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Anyone crashed their Spark yet?

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May 26, 2017
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Just wondering if anyone has crashed or had a close call with their new Spark? I havent crashed yet, but it's still early in the game.
 
There are a few on YT that have posted crashes. They appear to be user error and not due to a fault with the drone. However there was a post on here of someone having a flyaway but again, there was a warning for a FW upgrade. Not saying that's the cause but I personally wouldn't fly unless everything was 100% ok with my drone.
 
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Seems like most of the crashed & fly a ways that I've been reading seem to be associated with particular features...Dronie, Quickshot, etc.
 
Yes, it requires as much attention as any other even larger drone.
 
to be honest i dont think there will be many refurbs. Of the crashes I've seen so far and the stress testing someone posted on here, the spark seems pretty robust.
 
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to be honest i dont think there will be many refurbs. Of the crashes I've seen so far and the stress testing someone posted on here, the spark seems pretty robust.
That's sort of what I mean.. generally all companies will at some point "throw" a new unit to someone who really feels like theirs is defective just to keep them placated. These good will returns would be the refurbs I'd hope to see once a rackload of people buy Sparks. :p.


.. you know, the Care Refresh returned units that have nothing really wrong with them ..
 
Not reading the manual is the main cause from what I've seen. As usual.
 
On the bright side.. after enough are out there maybe we can pick up some 2nd & 3rd Sparkies at reduced "Refurbished" prices? :D

Who do you think might be selling the refurbs? DJI will probably use all their inventory to Refresh broken ones. I think refurbed ones will come much later, still havent seen any refurbed Mavics..
 
Came as close as I want to forget, on the first flight took it up 50 feet and accidentally sent it to the right instead of left, 3 feet shy of some branches… I'm going to have to get the controller. Because the iPhone doesn't get it high enough for me. I like keeping my drones between 150 -200 , so I never have to worry about running into anything, and you can't do that with the iPhone/spark.

overall, from 3 flights so far , I feel much more confident with my Mavic/occusync link than this Wi-Fi connection.......
 
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@Glen e "overall, from 3 flights so far , I feel much more confident with my Mavic/occusync link than this Wi-Fi connection.......".....100% agree
 
Just wondering if anyone has crashed or had a close call with their new Spark? I havent crashed yet, but it's still early in the game.
Just got back and had my first crash. I was out flying in about 5-10 mph winds to test things out, Spark was doing fine, no problems at all on first flight. Went upwind to start and downwind to return to home. On my second flight everything said I was ready to fly with a strong GPS signal and no warnings. I got to about 15 feet away and 15 feet high and the Spark lost GPS and registered a compass error. The Spark went into OPTI mode and a gust of wind pushed it back 10 feet into tree branches. Once I saw the Spark being pushed by the wind I tried to lower altitude and land it, but I wasn't fast enough. It hit the tree at about 10 feet and came crashing down. Lost one prop and the battery flew out.

Looking at the flight record it shows that there were still 14 satellites but I had no bars and it said no GPS. On a related note, has anyone had issues with the Spark picking up GPS and compass issues? I was at a spot that I always fly the Mavic with no issues, but the Spark at times wouldn't connect to GPS even though it showed 8 or more satellites. I also got the warning mid-flight "IMU heading exemption, please switch to ATTI mode..". Has anyone else got this warning? And what does it mean?
 
Sorry about the crash. Are you flying with a controller or device only?

I get a weak signal message from time to time, but always get a good satellite count.
 
Sorry about the crash. Are you flying with a controller or device only?

I get a weak signal message from time to time, but always get a good satellite count.
With a controller. The loss of GPS is worrying especially mid-flight. It was actually probably worse that I was close to the ground and trees and didn't have time to recover. It happened in just a few seconds. The locking mechanism on the battery broke so it doesn't fit secure in the Spark and will slide out easily. Luckily, I have DJI Refresh which covers batteries. I didn't know that.
 
With a controller. The loss of GPS is worrying especially mid-flight. It was actually probably worse that I was close to the ground and trees and didn't have time to recover. It happened in just a few seconds. The locking mechanism on the battery broke so it doesn't fit secure in the Spark and will slide out easily. Luckily, I have DJI Refresh which covers batteries. I didn't know that.

Good you got the Refresh. If you had been higher, it might have gotten caught in a tree or worse!
 

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