Does someone know what the typical range and max height you can get out of the DJI inspire 1? Looking for something that can go .6 to 1+ miles from user hover running the video camera beaming the video back to user in real time then return to user. Im thinking the phantom 2 is too weak for any of that. Ive heard it is limited to about 500 meters or about 1500 feet horizontal from user. I also have no idea on max height for consumer drones. Some say 1000 ft others say they are limited to 400 ft max height or 150 ft by software. Which is it? Can a stock out of box inspire 1 beam back live video from 1 mile away?
FAA and AMA rules state (in the USA) max altitude for a hobbyist R/C aircraft is 400 feet, Range is limited to line of sight (that means if you can not see it its to far away).
DJI claims "up to 2 km away" in terms of the lightbridge video transmission. If I were a betting man, I'd cut such measurements in 1/2 and state that it can easily beam back video from 1 km away. For most users this is a similar question as to whether a Corvette can do 100MPH or 170MPH top speed - that is, it is illegal (and often foolish) in most places to do over the 100MPH, so only a few drivers in the world would really care. They do publish these specs for a reason, though....it's very possible that Federal agencies (think BLM) or large private ranches...or even places like the large solar mirror farms may be given permission to fly further and/or higher than what we hobbyists are currently limited to. Even the Military may use them for stuff unrelated to the battlefield (overlooking war games on large bases, etc.). Certainly...if the internal software restrictions were removed...the Inspire and most quadcopters at the level could fly quite high. In fact, one foolish pilot on a thread I was reading yesterday took a much lesser quadcopter up to 3,000 Ft. AGL (above ground level). At these heights, collision with real aircraft is almost a certainty... It's safe to say two things: 1. Existing and/or proposed regulations for hobbyists will likely not allow flights over 400 feet high or past line of sight (line of sight can be variable, but about 1/2 km for a very big quadcopter is pushing it for my eyes (that's distance away, not height). 2. Flying any current quadcopter, even the advanced Inspire, in this way will likely result in losing or crashing the quadcopter. I follow reports of lost and crashed quadcopters closely...many, if not most, of them involve the quadcopter being too far from the pilot. Current machines simply so not have redundant systems nor are they built for actual (useful) autonomous use. It's more of a demonstration and marketing feature.
