Altitude was in the neighborhood of 3000' I believe. I ran a bunch of Sims and I feel like they were within the range I actually had. I did have 3 CTI H220(?) smokeys for outboards but I feel like they were most burnt off by the time the L930 came fully alive. Yes, I just used the dremel to cut out the hatch after everything else was done. It's a little rough up close.