of 1650'. All the while I'm no more then 350'-400' above the actual ground. I've got 3/4 of my signal strength on my remote in both video and r/c...Am I in violation of any laws because I've allowed my drone to rise with the pitch of the hills . If I did this while flying in sport mode should I expect 3 of my motors to overload. Causing my drone to crash. Should I expect a " Motor overload due to extreme height conditions' ?.
In countries besides the U.S. where they don't have flight height restrictions.. Are mavic pilots having their drones crash when they fly at altitudes higher then 400'? With the cause being" Motor overload due to extreme height conditions " ?? Because that is exactly what I'm being told by the good folks at the DJI warranty dept. These drones of ours are capability of going much higher then the software allows of 1650'. Or are they not capable of going to such said hieghts ? I don't remember reading anywhere that flying my drone up at a hieght of 1650' above me but still only 350-400 above the ground would cause 3 motors to fail. I read my logs after retrieving my drone. The logs said it had a motor obstruction. It didn't say 3 motors failed. It was completely uncontrollable. Yet in the response i received. It stated " I still had control" even though the same response said. I had 3 motors fail ?? I am extremely confused...How could I control the drone with only 1 of 4 motors running ? I have video of its last minute or so and its completely obvious that its spinning out of control. This isn't my first drone either. I've owed and still own an assortment of drones including a phantom 3 se, a Blade chroma, a blade 200qx, an eachine falcon 210 and a hubsan h501ss just to name a few. I know how to fly my drone. I might go out on a limb here and say I know how to fly my drones a little bet better then the average guy on these forms. As a couple of my drones are not controlled by software that basically fly's the drone for you. . No my blade 200qx and eachine are racers that won't even level themselves without input from me and thier respective remotes..I only say this to eliminate the thought that Im a novice flyer. I certainly can and do make mistakes. However on the day in question I made no mistakes. I was flying my drone when it alerted me of a system error. Next i could hear the drone spinning out of control. I hit the record button as it was falling out of the sky. It recorded the last minute of its life. The recording stops at about 30' from the ground
. As I said I read the logs..The logs said it had a motor obstruction. I heard from DJI today. They said I had 3 motors fail due to "Motor overload due to extreme height conditions". I'm calling BS. I've had my Mavic at its height limit many times. Please don't start about the law. I know the law but these drone are capable of so much more then what we do with them. There is no reason that flying them up at altitude should cause the motors to fail. There were not any obstructions in the air.. I didmt fly it through a flock of birds. This drone this magnificent drone had a motor failure and DJI because of said altitude doesn't want to cover it under warranty. I'm so confused I thought this company was on the up and up. With a reputable warranty dept..Again I'm
 
Last edited:
If you're in the US then current recommendation - not law per se AFAIK - is 400' above whatever structure or terrain you're flying over, so it's from a point directly below the drone.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Donnie Frank
your story is very hard to read without structure (line-breaks etc).

did your drone fall out of the sky? if so post logs and video if you have it.

the drone can fly up 500m from takeoff. this is a safety limit from DJI not a legal limit or a capability limit of the drone.

the drone has a service ceiling of 5000m (i.e. according DJI it can operate within normal parameters up to 5000m altitude.) you would have to take off from 4500m to reach this though.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Simmo
Note: You need to split your sentences into paragraphs. I got confused part way through and have to keep going back to re-read.
Why 3 motor overload? sounds like maybe you hit something, or something hit it.
The height restriction is based on take-off location. Maybe start from a higher elevation and fly downhill? The system is not able to keep updating itself of its actual height above ground in its current location.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Fleek
In Australia the legal altitude for a drone is 120m. The problem is that when you launch your drone it set the home point from it launch position. And coincidentally sets it's altitude at zero on the home point.

So while your drone is technically 120m above the home point, it's not 120m off the ground.
So no, your not doing anything illegal.

I suppose, to avoid this. The easiest thing to do is to launch from the highest point you can find.
 
In Australia the legal altitude for a drone is 120m. The problem is that when you launch your drone it set the home point from it launch position. And coincidentally sets it's altitude at zero on the home point.

So while your drone is technically 120m above the home point, it's not 120m off the ground.
So no, your not doing anything illegal.

I suppose, to avoid this. The easiest thing to do is to launch from the highest point you can find.

That is a little confusing. In Australia, imagine that you had a 120 mtr string hanging from your AC, that string must always touch the ground.
 
You can change the max height in the app. Stock setting is about 400’ but you can change this to a greater value.

Keeping the aircraft within 400’ of the ground as the mountain rises, even if it’s 1,000’ or more above your takeoff point would Appear to be within the faa recommended guidelines.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Maxheadspace
If you're in US and you're flying 2 miles away, you're violating VLOS rule, @ least.
I also stop reading after a while, it's like a novel.LOL
 
I posted this up late last night. The response from DJI's warranty dept was ridiculous and was keeping me up. I'm sorry if it is lime reading a novel. I was only trying to be thorough. I've seen others be torn apart for not being thorough.
If the Drones Motors weren't capable of taking them to such Heights then why isn't the software stopping it from doing so. I was flying my mavic Pro well within the parameters that it was designed for and because of my altitude DJI does not want to cover it. That is some serious BS.
 
To the OP. Motor overload due to extreme height conditions has nothing to do with your AGL (above ground level). It has everything to do with what altitude above sea level you were at. If you start flying on a mountain that's 20,000 ft up, you might have issues with the motors straining due to the thin air, even if you only fly 20 ft off the ground. So unless your height above sea level was way up there, that shouldn't have been the issue.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Lycus Tech Mavic Air 3 Case

DJI Drone Deals

New Threads

Forum statistics

Threads
130,585
Messages
1,554,092
Members
159,585
Latest member
maniac2000