Maximum Altitude?

[MRhoades]

All, just wondering what the maximum altitude is that you have flown your Solo?

I live in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and I have starting taking video with my Solo around the area.
I plan to eventually post edited videos on YouTube for people to view that are interested in the area.

Colorado Springs resides on the eastern side of Pike Peak and the altitude is approximately 6500 to 6800 feet above sea level.
This last weekend I the wife and I took the drone up a forest service road to a point where it intersects with what is called Upper Gold Camp Road.
It is a very popular scenic point that looks out over Colorado Springs.
I wanted to know what the maximum altitude my sol reached while filming.

I pulled the log files with mission planner. I am assuming the Y axis units are in meters.
The math appears to be correct.
If this is correct, then my Solo took off at 9297 feet and hit a peak altitude of 9432 feet while was filming.

FYI..I was flying with the 3DR gimbal installed and a Gopro Hero 4 Silver.

I could definitely hear the motors turning substantially faster than they normally do when I am flying down in Colorado Springs.

I might try to take up my Solo to the top of Pikes Peak (+ 14K feet), but, I don't know if Solo the wiil be able to fly at that altitude.
Hence my question.

- Mike

 

[Maddog]

Mike, that’s been asked a lot but nobody seems to have a firm answer.
You’re probably as high as I have heard anybody mention.
Give Pikes Peak a try and let us know- I doubt that you’ll get over 10k with much battery left. Don’t forget you will need enough juice to get back to earth.

 

[KevinT]

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Launched here at 12,740 feet. What you don’t see in this video was the landing. I used the return home button and it came down way to fast, hit the ground and either bounced or took off again on its own, flipped upside down into rocks and broke all 4 props. I was on a ledge so I’m lucky it didn’t go over the side. It seemed to be flying fine prior to that. I think it must be set to a certain prop speed to land on auto and the props weren’t spinning fast enough. Next time at that high altitude I won’t land with the return home button.

The day before that on a different trail around similar altitude, I flew it, but didn’t go up as high because I forgot to remove the foam piece that locks the gimbal mount and I couldn’t figure out why the camera wouldn’t tilt. There was a slight cross wind that day and the drone bounced around a lot, not stable at all. Those videos aren’t watchable, but I plan to pull some stills out of them. Not sure if a functioning gimbal would have smoothed it out or not. Flew twice there and the return home function was fine but like I said it wasn’t landing from very high up so I don’t think it had as much room to fall.

If I get a chance I’ll post those videos just to show how bad it can be. I replaced the props and everything’s working again. I’ve flown it several times around Moab in the 4000-5000 foot range without any problems, and honestly didn’t even think about altitude issues in Colorado at 3 times the altitude. Not something I’ve ever thought about before living near sea level.

 

[MRhoades]

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Launched here at 12,740 feet. What you don’t see in this video was the landing. I used the return home button and it came down way to fast, hit the ground and either bounced or took off again on its own, flipped upside down into rocks and broke all 4 props. I was on a ledge so I’m lucky it didn’t go over the side. It seemed to be flying fine prior to that. I think it must be set to a certain prop speed to land on auto and the props weren’t spinning fast enough. Next time at that high altitude I won’t land with the return home button.

The day before that on a different trail around similar altitude, I flew it, but didn’t go up as high because I forgot to remove the foam piece that locks the gimbal mount and I couldn’t figure out why the camera wouldn’t tilt. There was a slight cross wind that day and the drone bounced around a lot, not stable at all. Those videos aren’t watchable, but I plan to pull some stills out of them. Not sure if a functioning gimbal would have smoothed it out or not. Flew twice there and the return home function was fine but like I said it wasn’t landing from very high up so I don’t think it had as much room to fall.

If I get a chance I’ll post those videos just to show how bad it can be. I replaced the props and everything’s working again. I’ve flown it several times around Moab in the 4000-5000 foot range without any problems, and honestly didn’t even think about altitude issues in Colorado at 3 times the altitude. Not something I’ve ever thought about before living near sea level.

That was pretty impressive. Glad to hear your Solo didn't get hurt when landed kind of hard.

 

[MRhoades]

Mike, that’s been asked a lot but nobody seems to have a firm answer.
You’re probably as high as I have heard anybody mention.
Give Pikes Peak a try and let us know- I doubt that you’ll get over 10k with much battery left. Don’t forget you will need enough juice to get back to earth.

Yeah....the 9000+ altitude chewed threw my batteries a bit faster than normal.

I was also considering a set of 3 bladed props for high altitude flying.
They might give me a little more lift.

- Mike

 

[timgilley]

Mike, that’s been asked a lot but nobody seems to have a firm answer.
You’re probably as high as I have heard anybody mention.
Give Pikes Peak a try and let us know- I doubt that you’ll get over 10k with much battery left. Don’t forget you will need enough juice to get back to earth.

No juice required to get back to earth.

 

[SorryMeSoFugly]

All, just wondering what the maximum altitude is that you have flown your Solo?

I live in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and I have starting taking video with my Solo around the area.
I plan to eventually post edited videos on YouTube for people to view that are interested in the area.

Colorado Springs resides on the eastern side of Pike Peak and the altitude is approximately 6500 to 6800 feet above sea level.
This last weekend I the wife and I took the drone up a forest service road to a point where it intersects with what is called Upper Gold Camp Road.
It is a very popular scenic point that looks out over Colorado Springs.
I wanted to know what the maximum altitude my sol reached while filming.

I pulled the log files with mission planner. I am assuming the Y axis units are in meters.
The math appears to be correct.
If this is correct, then my Solo took off at 9297 feet and hit a peak altitude of 9432 feet while was filming.

FYI..I was flying with the 3DR gimbal installed and a Gopro Hero 4 Silver.

I could definitely hear the motors turning substantially faster than they normally do when I am flying down in Colorado Springs.

I might try to take up my Solo to the top of Pikes Peak (+ 14K feet), but, I don't know if Solo the wiil be able to fly at that altitude.
Hence my question.

- Mike

Hey, I don’t know much about altitude, I’m in California so... but I got mine up 198 ft. This afternoon, Bay Area California.. don’t know if that matters or helps, but I was thankful return to home worked right when it cut out at 198..

 

[SorryMeSoFugly]

That was pretty impressive. Glad to hear your Solo didn't get hurt when landed kind of hard.

I had that happen but at damn near sea level. Came down way to fast, flipped, and burned up 4 props, broke 2 of them.... but at least I got to try those new props that are supposedly quieter..(dont sound much quieter) ... but yea, bout peed my corduroys when it flipped!

 

[Ralph E. Johnson]

In Guanajuato Mexico I took off at 8,000 feet and flew up over a thousand. Noticed the battery discharged very quickly and the drone came down too fast and my son in law caught it but got a couple stitches for the effort.

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[Drink15]

Mike, that’s been asked a lot but nobody seems to have a firm answer.
You’re probably as high as I have heard anybody mention.
Give Pikes Peak a try and let us know- I doubt that you’ll get over 10k with much battery left. Don’t forget you will need enough juice to get back to earth.

You need enough juice to get back to Earth in one piece.