Drone How high you’d risk to fly a drone ?

[Vas (Jack)]

More drone discussion here, and for drone pilots members.

How high you’d risk to fly your drone in your country ?

I know the highest you can go by law is 120m, not sure if that’s everywhere. But would you risk to fly higher to get better and nicer picture ?

 

[A_cat_typingg]

With my drone, as the lens is so wide angle and it's only 12MP resolution if I was to go too high my images would probably suffer, unless I was trying to capture a truly massive landscape feature. It's really not worth risking breaking the law for the sake of a photo, and I think if the photo demands doing it then I've not really thought through all the alternative ways I can capture the subject in a legal way.

However, I suppose if I was in the middle of nowhere, like central Scottish highlands I might - at a pinch - consider going above the 400ft ceiling a little if the result was going to be a once in a lifetime shot, but I'd be ready to get the hell out of dodge afterwards.

Then there's a nice little "loophole", and it comes in the form of hills and mountains.

If the subject you're shooting is high up, like a mountain, you can be up to 400ft above the top of that mountain, as long as the ground is directly underneath the drone so you can be theoretically flying quite a distance above sea level, and if the landscape feature you wanted to take is at the foot of or near to that mountain, then you've got the opportunity to get higher, legally (ahem) than 400ft above (at an angle) the subject to take the pictures. I use that "loophole" near where I live by flying from the top of Bredon Hill in Worcestershire to get higher views out over the Malverns and the countryside below. That adds a hell of a lot of actual height for me to photo from (as long as I don't fly out from the edge of the hill).

 

[Vas (Jack)]

With my drone, as the lens is so wide angle and it's only 12MP resolution if I was to go too high my images would probably suffer, unless I was trying to capture a truly massive landscape feature. It's really not worth risking breaking the law for the sake of a photo, and I think if the photo demands doing it then I've not really thought through all the alternative ways I can capture the subject in a legal way.

However, I suppose if I was in the middle of nowhere, like central Scottish highlands I might - at a pinch - consider going above the 400ft ceiling a little if the result was going to be a once in a lifetime shot, but I'd be ready to get the hell out of dodge afterwards.

Then there's a nice little "loophole", and it comes in the form of hills and mountains.

If the subject you're shooting is high up, like a mountain, you can be up to 400ft above the top of that mountain, as long as the ground is directly underneath the drone so you can be theoretically flying quite a distance above sea level, and if the landscape feature you wanted to take is at the foot of or near to that mountain, then you've got the opportunity to get higher, legally (ahem) than 400ft above (at an angle) the subject to take the pictures. I use that "loophole" near where I live by flying from the top of Bredon Hill in Worcestershire to get higher views out over the Malverns and the countryside below. That adds a hell of a lot of actual height for me to photo from (as long as I don't fly out from the edge of the hill).

That’s actually good loophole, I know about it from the small course I’ve done to get my flyer ID. Never tried it yet, might go one day to Box Hill to take some pictures from high Hill.

apart from that you have never tried to fly over high limits ?

I’ve set high limits on my drone, so I don’t go over or break the law . But will be fun to fly as high as the drone can go to see how the pictures will look .

 

[JenP]

I stay 400 feet or below. I try to follow the FAA rules. I don't want a fine or anything like that. If it's a NFZ I ask for permission through the app and I haven't been turned down yet. But I've seen some pretty cool shots from ppl who sneak the the ceiling clearance.

 

[Vas (Jack)]

I stay 400 feet or below. I try to follow the FAA rules. I don't want a fine or anything like that. If it's a NFZ I ask for permission through the app and I haven't been turned down yet. But I've seen some pretty cool shots from ppl who sneak the the ceiling clearance.

same. i never go higher than 120m, how about the distance from the controller?

 

[JenP]

same. i never go higher than 120m, how about the distance from the controller?

Well, that's a different story. 🤣. Supposed to be line of sight. I've pushed the drone out as far as it will go. A mile and a half. I don't do it very often. I did it a few times, once to see what was on fire in the nearly neighborhood and then there was some emergency going on at the river behind my house. But I generally fly L.O.S.

 

[Vas (Jack)]

Well, that's a different story. 🤣. Supposed to be line of sight. I've pushed the drone out as far as it will go. A mile and a half. I don't do it very often. I did it a few times, once to see what was on fire in the nearly neighborhood and then there was some emergency going on at the river behind my house. But I generally fly L.O.S.

I don’t think everyone is following these rules honestly, and even me, I would try to see how far the drone will go, but then don’t want to risk to loose £1k drone