downward sensor knocked out by low cloud...

[BrianP]

just sharing my experiences from flying yesterday...

# I was at a landmark, 400 feet above sea level
# I was at a height of 100 feet
# the downward sensor failed and I was messaged to land asap
# I pressed 'land' and prepared for a palm landing as normal
# the Spark did not slow down as it landed on my palm
# it was quite a fast landing

so... beware of landing after a downward sensor failure, a ground landing could end with a damaged gimbal!

# I also had display drop outs due to the low clouds...
# I flew again, shortly after, at a lower height above sea level and everything was back to normal, no downward sensor errors appeared and it palm landed as normal.

Hope this helps someone about to chance a flight in low cloud.

 

[strobing_nyc]

This is a know "feature" of DJI drones and clouds or fog\mist. On the spark you can't turn off the VPS system so your lucky to get yours back in 1 piece.

 

[NyJosh]

I believe the Spark manual specifically says not to fly into clouds or fog. There was a recent YouTube posted where a guy got stuck above the clouds because vps thought the cloud was th ground and refused to descend.

Don’t do it!

 

[John Harvey]

I flew in Fog and had the same message, I landed immediately but it was a hard landing!!!. No more flying in obscure weather...