I have to do a photo shoot at an altitude of about 9200 feet above sea level. How will the phantom perform at that altitude?
High altitude photo shoot
- Thread starter vegasteacher
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I have flown a P4P+ plenty at this altitude with no performance issues. Presumably batteries should drain a bit faster but I haven't noticed it. I'm pretty conservative with battery drain margins.
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I have had my phantom at over 10,000’ in -20 below and noticed no problems other than keeping battery warm enough to lift off and my hands were freezing!
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Had a cold weather issue once and had to warm up the batteries. Worked fine then. So KEEP THE BATTERIES WARM.
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I have had them next to the campfire before but the best place is on the dash of the car with the defrost blowing hard. In next to your skin for a long time will work but it needs to be right next to your skin. This is all in below 50 degrees weather.
First off where are you to be at 9200 MSL? FAA says 400'ft above ground & or that hight over a tower building etc. if the low temps are a concern do your best to keep in a warm space so that you're not having to wait for your drone to warm up. Simply keeping them wrapped in a blanket is not adequate I say from experience from almost 10 minutes of waiting and later placing batteries on top of engine block to thaw out worked out great.
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You can fly at 9000' but still not get over 400 !
But you must be pretty high in the mountains.
But you must be pretty high in the mountains.
A bit fascinating, this question. Where I live rules and regulations wont allow me to fly higher that 120 meters (~350 ft), and as Ivan Urias pointed out it seems as if you have the same rules in your country..
And Andy9 asked the same question as I was going to. You are in the mountains?
And Andy9 asked the same question as I was going to. You are in the mountains?
I live most of the year up at 8,000' MSL in the Rocky Mountains and fly regularly up at 12,000' MSL which is my take off altitude and above and never have to worry about being above being above 400' AGL except when I'm in an area with vertical cliffs of over 2,500' where I'll set my return to home higher than any vertical cliffs. My P4 and P4PV2 pretty much behave like at Sea Level where I have my second home. My MP behaves the same but my Inspire 1V2 pretty much requires that I use the High Altitude Props. The wind can seriously affect the performance. The flight times of my I1V2 are much shorter at altitude. In the winter months I regularly fly at down to 0°F using special thin gloves but when the OAT (Outside Air Temperature) gets colder I don't fly especially when it can get down to -25°F at my house. I fly for fun, not commercially!
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Pilots flying at high altitudes aren't taking off at sea level. They're obviously already at a high altitude. 400' AGL means Above Ground Level (take off point), not sea level.
In case this isn't yet clear: an operator climbing to 9,600' can be taking off from 9,200'.
Phantoms aren't going to get above 500M AGL anyway, regardless of where they start (built in limit).
Warm batteries: I did the 'warm on the car dashboard' thing last November. It works. Since then, I found a DJI P3 battery warmer on Amazon for $20. It costs some juice, but a combo of warming 1 battery this way while the others wait on the dashboard gets me from flying when I need to.
Chris
In case this isn't yet clear: an operator climbing to 9,600' can be taking off from 9,200'.
Phantoms aren't going to get above 500M AGL anyway, regardless of where they start (built in limit).
Warm batteries: I did the 'warm on the car dashboard' thing last November. It works. Since then, I found a DJI P3 battery warmer on Amazon for $20. It costs some juice, but a combo of warming 1 battery this way while the others wait on the dashboard gets me from flying when I need to.
Chris
If think about it, if it were starting from 0ft AGL, or sea level, you’d run out of reception before getting to 9,600ft. A Phantom 4 Pro has a maximum (DJI reported) range of 5km on a really good day, which equates to about 1,665ft. I should think that reception would suffer significantly before that though.
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Yes, but we shouldn't have to even get to that point when someone simply asks "how does the craft operate at 9600ft" (without giving the altitude of ground level / home point).
My P3P owners manual has the following in it's specification table:
"Max Service Ceiling Above Sea Level: 6000m (Software altitude limit: 120 m above takeoff point)"
That's the altitude that DJI specifies the craft can fly at max (6000m is about 19,685ft).
Chris
Not totally sure what you are saying here. I was merely trying to point out that you would have to start off from an elevated position in order to reach 9,200’ as there are multiple problems associated with trying to get there if starting from sea level.
You also mentioned earlier that Phantoms have a hard limit if 500m above AGL. I’d never heard of that before. Is this locked into the firmware? or software configurable?
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The 500m limit is locked into the hardware, is what I remember reading, not firmware or software. It's also specified in my P3P manual, although 'locked into the hardware' is not mentioned.
there was that group in the Himalayas who had footage of a Phantom at 5350 metres BUT I don't recall seeing any footage recorded by the drone.
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