Just to add a few points... There is one specific point that has to be remembered - the 120m restriction is from ground height (ie: AGL not ASL). So technically you can fly your C0 drone at *any* height - as long as you stay withion 120m of the ground, if the ground slopes up, so does the 120m upper limit. The problem is that the Mini 4 Pro doesn't do AGL, it does 'above takeoff height' to be very safe. And in Canada, technically microdrones have no formal height restrictions. However CAR 900.06 requires *all* drone pilots to fly safely and the higher you go the more likely you are to come into interaction with other aircraft, so it's *strongly* advised to stay under 120m. CAR 900.06 means that even if you're following the guidelines, if you cause a hazard or a collision, you can be fined or arrested for it.
Exactly. Admittedly the are no doubt vast areas of the world where a drone about as likely to meet another aircraft as I am of meeting a flying saucer. But most of us with drones are not in those areas. Even in rural Scotland this year I had just landed my drone when shortly afterwards a microlight flew overhead and well within my range even without climbing the hill it flew over. In Austria this year at around 2000m I received an excess height warning when my AGL was above 30m! I could see the logic of it when I spotted a mountain rescue helicopter just scooting quite low over a ridge. If someone ignoring height restrictions causes a CAA noted disaster that would be unthinkable and a set back to the pastime.
120m suits me just fine as a max. From watching many videos I’m satisfied that height certainly isn’t everything. Flying skill and photography know-how are more important. I have a good eye for a photo but trying pair that with drone flying is a big learning curve for me that might just be too steep despite my efforts. Also, at 120m horizontal who the hell can honestly say they can re-find their drone if they have checked their RC for couple of seconds. I’ve just bought a pair of strobes to give me a better chance especially during the day.
Great points, especially on the skills needed. If the skills are there, capturing footage/pictures from a minimal height is possible. On the other hand, no skill with a powerful drone could be a recipe for disaster.
@@Gadgetsquared100 And how! I was aware of a disaster possible a couple of weeks ago when I had my small drone(mini 3 pro) follow me in the edge of a wood. I tried to hide the RC in my large jacket pocket . Unfortunately I moved something and the drone when I glanced back had shot sideways into the trees and badly damaged the props. But if it had gone the other way instead it could have hit a car travelling fast quite easily. I have learned from that experience!
Meanwhile you can go to store buy an automatic assault rifle walk out and nothing happens but don’t fly a flying camera less than 500-250 grams is a major problem. Sigh 😂
U can’t buy a automatic rifle 😂they were banned years and years ago lol you can buy a semi auto rifle tho which are used for sport shooting, hunting, self defense/ home defense
I trying in the Austria Alphs and i think that when you go hight in the mountains you will have from the top 120 m but not. The apps gave me message that i reach out my maximal altitude afret 30 m :(
I don`t know for you but im scare when i lose a visual contact with my drone. Still i have not a habit to use the camera as visual orientation. Also its difficult to flying in mauntain area if you don`t know very well.If you watching just on the LCD in the mountain all its lookind the same :D RTH its really good extra, but what about the trees? I thing mini 4K hasn`t sensors to keep it the body from crash and my question is in the setting for RTH option how many altitude you set? I put 50 m.
All nice info but what if you start on the edge of a cliff, you go over the edge it appears to be deeper then 120m, will it automatically decent (so you might not be able to recover)? Or will that be considered as negative/equal elevation and nothing happens?
My opinion is that 120 m max limit its completely enougt for flight and good video, photos.More than 120 m the object on the ground are very smoll and the battery of 31 min its also enougt to flying and to return the dron safetly on the graund.I watch on video how to receive unlimit altitude as remove the label ,,0,, from your drone,but really dont understand what happening after that with the Warrantly because my drone its new. Its Dji mini 4K
Hey, just a note about your positioning of the 120m limit - in the UK it's illegal under the open category to fly over 400ft (c. 120m) further from the closest ground point. This isn't a choice and there's no going above 120m "if I need". Of course, if you have an OA from the CAA for specific category flights and have submitted a non standard flight application then fill your boots (though I'm guessing this isn't the case here). Well done on the content, I enjoyed 99% of the video. Let's be careful around the legalities. Flying over 120m when breaking the law will lead to harsher rules for everyone eventually.
Yes absolutely agree, it's just the restriction I don't like haha. I won't actually go above 120m but feels good to not be restricted 😄 Thanks for the love, really appreciate it ♥️
@@Gadgetsquared100 For me it's not just the max height, it's we now cannot use the range and ALL the fun places come under the heading of no-fly zones if you follow the law exactly. Can't fly over crowds, can't fly in empty national parks, can't fly in cities, can't fly over public land, can't fly over private land, can't fly anywhere really. Basically it's a case of finding a farmer that will let you fly over his turnips. Yay, fun. I keep circling back to the idea of a 'serious' drone again but with so many legalities now I don't see much fun in it. I think I'll just stick with my selfie-drone and save my money and headaches.
Hi this may sound dumb, im still waiting for mine to get here So the 400 feet hight rule. If i am on the beach (no one around so safe and legal ( sub 250, dji 4 pro) i can go as high as 400 feet which will take me to say the same hight at the cliff top/ Now if i go to the top of the the cliff can i set the drone down the take off again from the cliff top to 400 feet ? This is how i read it to be but don't want to brake any laws of do anything that just draws attention to the drone world as like most things its the minority that spoils things for the majority many thanks
@@stehume My impression is you could then rise another 400 ft once you go over the cliff, as you're now still 400 ft from the ground. The point of the rule is normal aircraft are not supposed to go below 500ft, ever, unless landing. If our drones don't go above 400ft then we have a 100ft buffer and should never hit each other.
That won't work. Just landing doesn't reset the height of take off. You will need to land it in a higher place, turn it off, then turn it back on. Then it will reset height back to 0. But if you already landed somewhere 120 meter high, how the fawwk you gonna turn it off and on? O.o
@@Gadgetsquared100 Actually, technically he's right (if I understand what he's suggesting). Say you're climbing a 400m hill. If you fly the drone within 120m *of the hill's surface* you are in compliance with the EASA rules for C0 drones. However, the DJI software won't let you do this because it cannot track ground height, just drone height relative to takeoff. If you look at the EASA rules, it never says 120m relative to the operator or takeoff point - just 120m relative to the ground under the drone. It won't work in practice because the controller hasn't moved, so it still sees you at 120m *from the homepoint*, rather than from the ground. But you could walk up the hill and start over from that point and go 120m up from the new homepoint, and so on (but there's another case where if you flew horizontally away from the hill, you could end up over 120m from the ground under the drone even though relative to the operator it's under 120m - it works both ways). Urban terrain, which is sort of the target case for C0, tends to be flat so 120m is always the height. That's why it's a problem if a building >120m is in the line of flight because that doesn't count as 'ground', and so you can't fly higher than 120m (except with permission and request of the building owner) to fly *over* the building, you have to fly around it. Basically, DJI went with the simplest, most literal interpretation and intent of the C0 rules to make sure pilots, especially recreational ones, absolutely do not accidentally violate the rules, which is good. I can quote you the specific text, but YT doesn't allows pasting of URLs. (Or at least when I do it, my comments get blown away) but it's at the EASA website at en >> domains >> civil-drones >> drones-regulatory-framework-background >> open-category-civil-drones.
Well … too bad it does not rest the hight… even of it was dangerous estableshing a new Home Point at a place what maybe was not accesible. Anyway.. the law say clear is 120 m from the surface , becaus no manned aircraft should fly 150 m closer to the ground beneaf it. So the 30 m is the extra security gap. Since the drone is not able to check the altitude compared with the ground it will fly on a flat 120 m hight from takeoff so ve sure always start from the highest point posible, even if will not help either because u need to keep your dron on sight and a mini becomes invisible verry fast on the sky 😂. So .. the mini is a new wireless selfie stick . Keep it o sight , not too far not to hight … take a selfie and land . A verry expensive selfie stick but in the EU we have what we have 🥹
Or easier just go up your 2000m hill as I did this year and launch up to 120m. Just beware of sending it horizontally away from a summit and find it’s suddenly 1000m or so above ground level. I put mine up vertically to start with and got automated warnings that the local max height was 80m at one place and as low as 30m at another.
