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Mavic goes swimming or lands on cargo ship

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So I was flying out over Commencement Bay this morning with my modified Mavic. I had two external batteries mounted among other modifications. I had recently replaced the ESC board and was noticing that the batteries seemed to be draining slightly faster over the last day or two. I suspect this was due to some sloppy soldering on my part when replacing the board.

In previous flights I had gone 40k feet out and back with 20% battery remaining. On this flight I hit 55% battery at 35k feet (there was no wind at all on this flight) where I turned around. I knew I would be cutting it close with a 10% battery margin for the return trip but I came up about 5k feet short.

I hit forced landing at 10% as I was approaching an anchored cargo vessel. I reluctantly attempted to land on the ship but I don't think I made it. What do you guys think? Does it look like the it landed on the ship or is in Davey Jones' Locker? I sent the shipping company an email to see if they could contact the crew to check for me but I am not hopeful. The ship will be in the area most of the week in case it is on the deck.

 
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Let me make sure I got this right. You were trying to land your drone on that cargo ship in Commencement Bay? You figured out who owned the ship, contacted them, identified yourself and asked if they found your drone?
 
I hit forced landing at 10% as I was approaching an anchored cargo vessel. I reluctantly attempted to land on the ship.

I am sorry if you lost your mavic. But, I think anyone who lands or tries to land on a cargo ship in Commencement Bay is taking big risk especially when the drone itself will likely identify you and recorded your 35,000 foot flight. BTW was that 35,000 towards Boeing Field?

I sent the shipping company an email to see if they could contact the crew to check for me but I am not hopeful. The ship will be in the area most of the week in case it is on the deck.

I see. You contacted the shipping company. Who knows who owns the ship.
 
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Since you are into modifications I am pretty sure you added pontoons for water landings - so your fine ;p Nice Job!
 
I hit forced landing at 10% as I was approaching an anchored cargo vessel. I reluctantly attempted to land on the ship.

I am sorry if you lost your mavic. But, I think anyone who lands or tries to land on a cargo ship in Commencement Bay is taking big risk especially when the drone itself will likely identify you and recorded your 35,000 foot flight. BTW was that 35,000 towards Boeing Field?

I sent the shipping company an email to see if they could contact the crew to check for me but I am not hopeful. The ship will be in the area most of the week in case it is on the deck.

I see. You contacted the shipping company. Who knows who owns the ship.
Pretty sure it's the ships owner I contacted. And nowhere near Boeing, this was near Tacoma. Most of the flight was over open water. You do see the heliport symbol on the ship right? I'm pretty sure I'm in clear for trying to land on the H :p
 
So I was flying out over Commencement Bay this morning with my modified Mavic. I had two external batteries mounted among other modifications. I had recently replaced the ESC board and was noticing that the batteries seemed to be draining slightly faster over the last day or two. I suspect this was due to some sloppy soldering on my part when replacing the board.

In previous flights I had gone 40k feet out and back with 20% battery remaining. On this flight I hit 55% battery at 35k feet (there was no wind at all on this flight) where I turned around. I knew I would be cutting it close with a 10% battery margin for the return trip but I came up about 5k feet short.

I hit forced landing at 10% as I was approaching an anchored cargo vessel. I reluctantly attempted to land on the ship but I don't think I made it. What do you guys think? Does it look like the it landed on the ship or is in Davey Jones' Locker? I sent the shipping company an email to see if they could contact the crew to check for me but I am not hopeful. The ship will be in the area most of the week in case it is on the deck.

That's awesome! Well, not for you :)

Load the flight into airdata, if nothing else you will get the final altitude and see if it reported above or at sea level. This is how I found a bird way up in a tree canopy.
 
bashing? Heck, this is my favorite thread in quite some time now and has taught me some valuable lessons - zaceshighz is showing us here what is really possible when you push all of the limits and I am thinking he should probably get some kind of award. I would really like to see a picture (pre-splash) of his mavic mods with the extra batteries and other mods.
 
I think there is a chance it’s on the ship but a slim one. It probably lost connection as it toppled over the railing on the far side or maybe it was just power failure. Those large square boxes could also cut the signal. If you watch the railing it looks like you could be over it. Also look at the spacing of the steel beams from the railing and how close you get to the one right before the video stops.
 
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I think there is a chance it’s on the ship but a slim one. It probably lost connection as it toppled over the railing on the far side or maybe it was just power failure. Those large square boxes could also cut the signal. If you watch the railing it looks like you could be over it. Also look at the spacing of the steel beams from the railing.
I agree it's highly unlikely it made it. The narrow FOV on the Mavic makes everything look much closer than it is.
 
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I think there is a chance it’s on the ship but a slim one. It probably lost connection as it toppled over the railing on the far side or maybe it was just power failure. Those large square boxes could also cut the signal. If you watch the railing it looks like you could be over it. Also look at the spacing of the steel beams from the railing.
yes,slim,but still a chance,question is why did video cut out so abruptly,in low power it usually goes crazy first.
 
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