altitude questions

[rossching]

So I realize in the US the rule is 400 feet. If i take off at the base of a mountain and scale up staying within 400 feet of it, I could technically go way above 400 feet legally, correct?

My other question is if I start a the rim of the grand canyon and go down the 4000 feet to the bottom, is there anything in the firmware that would prevent me from doing that? Or, is there any kind of possible altitude glitch that'd not allow me to climb back out of the canyon?

 

[bradjward]

The Grand Canyon is a no-fly zone. http://www.theclymb.com/stories/out-there/drones-banned-in-national-parks/


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[rossching]

The Grand Canyon is a no-fly zone.

I was just using the Grand Canyon as a hypothetical.

 

[ISP5557]

The rule is 400 foot AGL (Above ground level) you can be 400ft AGL but be 4,400ft MSL (Mean Sea Level) and still be legal. So if you are at the top of a 4,000 foot mountain and your Inspire is at 4,399 MSL you are good to go. The inspire uses several sensors to determine altitude. It can fly into canyons below where you are standing, and then gain altitude out of the canyon and above your head. . Tried to give you the cliffs notes version.

 

[johnmont250]

So I realize in the US the rule is 400 feet. If i take off at the base of a mountain and scale up staying within 400 feet of it, I could technically go way above 400 feet legally, correct?

My other question is if I start a the rim of the grand canyon and go down the 4000 feet to the bottom, is there anything in the firmware that would prevent me from doing that? Or, is there any kind of possible altitude glitch that'd not allow me to climb back out of the canyon?

yes you could be only 60 ft off the side of the mountain, but you will stop at the limit of the copter, i guess. I used to live in sandy utah, and the maountains behind go straight up. 400ft is not very far up, yet your only feet off the ground/mountain side.
if you want to film someone snowboarding for example you could run into problems if you are at the base of the mountain, but if you were at the top or halfway you might get a long run.

 

[PetePerrim]

I did some work for the Police where they wanted to see how well my P2 searched along the bottom of a cliff face here which is a popular suicide spot. After taking off from the cliff top I noticed that the iOSD started counting backwards as the P2 descended below its own take off point. It got to -400 or something as I reached the base of the cliff. I would imagine the Inspire will read its altitude similarly in relation to its own take off point being 0.

 

[bradjward]

I was just using the Grand Canyon as a hypothetical.

Just making sure The last thing we all need is another "Drone crashes in National Park" story.

 

[lrwskyfilms]

Really like the Grand Canyon went there in Feb 13 and boy was it cold, 0F, watched the sunrise, had a great time, if I took a quad the battery would have got frostbite.

 

[Kilrah]

I've flown a quad at the Grand Canyon West a few years ago - only at the Ranch though

 

[pokercop]

I was curious about that myself. If I flew the I1 off a cliff that had a 600' drop off for example, and continued flying away, would it still think it was at the same height as it was when it took off or cause problems because it was now way above its set altitude limit.

 

[Kilrah]

The altitude limits/indications are relative to the takeoff point.

 

[lrwskyfilms]

I've flown a quad at the Grand Canyon West a few years ago - only at the Ranch though

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Stunning photos, is that a theme park type of thing? Beautiful area, what settings did you use? Thx for sharing.

 

[Kilrah]

Yes kind of, it's a ranch where you can spend a night in the "old days" mood with some guys demonstrating cowboy stuff, simulating gunfights in the "main town road", policeman grabbing you and putting you in "jail" for half an hour... lol
Spent a full week there for a project, eating the same thing every day, no menu choices as you weren't really supposed to stay more than a night

I used a Sony W530 camera modified for remote trigger, mounted on an X3D-BL quad. Flown FPV in fully manual (rate) mode using the camera's live feed.
Yep that was at a time where you had to build, hack and actually fly... only 4 years ago.

 

[lrwskyfilms]

LOL, long before my time then. Fantastic, I did wonder it looks well organised, same food? I know US portions of food, I would have to be rolled out of there.
My experience started fully with the P2, seeing my mates putting their RC helis/planes over the years into various trees/buildings/shrubs/vehicles etc etc put me off. No, this modern dynamic GPS/Gyro electronic wizardry is for me, yes I want to how it works but more importantly I want to fly and fly, not rebuild after every flight. Cheers Mark