Before I answer this question, You should always remember to follow the flight rules and regulations to achieve max heights. Flying drones in congested areas like cities or markets is not a good idea. You should always fly your drones away from buildings, a no-fly zone, private properties and airport as it may result in a charge against you with heavy penalties.
I think this is the first question that came into my mind when I bought my first DJI drone. I searched on google about how high drone can fly but nothing helpful came up. So today after flying and making more than hundreds of drones, I think I’m eligible to answer this question.
HOW HIGH YOUR DRONE CAN FLY?
The answer to this question lies in your demographics. In European union, You can fly as high as 500 feet but this limit is lower in the United Arab Emirates, Canada, India, and the United States being 400 feet. So now you know that there is no definite answer to this question. You can look at the table below for more information on several countries.
| COUNTRY | HEIGHT LIMIT | NOTE |
| United States | 400 FEET | Must be in the line of sight |
| United Kingdom | 4000 FEET | Must be in the line of sight |
| United Arab Emirates | 400 FEET | Must be in the line of sight |
| Canada | 400 FEET | Must be in the line of sight |
| India | 400 FEET | Must be in the line of sight |
| South Africa | 400 FEET | Must be in the line of sight |
| Australia | 400 FEET | Must be in the line of sight |
| New Zealand | 394 FEET | Must be in the line of sight |
| Japan | 492 FEET | Must be in the line of sight |
| China | 393 FEET | Must be in the line of sight |
| Singapore | 200 FEET | Must be in the line of sight |
| Italy | 230 FEET | Must be in the line of sight |
| Spain | 393 FEET | Must be in the line of sight |
| Malaysia | 400 FEET | Must be in the line of sight |
| Ireland | 394 FEET | Must be in the line of sight |
As you can see from the table above, Most of the countries have 400 feet limit whereas countries like Italy have such a lower limit. Some of the people like me don’t like limit but rules are rules. They are for the safety of us because if you would try to achieve heights higher than the limit, You may enter the air traffic space which is no good. So obey these rules.
KNOW YOUR DRONE LIMITS
Also, Manufacturers put altitude limits to their drones because they know it may cause problems. For example, If you would try to fly your drones at a whopping height of 5000 meters then lower air density can be a problem. You must have heard that with the increase in height air density decreases. This can interfere with your drone propellers which can result in a crash, Something which you may not want to happen. Not only this, There are several other factors like signal interference, jamming of propellers and many more. Also, if you want to know how to disable a drone in your property, check this article out.
Not all drones can reach up to heights like 300-400 feet as every drone is different like us humans. Suppose you have a nano drone, It can achieve a max range of 82 feet or something similar whereas drones like Mavic Pro Max Height can achieve heights up to 16,404 feet. Isn’t it astounding to hear? Drones flying at such heights is amazing.
DIFFERENT DRONES DIFFERENT HEIGHTS
By looking at this infographic, You can get a rough idea of how high drones can fly depending on their shape and size. These values are not fixed as they depend on several other factors like temperature and wind. They may not have too much effect but still, It can impact your fight time.
How High Drone Can Fly In Different Weather Conditions?
Humid Weather
It is the number of water vapors that are present all around the atmosphere.
On the off chance that humidity is extremely near 1%, it demonstrates that your drone will return wet.
Unquestionably, Humidity is less significant than mist or precipitation. However still, this climate metric should be checked over the long haul supposing that you use your drone in such conditions on a continuous routine, It’ll impact your hardware.
Hot And Cold Weather
It is significant that hot and cold temperatures aren’t the best conditions for flying a drone. Both can result in unsatisfying results for various parts of your UAV. Thus, this may cause decreased flight execution.
In too hot conditions, the motors will be made to work harder. Hence, they will create more lift and this can conduce to shorter flight times.
In too cool situations, the productivity of a battery diminishes. Furthermore, a drone battery can dip under the critical voltage.
In this way, picking the best climate conditions, you have to hold fast to the accompanying principles:
Wind
Wind causes your drone to go towards the path wherein a drone wouldn’t like to go, hence the engines are made to work more enthusiastically so as to keep the stability.
Try not to fly when the breeze speed surpasses the speed of a drone. On the off chance that you use DJI drones, this is between 38 MPH to 46 MPH. It totally depends on what drone you are flying.
In this way, you realize that drone performance can be influenced by the winds. Continuously think about this data before each flight and also during the flight.
High wind speed makes it hard for a drone to keep its position. Generally speaking, this results in slow-moving or shorter flight time.
Fog
Always remember drones don’t deal with dampness well. To anticipate fog, you have to take a look at the visibility index in your flying zone beforehand.
Additionally, if the climate is foggy you won’t be able to see your drone and it’ll be out of your line of sight which is not a good sign. Chances are that it’s going to crash.
Also, Some drone users don’t believe mist to be a hindrance to fly it. However, It doesn’t imply that haze is less significant than other climatic conditions.
Precipitation
NOTE: Drones aren’t water-proof.
In this way, when you plan flying a drone, You should check the precipitation likelihood and precipitation intensity. This will assist you in anticipating the best flying conditions and route for the rest of the day.
On the off chance that you are flying and you see that it is marginally pouring, you should promptly land your drone and you must not fly your drone when it is raining or snowing.
Precipitation likelihood is an uncommon term, depicting the chances of precipitation at the given time and area. Generally speaking, it is determined in three different ways:
- The precipitation of the territory that, generally speaking, gets quantifiable precipitation.
- Wind conditions which can bring rainily clouds.
- The certainty that precipitation will occur wherever in the estimated territory.
These are three rates that are determined together, and enable pilots to ascertain the precipitation likelihood.
Precipitation intensity is the pointer, enabling you to compute the anticipated power of precipitation. It is determined in units of dBZ. These markers assist pilots with foreseeing the direst outcome imaginable heretofore.
Factors Affecting The Height Of Your Drones
Different types of propellers have different upthrust which can help you achieve your goal height. Why are we talking about it? Because we want to help drone users who have made custom drones for themselves. So let’s get started with it.
Drone Temperature
The fundamental explanations behind a motor to heat are over propping and
utilizing higher throttles for longer stretches of time. In case you’re a
genius-level drone racer, you will be running at higher throttles, however,
chances are that you are simply beginning and the motor warms, at that point, the motor is over propped.
Heat or whatever you refer it by is an enemy of motors always. In the event
that the motors are exposed to prolonged heat, the magnets in the rotor lose
their attractive field quality after some time. They demagnetize after some
time when presented to prolonged heat and thus bringing about a decreased life expectancy of the motor.
Be that as it may, Motor producers make up for this issue by constructing cooling blades to assist the engine with sucking in the air into the motors and cooling itself like to improve motor life expectancies. Just in case, You don’t crash and pulverize the motors already.
Motor Efficiency
A few motors might be increasingly efficient in the higher end of the
throttle curve and some might be effective in the lower end of the throttle
curve. In this manner, It is essential to pick the correct engine relying upon
the style of your flying.
This is estimated by grams per watt (g/w). The higher this proportion, the
more proficient the engine is basically. We won’t be flying 100% throttle the
entire time; in this way, it is imperative to consider the productivity of the motors through the entire throttle go from 0% as far as possible up to 100% throttle.
The efficiency of a motor is generally calculated by dividing the thrust
produced by the motor at 100% throttle by the power produced by the motor.
COMING TO THE CONCLUSION
For Achieving Max Height Limits:
- Know your drone limits. (If it’s a small drone, It won’t reach 400 feet)
- Take a look at the weather conditions before planning a flight.
- Check the temperature of the drone.
- Check the efficiency of the motors.
NOTE: You can achieve every height with your drones if you keep the above points in your mind.
Alas! That’s where we part our ways. This was all I could do to help in your drone journey. Hopefully, You find it useful and got your answer to how high drone can fly. Good luck and keep building drones. I’m always here to help. If you need any additional knowledge & find this content lacking something. You can always contact us.
