Ugh! It was a Not Good To Fly warning but I chose to ignore it as the wind was only 20mph and the sun was out blue skies. Should have looked at it at 100ft up. Anyway all good, took off from a wide open nearby park (the Downs in Bristol UK) went up to 100ft and the wind started to take it and then I experienced ATTI. Didn’t panic (unusual for me as I have lost and recovered this Spark twice already) and walked to where I thought I might see it. No sign but could hear it and bless it, RTH kicked in and the sound got louder. Back came the connection and I allowed it to land precisely where it took off from. Lesson learnt, take proper note of conditions, although I think I have flown in similar strength winds before, and have faith in RTH.
First fly away-but it RTH
- Thread starter twickers14
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John.H
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John.H
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John.H
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Miket
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- Jul 12, 2018
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Hi, the UAV forecast app really is excellent, but it is worth noting that if you go to settings, you can change the parameters that it uses to advise good to fly or not.
Be careful flying on the Bristol Downs. The Bristol City council website says you can fly there but "The person flying the aircraft must be a member of the British Model Flying Association and have public liability insurance".
BTW Have a look at your log to see why it went into ATTI. It's normally cos of a compass/IMU error, rather than wind. Or lack of GPS signal. Yes Spark can be taken by the wind but if you go into Sport mode it can just fly into a 30mph headwind, though it will be making little progress. Once RTH kicked in, it was flying back to you at Sport speed. Certainly hearing that sound again is a great feeling! ps I'm in BS48
Thanks for this. A bit worrying as it is a favourite place to fly and seems quite safe for other people. Will check it out. Didn’t realise RTH is delivered in Sport Mode, or do I have that wrong? Also how do I “check the log”-is that the flight playback on the map from my list of flights?
If Spark is more than 100m away it comes back at 10m/s with obstacle avoidance disabled. That's actually less than full Sport speed of 14m/s but faster than the standard 3m/s. It's worth really understanding how RTH works when <20m, <100m and >100m away - the manual has a good description and here's a useful summary someone put together.
The flight playback on your phone from your list of flights will show the messages which came up on your phone. These should give a clue as to why it went into ATTI. You can also downlod and analyse much more detailed logs with scores of parameters every 10 milliseconds! There are lots of examples of people doing this on this forum to analyse their flyaways, and guidance on how to download the logs. These are the logs you send to DJI to supprt any claims but you can look at them yourself.
Oh right. That’s really helpful and thank you for the heads up. I’ll have a look. I think I recall something about Compass etc etc coming up as it Flew Away (on the wind maybe) so will check it out.
Yes. Just checked the playback and it warned Compass Error-ExitP-GPS Mode whatever that means. You are quite right, it returned at 18mph and my RTH height is 30mtrs so all trees cleared. Will look up what might have caused Compass Error, nothing suspect in the vicinity that I could see.
Dodge DeBoulet
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I do like this app a lot, but since I installed it a week ago my battery life has gone into the toilet. I've uninstalled it and am trying out UAV Forecast now.
How/where did you take off? By chance did you take off from a concrete surface which could have had iron rebar in it? Or from near a car? Taking off from anywhere which could have compass interference causes Spark to get confused. It compares how much it has turned in the air based on a) its compass and b) its IMU and if they differ it thinks it has a problem and it switches from GPS mode to ATTI. (I presume you weren't near the water tower?!)
I was in the niche between Ivywell Road and Circular Road over the west side of the Downs so nothing metallic there and well away from the cars. I have been placing Spark on the top of the car roof as I get in and out of it but the craft has not been switched on. Take off was simple and straight. Maybe I’ll recalibrate the Compass before I fly again. Thanks for your concern.
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