Just to ad my 2 peneth to this.
I think this may get looked at under disability discrimination law. As those with limited access will not be able to access so higher altitudes to take photo’s and have used drone to get over this. But now they can’t. 
Who am i trying to kid. They don’t give a fuck about that.
I’ve had a few comments that it is indeed restricted to a lower speed now.
Just checked this out in the house and when you try to set it to 27m/s it reverts back to 18.5 so damn annoying these new rules, I can understand it to a degree but literally before long we will have no freedom what so ever……..
Reducing the maximum speed by a couple of m/s is a very small price to pay for being able to fly in A1 airspace, I’d suggest.
It’s literally health and safety gone mad, Stephen! 
Also feels to me like the vast majority of us won’t notice these changes in the slightest. Even with the lower speed limit, we’re still talking about being able to whizz along at 42mph.
Plus, it’s a restriction in speed, not power. In tricky conditions, should still be able to get every last milliwatt of power out of the motors that you ever could…
So glad I kept my ‘legacy’ stuff modded to within an inch of their lives ;o)
Fly high and free
#.700forlife
This is my understanding of the situation. The previous rule was that drones were limited in height to 400’/120m from the nearest point on the earth’s surface, and in the case of flying from the top of a vertical 1000’ cliff, you could for example fly vertically upwards for 100’, then horizontally for 300’ away from the cliff; you would be 1,100’ AGL, but ‘legal’ because you are only a little over 300’ away from the nearest point on the ground.
The new 2026 rule is that you cannot fly more than 400’/120m above your take-off location. That means that you can now fly more than 400’ ‘out’ from the edge of the cliff, so long as you maintain. VLOS, irrespective of how high you are AGL, because you are within the 400’ height limit above your take-off point!
I could be misreading the situation here; it sounds unlikely as that could bring you into conflict with aircraft flying legitimately at their 600’ minimum.
It is in any case not something I will be losing sleep over, since 400’ is the practical limit to my ability to maintain VLOS of a Mini drone anyway!
And
Well yes you have missed the point by a lot
This isn’t about the CAA changing anything, this is about DJI limiting their toys so they only fly 120m above the take off point.
What next, ford etc limiting their vehicles to 70mph, in fact even worse limiting them to the road speed limit according to GPS location (what DJI have done)
For clarity the drone code still states
Couldn’t have put it any better my self haha, The amount of arguments I have had over on the Facebook groups with people saying “120m above take off point” when it clearly isn’t!
The shallow end of the gene pool
Is the bigger issue here not the fact that DJI are silently updating and restricting your drone in the background, without warning, and without the option to prevent it?
For anyone looking for a bypass / workaround, the Drone Tweaks app by @florin.a restores the 500m altitude limit again.
Tested ok on the DJI Mini 5 Pro running the latest v01.00.0400 firmware.
Thank you for this, I do have care refresh on my drones I guess this will probably void that? Not sure if they will be able to tell if it’s been used or not?
Also wonder if it removes the speed restriction on the air 3s ect 
Naturally it’s a risk you’d need to take but it’s highly unlikely, as mentioned above:
Totally I will buy it anyway 
haha
