How does altitude work when you are flying the drone in in uphill direction ?   My backyard faces a regional open space that goes uphill about 900 feet from my yard.  I have my maximum altitude set at 400 feet, because that is the limit.  As I fly in the uphill direction, I assume it will be closer and closer to the ground.  Will it at some point sense it is too close to the ground and what will happen then?

Sir, I would not recommend you fly too close to the ground as it may affect the performance of the vision system. Please fly in a wide place without interference. Flying between obstacle may cause disconnection. Thanks for your support.

I believe altitude is calculated from your take off point.

So if you are flying up a hill, you could still be reporting an altitude of 30m, and crash into the ground.    (ignoring obstacle avoidance..etc).   That's how I think it works anyway

You will crash into the ground

The Spark does not have the terrain follow mode as the mavic  - at least not until you activate it by some magic tricks.

LeChuck71 Posted at 2018-1-17 23:35
You will crash into the ground

The Spark does not have the terrain follow mode as the mavic  - at least not until you activate it by some magic tricks.

magic tricks ?? please tell us

Altitude is assessed against the home point

Yes, you will eventually hit the hill if it's taller than the set 400 ft elevation limit. If possible I would climb the hill so you can fly at 400 ft. + height of hill.

Jetje200 Posted at 2018-1-17 23:58
magic tricks ?? please tell us

@ jetje you have your magic trick in your PM

If you fly slow enough, it will follow the terrain up to max settings altitude, 400'' over home point altitude.
I tested that by accident. It will not get down alone!
And cant tell, if 'ground' is trees!
Because the VPS will rise it up a bit, every time the ground comes too close.
If you wanna fly higher as the 400'', you need to land it there.
Take off again and you should be able to gain another 400'' altitude
Be careful, both homepoints you can set then, are 'not optimal'
one is far away ;-), the other one -400'' from starting point
But:
As you can fly 400'' over ground, you could, of course, set the height to heigher altitudes, as soon the ground is closer as the 400''
You only have to take care, for the legal limit, on the way down.
Or do I misunderstand the agl limits, here?

Altitude is set against the home point.

And what has that to do with flying a drone always up to 400'' agl?
The setting in the app is a help for the pilot, not to get over the legal heights.
But only when the height is asl, it is a absolut height.
So you can adjust it, to fly 400'' over the ground the drone just flying over.
Or can we fly on 400'' agl start point only?
Do that, starting on a 300'' hill and flying out over the flat land at its bottom
Would be 700'', then, right?

A CW Posted at 2018-1-18 00:06
Altitude is assessed against the home point

Does that means it can ascend to 400 feet, and then ascend additional 400 feet if manually setting a new home point?

As to the original question, I think active track and one of the tapfly modes can go uphill.

500 metres above the home point so yes - as an example, take off from the entrance of the Empire State and work your way up in 500m increments and you can fly 1,640’ above the roof of the Empire State (in terms of how altitude measurements work in the drone - not literally or NYC Police will have you LOL). However, most people don’t move at all when flying.