Flying missions up a hillside causes maximum altitude violation. Solutions?
I'm using Dronelink to plan missions mapping utility pole lines that run often up the sides of hills. I'm using both a DJI Mini 4 Pro and a DJI Mavic 4 Pro for this work.
The drone altitude is planned at 60M AGL. Take-off altitude is 509M ASL but in the mission I am currently working on the highest point is 1,055M ASL.
At the highest point, the drone would still only be 60M AGL, but would be 606M above the take-off point, and this results in a max altitude violation and the mission fails. I understand that the max altitude is calculated above take-off point, not above ground level.
I have pushed the max altitude for the drone to 500M which is the absolute limit, but of course not enough.
I do understand that in this case everything is really more or less "working as it should", although I guess I could argue that "working as it should" is not "working as it ought to". That's not my point though.
Question is... can anyone suggest a solution or workflow that I can use to work around this limitation? Seems like I can't be the only person running into this.
Suggestions?
Comments
4 comments
You have to take off higher.
Thanks Jim.
Unfortunately getting physical access to a point higher on the mission route is pretty difficult.
I did consider splitting the mission into two parts with the second part starting higher. I would then fly the drone to a location close to the start point of the higher mission, land it there and begin the higher mission from that point. Bit sketchy with line of sight issues and stuff and with the difficulty accessing the high terrain on foot it would be a job to retrieve the drone if I bungled the landing.
In theory, though, should I assume that would work? If I fly the drone to a higher altitude, land it and then start the mission that would get around the 500M limit?
Sorry for all the questions but reaching the area involves a bit of a drive on rough roads and arranging access with landowners so I'm trying to double check as many points as possible before I try again. Felt like a bit of an ass last time when I showed up and the mission immediately failed. :-(
Thanks again for the help.
Yes but it’s sketchy to land somewhere you aren’t. Also, you will def need two missions, one for each takeoff location since all altitudes in the mission are based on the takeoff as well (even the AGL ones).
Thanks Jim. That pretty much clarifies what I suspected.
I guess I could do it in one mission by flying to the mid-point, landing, and then running a mission that goes up to the top, down to the bottom and back to the middle....? Maybe slightly more sane to break it in 2 though. :-)
Good to know that this should work and I'm not sending the drone on a suicide mission into the woods.
Thanks again for the help. Much appreciated.
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