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Fly away in Gesture Mode

Scott White

Active Member
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Jan 20, 2018
Messages
40
Loc
Grovetown, Georgia USA
So had a hell of a scare this evening. I hand launched my Spark in gesture mode. It started gaining altitude going until I believe about 100 feet up. Maybe higher. Of course, not being that tall it was basically on its own.

I grabbed the remote hoping to gain control of the aircraft. It seemed to connect and I started its decent. The decent was coming down MUCH faster than normal. VERY fast. I was able the break the impact of the craft with my hands and it basically fell to the ground from chest height with only a couple of scratches on the top and some slightly nicked up props.

Has anyone else seen or experienced anything like this? Any reports of runaway Spark in gesture mode?

Also, is the flight data recorded on the craft or in the application on my phone? Any way to retrieve the data to figure out what went wrong (besides the obvious).

Firmware is up to date.
 
You had a device (mobile) connected? Then the logs will be on the phone, as well as the aircraft. And at least you were able to take control again. Here is my experience, in gesture mode/disconnected: Gesture mode flyaway
 
You had a device (mobile) connected? Then the logs will be on the phone, as well as the aircraft. And at least you were able to take control again. Here is my experience, in gesture mode/disconnected: Gesture mode flyaway

No device connected and I am pretty sure I was not able to regain control. The decent was more of a fall with power than a controlled descent. I'm hoping the logs are on the aircraft.
 
Then yes, there are logs on the aircraft. You connect to Assistant 2 to download them, then use other apps to read the data. If the Spark is still under the warranty period, be sure to copy those logs and open a case. I'd be wondering why it did that.

Also, based on my experience, I'll never fly gesture-only again. Heck, it bugs me that I need to enable gestures to do a palm launch. Always keep even just a phone connected on WiFi so that if things go wrong, you can take control and kill it. Or, at least try.
 
Then yes, there are logs on the aircraft. You connect to Assistant 2 to download them, then use other apps to read the data. If the Spark is still under the warranty period, be sure to copy those logs and open a case. I'd be wondering why it did that.

Also, based on my experience, I'll never fly gesture-only again. Heck, it bugs me that I need to enable gestures to do a palm launch. Always keep even just a phone connected on WiFi so that if things go wrong, you can take control and kill it. Or, at least try.

Well I don't think I will again. That scared the hell out of me. Thanks for the info.
 
So took the Spark out for some low altitude testing today. Checked all the controls, used several "modes" took some video and stills. All seems fine with no issues. So as far as the incident goes, it remains a mystery but the aircraft is perfectly functional. Thank goodness! I don't think my wife would let me by another one anytime soon. LOL
 
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My wife wanted me to return it after the initial suicide. Lol

Fwiw: I have not had issues while flying it connected to the RC (fingers crossed).
 
Last edited:
I made a mistake in the boardroom at work, no controller, no phone, hand launched and it seemed ok as it took off from my hand and then went flying down the boardroom at high speed, basically I think the contrast of me in a white room with a white shirt gave it nothing firm to focus on and then all the white made it freak out, saved it with a run and snatch but I had to kill it by pulling the battery.

Could just be you didn’t have enough contrast between you and the surroundings and it lost you too.
 
saved it with a run and snatch but I had to kill it by pulling the battery..

That could have been disastrous! But might be a little funny too. Just so you know, if you can grab it and turn it on it's back it will shut down the motors. You don't have to pull the battery. I learned this flying in my living room.

I suspect lighting is VERY VERY critical in Gesture Mode. Like you mentioned, lots of contrast and plenty of light. Anything less and it could be trouble.
 
Yes light is critical! Too much, can't track. Not enough, can't track. If you are in bright direct sunlight, apparently may not work either. Lol
 
Yeah I'm thinking, after my experience and Chris' that Gesture Mode is off the menu for now. Just too sketchy. And to be honest, not really useful except for impressing the kids in the neighborhood with your Jedi Mind Tricks
 
That could have been disastrous! But might be a little funny too. Just so you know, if you can grab it and turn it on it's back it will shut down the motors. You don't have to pull the battery. I learned this flying in my living room.

I suspect lighting is VERY VERY critical in Gesture Mode. Like you mentioned, lots of contrast and plenty of light. Anything less and it could be trouble.
Yeah didn’t impress my colleagues the way I intended for sure ;-)
 
So had a hell of a scare this evening. I hand launched my Spark in gesture mode. It started gaining altitude going until I believe about 100 feet up. Maybe higher. Of course, not being that tall it was basically on its own.

I grabbed the remote hoping to gain control of the aircraft. It seemed to connect and I started its decent. The decent was coming down MUCH faster than normal. VERY fast. I was able the break the impact of the craft with my hands and it basically fell to the ground from chest height with only a couple of scratches on the top and some slightly nicked up props.

Has anyone else seen or experienced anything like this? Any reports of runaway Spark in gesture mode?

Also, is the flight data recorded on the craft or in the application on my phone? Any way to retrieve the data to figure out what went wrong (besides the obvious).

Firmware is up to date.
Same happened to me.
While lunching the drone in gesture mode It hovered above my head instead infront of me and then flow away.
It Hovered at a hight of 5m and around 10m away from me and suddenly flow back toward me with no control.
The end of the story was..bleeding fingers..
 
Same happened to me.
While lunching the drone in gesture mode It hovered above my head instead infront of me and then flow away.
It Hovered at a hight of 5m and around 10m away from me and suddenly flow back toward me with no control.
The end of the story was..bleeding fingers..

Exactly the same as has happened to me both times that I tried Gesture Mode, without RC or phone.

It took straight off from my hand and hovered about 10ft up. For about 5 mins nothing I did would bring it back.
Eventually it seemed to take notice of me and dropped down to palm landing height.
Then it wouldn't land, every time I put my hand under it, it rose up out of reach, I couldn't even grab it to turn it over.
Finally, it did land on my palm.

Never, never, never again. :mad:

This video shows the same as what I experienced twice.

 
So had a hell of a scare this evening. I hand launched my Spark in gesture mode. It started gaining altitude going until I believe about 100 feet up. Maybe higher. Of course, not being that tall it was basically on its own.

I grabbed the remote hoping to gain control of the aircraft. It seemed to connect and I started its decent. The decent was coming down MUCH faster than normal. VERY fast. I was able the break the impact of the craft with my hands and it basically fell to the ground from chest height with only a couple of scratches on the top and some slightly nicked up props.

Has anyone else seen or experienced anything like this? Any reports of runaway Spark in gesture mode?

Also, is the flight data recorded on the craft or in the application on my phone? Any way to retrieve the data to figure out what went wrong (besides the obvious).

Firmware is up to date.
I had the same experience yesterday.
Not sure why but I ended up with blooded fingers.
It could be the latest firmware update or maybe because I flew it in a different state but something is definitely wrong with the spark.
 
One thing I did notice, you were facing the camera INTO the sun at a couple of points. This could have caused the issue as it lowers the contrast across the entire image. Just a thought.

It's not my video, it's one I watched before I attempted Gesture Mode, as I'd read about some issues already.

I made absolutely sure that the sun was not behind me when I made my attempts, and still had similar problems except that mine didn't go halfway into RTH/flyaway like his seemed to do.

I had another problem with mine, in that (Murphy's Law?), the wind started gusting as the Spark was hovering above me and I worried that it would crash into a tree or something. Luckily it held OK.

I seemed to have problems being recognised by the camera but, OK, maybe I'm too ugly for the Spark. o_O
 

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