Why would anyone attempt this?! Guy flying way too high in the mountains!

Yaros · Apr 27, 2022

I found these videos (these videos are NOT mine) of a guy flying his Mavics way too high, I'm not talking about 500 meters max… He hacked the firmware and went so high that the height indicator glitched in an integer overflow and looped around into negative values… This is crazy!
My question is just WHY would anyone do this??

At 2:15 in the video you can see the height indicator going to negative values and seems like he is descending, but it is just glitched, he keeps ascending…

Here is the video (it is in russian, but just watch what he does, don't listen if you don't understand russian):

Here is him doing the same but with an Air 2S and (I guess) in a different location:

And he also did it with a Mavic 2, this video is titled “Mavic 2, strange glitch happened while doing height test, result: crash”. I mean, what does he expect, it isn't that weird for a mavic 2 to crash if you fly it to 3000 m AGL, is it?
Here is the video:

What do you think about this, is it normal?? He puts other (manned) aircraft at risk!

retiredNH · Apr 27, 2022

Hacking the firmware? First I've heard of this.
Why would he do this? Why not?

slup · Apr 27, 2022

Yaros said:
...My question is just WHY would anyone do this??

The reason could be pretty obvious ... to boost he's selfish ego with YT views & likes.

Yaros · Apr 27, 2022

barrybcar said:
There’s a specific forum for hacks and mods.

Oh yeah, right: https://mavicpilots.com/forums/mavic-software-mods.52/

vindibona1 · Apr 27, 2022

23,000 feet!!!! Yikes. I can only imagine having a collision with a jet liner traveling at 500mph at that altitude.

EpicFlight · Apr 27, 2022

My question is, do you really, truly, have not even a guess as to why the person in question did these flights? That was the purpose you made clear in posting this thread.

My answer to the WHY question is, "stunning footage".

crlmjohnson · Apr 28, 2022

Wow! I am just speechless.

spsphotos · Apr 28, 2022

vindibona1 said:
23,000 feet!!!! Yikes. I can only imagine having a collision with a jet liner traveling at 500mph at that altitude.

Actually, we don't know his actually location and altitude. Looking at it briefly, I doubt he's in any airspace with traffic at that altitude. AGL is misleading. If you are already 5000' above sea level, then you need to take that into consideration. Still. Russians are crazy...that's for sure. LOL

DavidT_ NZ · Apr 28, 2022

Yaros said:
I found these videos (these videos are NOT mine) of a guy flying his Mavics way too high, I'm not talking about 500 meters max… He hacked the firmware and went so high that the height indicator glitched in an integer overflow and looped around into negative values… This is crazy!
My question is just WHY would anyone do this??

At 2:15 in the video you can see the height indicator going to negative values and seems like he is descending, but it is just glitched, he keeps ascending…

Here is the video (it is in russian, but just watch what he does, don't listen if you don't understand russian):

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Here is him doing the same but with an Air 2S and (I guess) in a different location:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

And he also did it with a Mavic 2, this video is titled “Mavic 2, strange glitch happened while doing height test, result: crash”. I mean, what does he expect, it isn't that weird for a mavic 2 to crash if you fly it to 3000 m AGL, is it?
Here is the video:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

What do you think about this, is it normal?? He puts other (manned) aircraft at risk!

He’s the guy that delivers the pizzas to the International Space Station ………….

Yaros · Apr 28, 2022

spsphotos said:
Actually, we don't know his actually location and altitude. Looking at it briefly, I doubt he's in any airspace with traffic at that altitude. AGL is misleading. If you are already 5000' above sea level, then you need to take that into consideration. Still. Russians are crazy...that's for sure. LOL

True. I think he is somewhere in Kazakhstan because his location on his YouTube channel is set to that.

Chaosrider · Apr 28, 2022

Yaros said:
I found these videos (these videos are NOT mine) of a guy flying his Mavics way too high, I'm not talking about 500 meters max… He hacked the firmware and went so high that the height indicator glitched in an integer overflow and looped around into negative values… This is crazy!
My question is just WHY would anyone do this??

At 2:15 in the video you can see the height indicator going to negative values and seems like he is descending, but it is just glitched, he keeps ascending…

Here is the video (it is in russian, but just watch what he does, don't listen if you don't understand russian):

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Here is him doing the same but with an Air 2S and (I guess) in a different location:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

And he also did it with a Mavic 2, this video is titled “Mavic 2, strange glitch happened while doing height test, result: crash”. I mean, what does he expect, it isn't that weird for a mavic 2 to crash if you fly it to 3000 m AGL, is it?
Here is the video:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

What do you think about this, is it normal?? He puts other (manned) aircraft at risk!

I think these are awesome vids!

How much risk he's possibly imposing on manned aircraft depends on the traffic density, which I expect is quite low.

It's not the kind of thing that I'd do rogue, but if I could get a clearance for it, and I had a jail-broken aircraft that was capable, I do it in a heartbeat!

MMFPV!

Chaosrider · Apr 28, 2022

retiredNH said:
Hacking the firmware? First I've heard of this.
Why would he do this? Why not?

I actually find it encouraging that it's possible to hack the firmware to allow that!

Probably voids the warranty, though...

MMFPV!

Yaros · Apr 28, 2022

Chaosrider said:
Probably voids the warranty, though...

Of course, it does… but yeah, it's possible.

Yaros · Apr 28, 2022

Just to mention, this guy makes his batteries for DJI drones too, he makes “extended batteries” that extend the flight time to 40+ minutes. I don't like to use not OEM batteries, so I didn't try them, but he has tests on his channel using those batteries, pretty cool stuff.

Searunner · Apr 28, 2022

This is one of the reasons that drones are being more and more restricted worldwide. And it is killing the hobby. It's just not that fun anymore.

Yaros · Apr 28, 2022

Searunner said:
This is one of the reasons that drones are being more and more restricted worldwide. And it is killing the hobby. It's just not that fun anymore.

I agree...

vindibona1 · Apr 28, 2022

spsphotos said:
Actually, we don't know his actually location and altitude. Looking at it briefly, I doubt he's in any airspace with traffic at that altitude. AGL is misleading. If you are already 5000' above sea level, then you need to take that into consideration. Still. Russians are crazy...that's for sure. LOL

I have MANY Russian (speaking) friends and culturally and attitudinally they are definitely different. Drones aside, every single one of them came here from the Soviet Union with nothing in their pockets and every single one is incredibly financially successful (one bought and island in Panama!!!). There might be something to learn from them.