Recent content by John MacAulay

My Experience - I purchased a DJI refurb Spark (as well as a refurb Mavic) form Drone Nerds and both were 100% perfect.

If you are flying low battery and under a tree canopy or similar, you really should set your RTH to hover. At 15% battery it must have been in line of sight or it wasn't getting home anyway.

Great deals on DJI Spark refurbs on Drone Nerds right now, just in case you were interested in going that route.

My 2 cents worth: -Start out in a nice big wide open field. -Don't fly high directly overhead. (difficult for the RC to maintain connection) -Set a suitable RTH height for the area and wait until you have enough satellites connected and good satellite health before you take off. -NEVER launch...

If it dropped into Atti mode then RTH is not available. As mentioned, positioning is also not available and the Spark will drift in the wind which could be substantial at 90m AGL. Directly overhead is a terrible place for the RC to try to stay connected to the aircraft. The only remedy in Atti...

Nova Scotia here. Mostly fly over salt water (naturally, I guess since we have lots of it) salt marshes and beaches. (unoccupied) Love my spark, great little aircraft.

At 2 km, the phantom still had 70% battery. Says a lot for battery size.

Interesting. I have been making some 2km flights recently with my P3S and was thinking about sending Sparky on the same flight. I was concerned about the flight time. Think I'll reconsider.

My personal opinion, it's just a novelty thing. If there is only you in a wide open space with no distraction for the spark, it will do a few things if you practice the perfect positioning. Otherwise, not very practical for everyday use.

Thanks guys, I really appreciate your input. Perry, if we could hook up to fly for a bit, I would truly appreciate it. I’m here until a week from Saturday. Let’s message some more to find a time to do that.

Anyone have any suggestions of where I might fly legally here in Pinellas Co. Brought Sparky all the way from Nova Scotia to Florida and besides a quick flight over the Gulf, I'm afraid I'll be taking him home without much flying. Definitely won't bother bringing him back next year, just not...

Sorry for your loss, dude. I suppose we all try to learn from losses and I would guess maybe not try to gain altitude in a low battery situation ( unless necessary) might save some of us from a similar situation? Just guessing.

I wouldn't want to admit how many times (in my beginning days) I put one of my drones up, stood there nervously looking at it and then brought it back down. Now, I'm more comfortable and go for longer flights. It's all fun and (for me) part of the learning process.

I'm with you there. Here in Nova Scotia for the past few months it's been basically raining, snowing, minus 10c or blowing like hell. However, yesterday and today... 2 goods days to fly. Excellent!

I always launch from the top of my case, that way i can keep my eye on the feedback and telemetry on the screen. Always hand catch, though.