400' Limitation Overide?

[GunnySnow]

Hi Everyone,

I just recently returned from a 3 week trip to Northern BC (Canada) and Alaska (USA) and was able to use my drone to get some amazing pictures of seals, whales, other animals and tonnes of mountains.

At no time was I in any airspace, or aircraft approach/departure paths, I was flying up the sides of mountains but could obviously only go to the 400' limit.

Is there a way to disable this feature when I am certain it is safe to do so? I have no desire to tarnish drone operators reputations, but I would enjoy flying up the sides of mountains a little higher.

Any suggestions?

cgo3+ mod (2).jpg

• Good time Charlie
• Jul 6, 2019

Regards,

Mike

 

[THoff]

All you have to do is download the GUI application and connect your computer to the Typhoon with a USB cable. You can then raise the maximum altitude to 1000 meters above takeoff.

Downloads - Yuneec

 

[PatR]

Yep

 

[Dragonflyerthom]

This is true, but please be careful for all of us.

 

[Reasty]

This is true, but please be careful for all of us.

I second this,the drone community dosn't need any more bad press right now.

 

[yuneec53]

Hi Everyone,

I just recently returned from a 3 week trip to Northern BC (Canada) and Alaska (USA) and was able to use my drone to get some amazing pictures of seals, whales, other animals and tonnes of mountains.

At no time was I in any airspace, or aircraft approach/departure paths, I was flying up the sides of mountains but could obviously only go to the 400' limit.

Is there a way to disable this feature when I am certain it is safe to do so? I have no desire to tarnish drone operators reputations, but I would enjoy flying up the sides of mountains a little higher.

Any suggestions?

cgo3+ mod (2).jpg

• Good time Charlie
• Jul 6, 2019

Regards,

Mike

The train the train fantastic, Forget the height more trains!

 

[abinder]

I second this,the drone community dosn't need any more bad press right now.

I still don't understand why anyone feels the need to go higher than 400 ft about the ground.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[RiverRunner]

I still don't understand why anyone feels the need to go higher than 400 ft about the ground.

Here is an example. I am flying from the river bank and want to go up to or above the bridge height. The bridge is 900 feet high.

 

[OnTheRopes]

I still don't understand why anyone feels the need to go higher than 400 ft about the ground.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Well of course there are needs, it depends on the purpose for which you use a drone. I have a tower inspection to do on a 500 foot tower, it will of course need proper CAA permissions, however it is an example of why. That being said I also urge caution, this should not be done illegally bad press is not what we need right now.

 

[OnTheRopes]

Here is an example. I am flying from the river bank and want to go up to or above the bridge height. The bridge is 900 feet high.

Can you not find a higher take off point up on one of the banks?

 

[RiverRunner]

Can you not find a higher take off point up on one of the banks?

There are many tall trees covering the banks on both sides of the river. Even if you were to launch from the road, you could only see the drone when it was straight overhead. You cannot launch from on or near the bridge. You are not allowed to park near it or walk out on the bridge.

 

[kevin swanson]

As an example I never exceeded 250' AGL to get to this position, but due to lack of access I had to launch from a spot 275' down hill from this location, there is just not much flat land here in the Pacific Northwest.

 

[FalconOne]

As a Part107 Operator in the Mountains of Western North Carolina I fly for a living and I can attest that there are situations quite often in which you need to climb the mountain side to get to the location from say a road or parking lot below, in order to complete the job. You are still within the FAA 400 AGL because you are at only maybe 80 feet over the tree tops and still very technically less the 400 AGL. We had a two day conference here with both the FAA and the North Carolina Division of Aviation - Fire Rescue, Law Enforcement and other Owner Operators like myself in attendance in which we verified that yes indeed we would still be within the legal operating rules and regulations in doing as I described above. The problem is, as with all drones under $20k, the drone is going by the original take off altitude and not actual AGL as it flies. The FAA understands this as well as I am sure their European partners do as well. It seems DJI was very aware of this as well. Hopefully Yuneec will one day apply the same logic because I really do enjoy flying my Typhoon and really like the camera and its wider lens and clarity. You can not beat the Typhoon H for the price, that is for sure. I will try the GUI adjustment and will repost if it works.

 

[FalconOne]

Please watch this Video which explains the details of the 400 ft AGL rule:

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[PatR]

Under Part 336 there are no legal requirements to fly at or below 400’ unless you’re within an airport traffic area. There is a recommendation to fly at or below elsewhere but it is not required. You should fly within the safety guidelines of a community based organization, and the AMA is generally thought to be that organization. I can assure you, their members frequently fly well above 400’ AGL. They could not participate in scale aerobatics or thermal soaring activities if they were limited to 400’.

Under Part 107 there are very clear requirements to limit altitude to 400’ AGL or less unless specific conditions permit otherwise. One of those conditions is inspecting a structure taller than 400’ but you must remain within 400’ of the structure. This includes flying up to 400’ higher than the structure if directly over it. A couple other allowable conditions are having an altitude waiver or dealing with an emergency condition where it is necessary to the safe outcome of the flight to exceed the 400’ limit.

Until the FAA elects to incorporate their registration altitude agreement into Part 336 I seriously doubt it can be legally enforced. In a manner of speaking you are forced to agree to the limit in order to obey the legal requirements for aircraft registration so you have to check that agreement box in order to complete the registration process.

 

[biltno]

I was just curious ...flying over 400 ft with an H , how much extra battery power do you have once you get to say 500 ft? Obviously you need power to get back down. I never went over 200 ft yet and was uncomfortable at that. I can’t seem to get to that point where the H is out of my line of sight

 

[PatR]

Available power is a function impacted by time in flight, speed, maneuvering, weather conditions, and camera usage. Climbing to 500’ is not much different in power consumption than flying at speed or adding distance. Because of that the amount of time a battery will give us has considerable variability so estimating battery consumption based on altitude achievement alone is pretty hard to calculate.

I suppose if someone did a series of experiments tracking voltage during flights where only straight up climbs to high altitudes were performed the data could be used to generate consumption averages but I’m not aware of anyone that has done that at the hobbyist level.

All that aside, monitoring battery voltage displayed on the ST-16, the numerical value not the bar depiction, is the best way to estimate remaining flight time as you can develop a sense of how quickly a battery is being depleted and act accordingly. If flying high you might consider allowing a couple extra 10’s of a volt above to cover the time for descent. For example, if you normally initiated a return of the aircraft at 14.8V to assure it was landed by 14.5V you might increase that initial return voltage level to 15V or 15.1V to allow for the extra time descending. Of course that is also applicable to how far away the aircraft is when a return is initiated. Also helpful is “descending on the fly” when at distance by maintaining a constant descent during flight back to the landing location.

Sorry my reply was not clear cut but too many things impact battery consumption to make a climb/voltage drop estimate pretty darn difficult to do.

 

[FalconOne]

So I am new to the Typhoon, and really enjoy it so far. I did have one issue as a part 107 pilot that works in the Mountains of Western North Carolina and that was the 400 ft from take off limit. My work really requires me to have the ability to fly up a mountain side higher than 400 ft from take off, but still flying under the Part 107 rules and regulations of 400 ft radius from the object building or land acreage I am hired to film or inspect, and no higher than 400 ft above the subject matter. Luckily for me Yuneec has a pretty easy fix and in order to get it you do have to send them a copy of your Part 107 certification card. ( You experienced Typhon users probably know this already) Under the support page click on the link "Guided assistance for common issues" and in there is a link titled "Remove No-Fly restrictions" Fill out the form and they will send you 2 emails- one you have to reply with a photo copy of your Part 107 and the second email with a temporary license that you update thru the GUI which will remove the limitations temporarily while they verify your FAA Part 107 certification- and then supposedly they will send you a more permanent solution. I just now did it and waiting for them to verify my certification card.

 

[PatR]

The general 400’ limit is not imposed by NFZ restrictions. It’s a factory default setting used for all new Typhoon H’s to assist new operators to comply with the law. Changing the limit can be done by anyone that downloads and makes use of the GUI. Open the GUI, connect the H, change and save the new altitude limit. No waiver required.

 

[FalconOne]

The general 400’ limit is not imposed by NFZ restrictions. It’s a factory default setting used for all new Typhoon H’s to assist new operators to comply with the law. Changing the limit can be done by anyone that downloads and makes use of the GUI. Open the GUI, connect the H, change and save the new altitude limit. No waiver required.

Yes well I tried that initially but it did not work, my understanding is the new firmware upgrade will no longer let you change it in the GUI. Trust me I tried several times last night and even did several test flights only to hit the 396 ft ceiling. I feel this license upgrade from Yuneec will be a more permanent solution.