FPV Drones

How High can DJI FPV Fly?

There is often going around the question of how high you can fly your DJI FPV drone. Here, we have the definitive answer!

Gabriel Mihalcea

May 2, 2023 — 9 min read

DJI FPV is a fantastic FPV drone released by DJI, the first of its kind with incredible motor power and range capabilities. But although you can fly it far, the question of this topic is: How high can DJI FPV fly?

DJI FPV can fly up to a maximum of 500 meters (ft) due to limitations of the DJI GEO System, and legally in, most countries and territories around the world can fly up to 120 meters high. But without restrictions, DJI FPV may be able to fly a few miles up in the air, limited by battery life.

Although you may have a quick answer, I recommend you continue reading this topic for the most information you can get regarding how high DJI FPV fly and if it’s possible to remove the geo limitations and a few extra tips.

Flying DJI FPV high – what do we know?

When we want to fly a drone at a specific height, including the DJI FPV drone, we must consider obeying the drone laws of the countries where we take off the drone.

Most countries and territories worldwide have a drone height restriction of 120 meters (400ft) from the takeoff point.

But this law only applies in some places, where the height restriction is lower in some areas, and in some other countries, the rules are more relaxed, allowing drone pilots to fly higher.

There are undeveloped countries where drone laws are not set or are incomplete, where you can fly the drone without limit.

But still, DJI imposes on DJI FPV a 500-meter height limit (1640 ft) to ensure you are not flying the drone out of sight in height.

Moreover, what happens if you fly above the country’s height restriction for drones?

You are getting into that country’s national airspace where airplanes may fly, and you severely break the laws, where you may get prosecuted.

How do you change your DJI FPV max flight altitude?

The process is straightforward:

Turn on your aircraft and goggles
Go to settings in your Goggles > Safety > Max Flight Altitude
Set to the required maximum altitude you want to fly your DJI FPV drone

As mentioned, without custom unlock, you are limited to a maximum of 500 meters to select from the max flight altitude menu. We strongly recommend that you do, in fact, set the maximum altitude limit of your country’s regulations to ensure you are not breaking the laws.

What is the maximum range of DJI FPV?

The DJI FPV transmission range is 16.8 kilometers (miles) but in reality, the DJI FPV cannot fly further than 4 kilometers to be able to return the drone safely, making a total of about 8 kilometers.

When reflecting on the DJI FPV’s ability to fly straight up, this is another story.

For instance, you will use more motor powers to fly the drone straight up to the maximum altitude limit you can fly the drone, but even like this, you can burn almost all the drone battery because an FPV drone can free fall without needing much power for the motors to stabilize then recover it when is close to the ground.

If you want generally to find more information on how far DJI FPV can fly (maximum range), you can read our following article:

» Related: How Far Can You Fly the DJI FPV Drone?

What is the battery life of a DJI FPV drone?

The battery life would be the main factor limiting you on how high you can fly the DJI FPV drone (supposedly, you are flying in a unique place in the world with no active airspace and no active drone laws).

The DJI FPV battery can fly up to 20 minutes according to DJI, but in reality, it flies for around 12-15 minutes, maybe less, depending on your flight style and the mode you are flying.

📍

You can also find us on Twitter and YouTube. Feel free to follow us or subscribe to our channel!

Compared to other FPV drones that can fly between 3 and 10 minutes or maybe even less, but with an average of 5 minutes, we expect DJI FPV to be able to fly higher than most FPV drones.

Of course, in this case, the motor powers may contribute to how high an FPV drone can fly, and although DJI FPV motor powers are not as strong as some custom FPV ones, it’s stronger than Avata’s motor and most standard drones.

Remember that when you fly your DJI FPV straight up, you burn the batteries more quickly.

If you want, you can read more information about how long an FPV drone can fly below:

» Related: How Long Can an FPV Drone Fly?

What is the maximum service ceiling for DJI FPV?

The place where you take off your DJI FPV will also matter because the closer you are to the maximum service ceiling area, the harder it will be for the drones to fly.

But what is the maximum service ceiling for a DJI FPV drone?

The maximum service ceiling for a DJI FPV drone is about 6000 meters above sea level (close to 20000 ft), according to DJI.

The closer you fly to that altitude, the harder it will be for the DJI FPV drone to go further up because of the lower atmospheric pressure.

Although not guaranteed, DJI FPV may be able to fly around 6000 meters altitude but with struggle.

What modes are the best to fly your DJI FPV high?

Choosing to fly your DJI FPV, either in normal mode, sport mode, or manual mode, may have an impact on, supposedly, how high you may be able to fly your DJI FPV drone.

If you are flying in manual mode, you put a lot of stress on the motors because of the much higher speed, and although you can reach your maximum altitude quicker, you will burn the DJI Batteries faster as well.

But the best way to fly as high as possible (if you can and your laws allow you) is in sport mode, like flying DJI FPV far.

Flying in sport mode is the best balance to fly far and higher than ever because the motor powers are both limited and not draining too much power from the batteries, where you will also have a decent flight speed.

But ultimately, there should be only a little difference in how far and high you can fly your drone between manual mode and sport mode, in special if you can adjust your drone speed to a decent power and your flight style to save as much battery as possible and at the same time have a decent flight speed.

Can you remove DJI FPV height restrictions?

Many drone pilots have questioned this task as, in many cases, the DJI FPV and other drones will struggle to get the correct height readings from a location.

These GEO limitations are also against what DJI FPV was made for – long-range cinematic flights – and considering capturing the beautiful mountain areas, diving a mountain crest, and so on, you will quickly reach the maximum height limit and not be able to continue further.

There are two ways you may be able to remove the DJI FPV (and other drones) height restrictions:

Appeal to DJI Unlock Request, but it would be unlikely for them to remove or set a new higher restriction, more than 500 meters, unless your drone either has a problem acquiring the correct height information when you want to fly in a location, or you present a particular case scenario where you need to fly the drone higher (with the proper approvals submitted)
You can do so by hacking/jailbreaking your drone, which is not recommended because you will void the warranty of your DJI FPV drone, and it is not entirely legal to fly in specific areas above the recommended height limits.

You should always fly your DJI FPV drone responsibly. We are not to be held responsible for your actions if you intend to fly your drone higher than what your country law allows – these scenarios should apply only to specific and extreme circumstances. Please relate further to our Safety Warnings and Legal Notice document.

What factors can contribute to how high can DJI FPV fly?

There are quite a few factors that may contribute to how high can DJI FPV fly. Let’s go over them together, shall we?

Legal Requirements

As we discussed in this article, this is the most significant barrier. But let’s say for a moment that you are in a distant land on Earth where there are no drone restrictions and no active airspace, and you were able to fully unlock the DJI FPV potential to fly without any limits. What else do we need to know?

Weather conditions

High winds are the worst part when flying drones, not only DJI FPV drones.

Due to the DJI FPV weight, it’s more resistant to wind gusts than most lightweight drones, and when flying very high, we may expect some extreme winds.

But any kind of wind may force the drone to stabilize for smoother flight; therefore, your DJI FPV will use extra power that will drain your battery quicker.

Flying up in higher temperatures will also risk overheating your DJI FPV.

I lost many occasions to fly my DJI FPV drone because of this real risk when temperatures were above 35 degrees in my country.

Takeoff altitude

Also, if you take off your DJI FPV at a higher altitude, expect that your drone will force the motor to exercise more trust in order to go up due to lower atmospheric conditions.

For instance, I don’t think it would be realistic to take your DJI FPV to very high mountains close to the service ceiling limits we discussed before and just expect the drone to go high up with no issues.

Battery level and life

It’s obvious that your battery has to be fully charged to fly your DJI FPV as high as possible.

But used batteries may have less life expectancy and maximum capacity, which will also impact your flight time, and, ultimately, how high DJI FPV can fly.

» Related: How to protect your DJI FPV batteries

Flight style

If all these legal scenarios can apply and you can freely fly your DJI FPV straight up, you need to have a constant speed, not very high nor deficient, to fly your drone.

Alternating these speeds or having an aggressive or hectic flight style will drain your battery quicker, and you won’t be able to fly your drone as high as you may want.

Your DJI FPV weight

Please keep in mind that the DJI FPV is not far from one kilogram, which is a lot to take up in the air and fly high.

Do not attach any other accessories, such as a GoPro, as you will drain the battery way quicker than you may expect and not be able to fly as high as you would like.

The props

Using the original props for your DJI FPV drone is okay and most recommended.

There are many 3rd party props, some of them claiming they can improve speed and flight time, but I will tell you to be careful as some props will do the opposite and may affect your flight time.