Is It Illegal?

[Mac282]

Legal or illegal it's not the question. To me, taking a product and modifying it, is cheap shot at someone's else's work. I would rather build a version and call it my own work. You'd earn a lot more respect in the community if you did. Sorry, I'm old fashion and that's my feeling about modifying products.

 

[Cookedinlh]

1640 ft (500m) above the takeoff point is only a DJI software limit.

I'm not sure exactly why DJI chose that value. It is not a legal limit. Legal limits in most countries are expressed in height above the underlying ground, not height above takeoff point.

Perhaps DJI thought 500m was high enough to allow you to ascend most hills that could practically be climbed, but low enough to prevent the most reckless altitude violations that some idiots might try. I don't know.

Any fixed limit on the height above takeoff has the effect of making some legal flights impossible, and/or making some illegal flights possible. So the limit will always seem stupid to some. But height above takeoff is the only thing readily measurable by the drone.

I suspect somebody just "made it up" . . it has no practical or legal reason. . . .400ft unless you are within 200ft of a structure . . .maybe it's just a typo and they mean 16,500ft "absolute ceiling" . . I could see that but I'm pretty sure I've seen mavic photos from elevations higher than that! . . otherwise it's just a mistake. . . pretty sure I could easily go higher than 1650 if it was legal.