Hi fellow GADC membes. I’m a newbie and have seen that some people are posting on YouTube about new EU regulations that come into force in Jan 24. These posts seem to be getting very agitated about the 120m height restriction and are suggesting de-classifying your sub 250g drone and removing the C0 certification.
Now I understand that the UK CAA rules say that we can’t fly above 120m relative to the ground i.e. point of take off. So my question to members is why are ppl getting so excited about this?
ADMIN EDIT:
Response from DJI on this matter can be found in this post:
That’s a very good question, considering the EASA rules and their associated class marks are not currently acknowledged or recognised by our CAA here in the UK.
Here’s the article from DJI:
For those who missed it, here’s a recent video from @ianinlondon which explains the situation:
Here’s an example - a pic of the top of Warton Crag
Takeoff point is at 64m ASL, top of the crag is at 156m ASL, or 92m above the takeoff point ( figures from Google Earth ). I could have legally set max altitude to 212m as that would have been the allowable altitude over the top of the crag - as it was the max altitude reached by the drone during the flight was 178m above the takeoff point when flying over the crag.
Fine if you only fly in Holland - other countries, with mountains, you could find flying severely restricted
Just another restriction to turn our very capable drones into little more than toys
So I’ve had an interesting discussion after today’s video where I talk about legacy and declassifying if you’re in Europe.
I’ve been told that if a UK owner that’s on the latest firmware goes to Europe, the 120m limit then gets imposed as you’d expect, but, apparently, it will stay when the user returns to the UK. Now, this is an insane scenario if true, but supposedly is what EASA have stipulated to DJI, on the basis that the 120m limit should not be able to be bypassed in any way (even tho DroneHacks will almost certainly have resolved thi already).
So, we want to hear from someone in Europe who’s on the latest firmware and see what happens when they fire it up here. Or, even better, if anyone is nipping over the channel when the weather calms down, does the Mini 4 limit it to 120m when over there, and crucially, does it revert when it’s back on UK soil?
I haven’t got a trip planned yet, and if I did, I’d probably want to test this on the more basic Mini 3 rather than the Mini 4 Pro.
I still can’t get my head around a scenario where your drone gets limited just for visiting another country…
Also it’s already been proven by Drone Tweaks because with there app is spoofing the geo location to enable Fcc which also removes the 120 limit when in the EU
Thing is Sparky, if someone does the latest update here in the U.K., they’re going to be limited to the 120m height restriction. Why do you think these U.K. based reviewers are having to go through the motions to unlock the restriction ? If you don’t go through the process, the height restriction will remain ( even though we are in the U.K.
After 1st Jan, DJI have stated it will be impossible to unlock the height restriction. I’d like to see a video of a U.K. based reviewer, updating their Mini 4 Pro to the latest firmware, and not unlocking the height restriction. ( but as yet, not one of them hasn’t unlocked the restriction. )
Hi, can you advise when the update that is being discussed occurred. I ordered my first ever drone, the mini 4 pro, which arrived on 18th Oct but I didn’t get around to performing my first firmware update until 21st Oct and my height limit will go beyond 120m. It defaulted to 120m but the slider has more movement to the right and judging by the position I’d say that it would go to 500m. I haven’t performed a further update since because tbh I didn’t think that they’d happen several times in a month. After learning about all of the discussion I launched a thread on GADC about this matter to find out why it was so controversial as we’re limited to 120m anyway and it seems that different people have different interpretations of how the 120m limit will be applied. I’m away from home at the moment so can’t confirm if I have another update waiting.
The thing is Jockyb is its not an update (Firmware) it is a fly app update and they have done it it does not limit any drone outside of the EU, I suggest you read it all again, Thanks
Sparky, what I don’t understand ( correct me if I’m wrong, or not seeing something here ) DM in his previous video ( U.K. based so must have updated the app here), completes the update and shows us the height restriction at 120m. He then goes through the process to unlock the height restriction and then shows it’s unrestricted. He’s done this here in the U.K. Why, if it only applies to the EU, did he have to go through the restriction unlock process ?
I’m in Spain now and I can only confirm that following the update my M4P will now not go above 120m from the take off point
I don’t generally go above 120m anyway, and tend to walk up the hill, but on the occasions whereby I take off at the bottom in the wind shadow, and want the sunset shot over the mountain, I need to exceed 120m from take off point, but not above ground level!
So, question is do I return to the UK and still have the 120m restriction in the UK, and potentially everywhere (and be able to answer your question); or, do I de-classify before I return to the UK, remove the 120m hard restriction, and the C0 label, and then rely on the EASA legacy clause to fly again in the EU? There’s no chance of them changing the legacy clause is there??
While also, hoping the CAA don’t move the goalposts unreasonably too!
