Had my first fly-away scare...

[Concorde]

Had my first fly-away scare... but it turned out well after all. I was flying over the construction site where my new home is being built, and about 30 seconds into the flight I got a "disconnect" notice... and it didn't reconnect automatically. The drone rotated and started flying away, or so I thought. What it was actually doing was heading back to the take-off/home point. I had been walking with the drone while filming, so it got back to the home point before I did. I have one of those "H" colorful take-off landing pads, and the Spark was just hovering above it. I still didn't have a connection and couldn't force it to land, so I grabbed the Spark out of the air and turned it sideways to force the motors to turn off.

It had me concerned at first, that's for sure! This is the first such incident I've had in about 4 months of flying the Spark. Interestingly enough, I never could reestablish a connection there, even after turning everything off and then back on. I've flown in this location at least a half-dozen times before on different days with no issue. Thinking it might be a hardware/warranty problem, I turned it all back on when I got to the house and voila, the phone saw the Spark's WIFI and all is well. Any ideas what might have caused this?

 

[Lastrexking]

I think it’s just standard Spark hiccups. I’ve had similar experiences with mine. Checked it before going out and it’s been fine. Got to wherever I’m filming, and it’s decided it’s not happy. Got home, and it’s fine again.
In one instance i had, it was the memory card. Don’t ask me how, but someone here suggested formatting it, and when I did the issue was gone.

 

[Hddeuce03]

Interesting. But it really wasn't a "fly away scare" lol. It did exactly what is was supposed to do. Very strange as to why it would not re-connect at that area though!

 

[Rekanix]

In my experience I’ve had much better connectivity with turning the WiFi off and using a cable connection (that is if you’re using the controller).

 

[Concorde]

In my experience I’ve had much better connectivity with turning the WiFi off and using a cable connection (that is if you’re using the controller).

I do indeed have a controller. Have the OTG issues been resolved now? I remember reading that they had compatibility problems... in fact I had tried one a few months ago and I got a "weak transmission signal" error. I haven't tried it again with later updates of the DJI GO 4 app (ios).

 

[Rekanix]

I'm not aware of any OTG issues - I haven't had mine long, but I did have issues with transmission with my wifi turned on on the phone. Then I remembered someone said something about putting the phone on airplane mode, and I did - no issues - flew the Spark out just over a mile. Maybe the connection issue I was having was that I had wifi turned on my phone while connected to the controller with the cable? I'm not sure - but I'm doing well with the cable connection and phone in airplane mode.

 

[fredoman]

I am quite new to drone piloting and I also had already several scare situation. Most were in a mountain environment where you have often a bit less satellites visible. Last one: a bit windy conditions and ~10 satellites locked on take off. I was shooting an automatic panorama and in the middle of the acquisition the drone lost GPS fix and drifted away rapidly. When I tried to get back control of my Spark it was too far away to tell in which direction it was heading and my attempts to bring it back were unsuccessful. I should have tried to fly it by FPV but I did not think about this possibility in that stress situation (and I find it often quite difficult to know where to go from the camera image). Luckily GPS signal came back before I completely lost contact (or crashed it into the mountain) and I could initiate RTH. I learned from this experience to always closely watch the drone when it's its panoroma shots in order to always knowin which direction it is heading.

 

[Spark 317]

When I tried to get back control of my Spark it was too far away to tell in which direction it was heading

Hello from the Mid-West, fredoman.

I had a similar incident and since then,
I try to pay more attention to the telemetry on the screen when I can't see the Spark.

The orientation of the Spark can be made by the radar screen (red triangle).

Height and distance are readily available too.

If the numbers increase as you fly, the Spark is flying away from you.
The training simulator is good practice for this. I can fly the Spark until it's a dot on the screen and then fly by the numbers.

And dont forget about the Sport mode button. If it's drifting in the wind, once you get the Spark pointed back to you, flip the switch and punch it. The extra boost may be what you need to fight the wind.

I know the first instinct is to stare into the sky looking for a dot that might not be there but the information could be right at your fingertips.

I had a fly away on my second flight due to pilot error and I didn't even think about looking at the screen for telemetry due to panic mode, just vision and got disoriented. But luckily the RTH worked like a charm and saved the day.

Fly Safe and welcome to the Forum.

 

[jk_images]

good points.. thanks guys!