Hi all, I am curious....What is you max altitude w/ you P3 and which P3 do you have?  I have only gone up to 167 feet w/ my P3S and it was a bit nervous lol.

Thanks
  Otto

The max altitude any P3 or P4  can reach is set by software at 1640 feet. 500 meters.

400 ft per FAA regulations

WOW that is high.........I am not that brave LOL

492ft above the home point, over higher ground.

400 ft is the FAA limit. I know people like to go higher but they are the type that screw things for everyone else. There is that small percentage of the population in what ever you want to talk about that screws things up

I have max height set to 120m ie 400ft, go that high all the time.

The question is pointless.
It would return a bunch of numbers between zero and 500 metres.
Some have flown a little and some higher but no-one has exceeded 500 metres.

You may as well ask:
What shoe size do you take?
How high are you?
What's your favourite colour?

You'd get as much useful information.

400", I never go higher. I break the LOS rule on distance but never altitude. I will not fly into the space of other aircraft. I also fly mostly over corn fields...

Jerry

My max was around 380ft. Didnt realize it was really that high haha, but yeah stay within 400 feet.

Because I live in the mountains,  I can go the entire 1640 feet max and still never exceed the 400 foot rule.  And there are never any other aircraft around here because,  as I said,  it is the mountains.

labroides@yahoo Posted at 2016-4-15 19:12
The question is pointless.
It would return a bunch of numbers between zero and 500 metres.
Some have ...

NO it is not pointless. I was asking what personal altitude did you reach. yea the answers would be between 0 and 500m  maybe more.  If you don't want to disclose your max alt STFU and move on to the next thread. I asked because I was curious what others did since I only went up 167 feet.

Otto

bfd300 Posted at 2016-4-16 13:36
NO it is not pointless. I was asking what personal altitude did you reach. yea the answers would b ...

Well you'll get a whole range between zero and 500 metres.
Enjoy the numbers.

I've taken it to the max a few times.To be honest,once you have done it a few times, you won't feel the need to fly that high again.
I find that your footage is far better when flown at lower height.
Most of my flight is between 30-100m depending on were I'm flying.

Kneepuck Posted at 2016-4-16 00:53
Because I live in the mountains,  I can go the entire 1640 feet max and still never exceed the 400 f ...

There must be no people there either then, no?

Unfortunately, because the UK is no crammed with people, there's always the chance to come across a search & rescue helicopter or air ambulance.

labroides@yahoo Posted at 2016-4-16 00:12
but no-one has exceeded 500 metres...

...from their take off point.  I'm still planning to test the theory of landing at a higher altitude on a mountain & stopping & restarting the motors to see if it'll go higher, which I think it will.

nigelw Posted at 2016-4-16 19:49
...from their take off point.  I'm still planning to test the theory of landing at a higher altitud ...

Pretty sure you are right.

As far as I know, that FAA ceiling of 400 feet is a "safety guideline", not a rule, limit or law. At least that is what it says on the registration they mailed me. I have flown above it 400 feet. I used flightradar24 to pick an opportune time. I have a mobile version I usually check when I fly anyway. I am planning to take it up above 1000 feet at some point in the future (inside the US even!) - but I am going to be doing it in Marinette County - well outside any major plane traffic - and I may utilize smoke as well (for additional safety). Honestly, 400 feet is plenty high for me - I really just wanted to see if it would go above 500 feet (I've had some metric/imperial thought issues - like with RTH). I am certainly not telling anyone else to go above 400 - safe flying benefits all of us. But depending on where you live, you might be able to fly higher than that. Please be safe for all of our sakes.

nigelw Posted at 2016-4-16 02:46
There must be no people there either then, no?

Unfortunately, because the UK is no crammed with p ...

Yes, I've got it pretty lucky in that respect.  The terrain where I fly is uninhabited for many miles. My nearest neighbor is over a mile in the other direction from where I normally fly.  I do briefly exceed the 400 foot height when I cross over a canyon that cuts through my property,  but  I have never seen or even heard of any air traffic through that canyon.   It is deep, but only a few hundred feet wide.  

Guys who consistently fly 1,000's of feet in the air, aren't you just flirting with grave disaster?? Maybe you're correct that no aircraft is in the area. But are you completely sure?? What happens on the unlucky day when a chopper or low flying plane is exactly in your path and because you are almost half a mile away, you have no clue? Is the video at that distance really worth the risk? And if it is found to be your Phantom, what excuse will you give when the FAA asks why were you flying well above 400 feet? Because you are a rebel and don't have to follow no cotton picking FAA suggestion? I ask again, is the video that important??

I also disagree that this is a nonsense question. I'm very curious too about the distances other fliers adhere to. It's reassuring to hear that many of us do practice safe flying and stay below 400 feet.

I set the max height to 120 meters, which is 394 ft. This way I know I'm under FAA regulations.

The Phantom DJ Posted at 2016-4-16 13:49
Guys who consistently fly 1,000's of feet in the air, aren't you just flirting with grave disaster?? ...

Guys who consistently fly 1,000's of feet in the air, aren't you just flirting with grave disaster??

Phantom 3s are not flying thousands of feet in the air.  They don't have enough battery to do it!

AG0N-Gary Posted at 2016-4-17 06:39
Guys who consistently fly 1,000's of feet in the air, aren't you just flirting with grave disaster ...

It's not the battery that stops them at 500 metres

Bds300, ignore the naysayers. There's a very good reason for your question: you are nervous do go the max and you wonder how many others have, and probably you're looking for a bit of encouragement. It's a valid question, very much so.

I was nervous the first week or two, but now I hit the ceiling on nearly every flight.  In all normal conditions, you are well within the range of the RC, so you don't have that to worry about. So basically, after taking off, going to 300-400 feet shouldn't be any more difficult than going 50-100 feet.

Don't forget that if you do get out of range, failsafe RTH (Return To Home) should kick in and save you. Same thing if the battery gets too low. In each case, the craft does not fall out of the sky -- it simply lands. You can override that (cancel the auto landing from your remote), and you can also control the craft a little while it's landing to be sure it lands more safely.

What can go wrong: you can lose sight of your craft. It's not hard to do: you can see it if you keep your eye on it, but look at your controller once and then back and you might find that it's no longer visible. NOT TO WORRY! In this case, there are many things you can do. At the very least, you can calmy press the RTH button. That will return it to a point above the Home Point. And once you see it again, you can cancel RTH if you like.

Also, if you lose sight of it, you can simply look down at your FPV controller and see what the camera sees. Doing this, you can point it to the place you are and fly back, perhaps bringing the altitude down a little (if it's safe, as in no obstacles around). As in the above scenario, once you see it again, you can go back to flying around.

First time: program in a 400' (120M) max in the Go app. Then just do it, flying up and up while keeping your eyes on it, and when the Remote audibly tells you that you've reached the maximum altitude, keep your eyes on it and let go of the sticks so that it hovers. Then look down at your remote, then back up to see if you can see it. If you can't, don't panic, just follow the above options.

Sometimes for safety purposes I will go above 120m when I'm flying around windmills (some are almost 200m high!),
There's no other aircraft around these windfarms so I'm not too worried about that.
Personally I think that going anything over 150m really compromises video quality, everything gets way too small for the little P3 lens :-)

P3A_Pilot Posted at 2016-4-16 22:10
Sometimes for safety purposes I will go above 120m when I'm flying around windmills (some are almost ...

I take it you mean wind turbines.  You'd be ok going over them as it's the same in effect as flying over a hill.  There won't normally be any other aircraft below 400ft from the highest point of the turbine blades.  Yes, technically it's not the ground, but I'd treat it the same.

4 KM haha ,  well that was  over a 3.5 mountain and then i fly 500 meters up  ,   i know that someone is going to say thats too dangerous and other stuff ,
and the answer is  don't worry i investigate a little bit first and that was a really big forest  no one lives over there and also  the planes doest fly over there  because there are a lot  mountains around ;)

labroides@yahoo Posted at 2016-4-16 15:43
It's not the battery that stops them at 500 metres

No, I didn't say that.  I'm saying the battery wouldn't let it do "thousands of feet" either.

AG0N-Gary Posted at 2016-4-17 11:27
No, I didn't say that.  I'm saying the battery wouldn't let it do "thousands of feet" either.

A quick calculation shows that the battery would allow a P3 to get up 2000 metres - over 6500 feet and back for a flight time of about 18 mins.
The battery would allow flight to thousands of feet

i don't think you'll make it.

200M during night flight....

AG0N-Gary Posted at 2016-4-17 13:04
i don't think you'll make it.

The arithmetic says it will.
The battery could easily do 2000 m up @ 5 m/sec = 6.7 mins
And 2000 m down @ 3 m/s = 11.1 mins
Total time = 18 mins to go to 6500 feet up and back.

If you wanted to fly up a few thousand feet, the battery would not limit you.

i've hit the limit. 500m. But actually i see no reason to fly that high, mostly for the shooting 300 m is enough IMHO

@ nigelw
Check out this guys videos on youtube for Phantom in the mountains:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJyJKu3ysdceGqK_JaZFUNA

Here is a rotor or motor failure  (never worked out which) at 445m 1460ft.
By virtue of the height, it got to log an additional 19s of flight time before it disintegrated into components.

Outside controlled airspace in the middle of nowhere in Australia so no regs were broken. Just the machine.

Hawks100 Posted at 2016-4-16 11:16
I've taken it to the max a few times.To be honest,once you have done it a few times, you won't feel  ...

Agree with that. it's fun to take it up to it's max once or twice to see if it really does it and what the view is but after that you stay much lower, somewhere between 25 and 50 m most of the time...

GM01 Posted at 2016-4-17 09:02
@ nigelw
Check out this guys videos on youtube for Phantom in the mountains:  clicky

Awesome place.  I've done the CMD Arete walk in summer but still to get the weather for it in winter.  Last time I tried I found myself in a blizzard & complete whiteout so decided to leave it for another day.  I fully intend to get my P3 up there some time soon though, although I'll ascend via the tourist route as it's a lot easier with the extra weight of the P3.

Not A Speck Of  Posted at 2016-4-16 16:05
Bds300, ignore the naysayers. There's a very good reason for your question: you are nervous do go th ...

Excellent advice! New pilots can save themselves a ton of headaches and problems by following this.  I know when I crashed my Standard 3, the issue was I panicked and my controls were faulty (not in P-GPS Mode)

My recent high altitude was 249 feet. Video at that height takes on a majestic aura. I agree with Bds300, going 300 feet is really no difference than going 100 feet, save for windy days and unexpected turbulence higher up, so no reason to be afraid. Just make sure everything is ok, good battery, remote and phone fully charged,  calibration done, etc and you'll become more and more comfortable at those heights.

I'm reaching the point where my hands no longer tremble when I hit 250 feet because I can still see the Phantom and it still feels rock solid.

Well I hit 226 today started to fly forward and lost it in the sun.........I almost pooped........I took a breathe......hit RTH and got her back.

392 feet.  Looking at the horizon isn't much different than 100' up.  But looking down at altitude is great.