How to Drown Your Spark...

[limesqueezy]

So, I took my Spark kit to Costa Rica for a fishing trip. Then I drowned it.

I launched the Spark with no trouble off the stern of the sportfishing boat. Gauges all in the green. The boat was moving.

I flew around the stern for a while, and then saw some birds a couple of hundred yards away. I flew towards them. I received a "max flight distance" notification and immediately executed RTH from the Remote Controller. The drone would not move home (dynamic home point). I tried RTH several times, no joy. The aircraft appeared to hover and eventually dunked, although I had great video of its hovering position if you like to look at waves.

Sent the flight .dat file to DJI. First, language barrier. Second, they stated that once the drone moves out of the safe fly zone, it effective cannot return to home. Third, they ended my claim saying "there will be no more reviews" and "pilot error, launched from moving object".

What a bunch of horseshit. I even offered to pay partial amount of a refurbished drone and they blew me off. Conclusion... I'm out a spark and DJI continues its crappy customer service. Where in the manual does it say if the PILOT moves out of the safe fly zone the drone will freeze. And despite a warning about flying off of moving objects, there's nothing in the Spark manual that says it is an automatic pilot error to fly off a moving object.

Given the broken English of the repetitive e-mails from DJI, they are supporting the product from China. How about getting some native English speakers to handle these delicate cases?

 

[DesertWindAero]

So, I took my Spark kit to Costa Rica for a fishing trip. Then I drowned it.

I launched the Spark with no trouble off the stern of the sportfishing boat. Gauges all in the green. The boat was moving.

I flew around the stern for a while, and then saw some birds a couple of hundred yards away. I flew towards them. I received a "max flight distance" notification and immediately executed RTH from the Remote Controller. The drone would not move home (dynamic home point). I tried RTH several times, no joy. The aircraft appeared to hover and eventually dunked, although I had great video of its hovering position if you like to look at waves.

Sent the flight .dat file to DJI. First, language barrier. Second, they stated that once the drone moves out of the safe fly zone, it effective cannot return to home. Third, they ended my claim saying "there will be no more reviews" and "pilot error, launched from moving object".

What a bunch of horseshit. I even offered to pay partial amount of a refurbished drone and they blew me off. Conclusion... I'm out a spark and DJI continues its crappy customer service. Where in the manual does it say if the PILOT moves out of the safe fly zone the drone will freeze. And despite a warning about flying off of moving objects, there's nothing in the Spark manual that says it is an automatic pilot error to fly off a moving object.

Given the broken English of the repetitive e-mails from DJI, they are supporting the product from China. How about getting some native English speakers to handle these delicate cases?

It sounds like you do not have a full understanding of what Dynamic Home Point is, and what it isn't, according to the manual and several YouTube videos on the subject.

Bottom line...pilot error.

 

[limesqueezy]

It sounds like you do not have a full understanding of what Dynamic Home Point is, and what it isn't, according to the manual and several YouTube videos on the subject.

Bottom line...pilot error.

Dynamic Home Point set itself (or actually I swiped to set it) when I executed the RTH. The drone, however, would not fly back as it was outside the safe flight range. There is no documentation that indicates this behavior. Could I have been a better pilot - sure, I'll take that criticism. But the docs are a) incomplete on safe flight range and b) there is a missing feature on returning to home when the max flight range marker is crossed. Because I exceeded the safe fly zone I was essentially completely blocked from returning the drone, manually or automatically, to a newly set home point.

 

[koffe]

The dynamic home point updates every 10 meters or seconds (dont remember which) of where the drone momentarily is. In your case you would be better off if you set a new home point where you, or actually where the controller was. If the boat moved a bit at the end of the return trip, you could updated it or flown in the last part manually. Even if it was written in the manual or not.

 

[limesqueezy]

When I executed the RTH, I was asked if I'd like to force an update of home. I believe that worked... its the undocumented feature of safe fly zone standing the drone still that killed me, I think. In any case, no product is perfect but customer service on the part of DJI in my case is in broken English and not fair or professional - far from good customer service.

 

[koffe]

Apart from good or bad customer service, you would probably not have read the manual in that critical situation. But if you had prepared yourself better with YT movies and made some thinking of how such a delicate situation would have to be handled before you tried it, I think you could have managed it, instead of blaming the customer service for the situation. You must have seen before that there are two different ways to set a homepoint. Maybe you didnt think of that?

 

[netfolks2000]

" they stated that once the drone moves out of the safe fly zone, it effective cannot return to home."
I don't understand what that means. I assume "safe fly zone" means an area where there is contact between controller and drone. It may be the drone was set to hover when contact was lost so it did. And it may be there was never enough contact again to tell it to RTH, so it hovered until the battery died and went down. Dynamic home point is risky, especially over water because that point, when set, changes immediately as the boat moves away from it. Same with setting the home point of where the drone itself is. If over water, then that is where it will land. The other thing you can watch is distance, keeping it pretty close when over water. Even if GPS is lost you can fly in the direction that the drone distance decreases as you watch on your screen, even if you don't know where you are in the view. But once you lose contact, even that is not an option.

 

[RaWine]

I'm trying to understand what happened also.

Most of time my home point is the position where the drone took off regardless of where I move after that. Even if I turn on Sport mode and fly as far away as I can, when it finally disconnects it will return to that approximate spot.

Dynamic is because I am planning to be somewhere quite aways away. Correct?

Did your drone fly into fully restricted airspace from non-restricted air space? I was wondering if that might shut everything down.

 

[Rafa7]

I'm lost too on this part, what does it mean?
"... once the drone moves out of the safe fly zone, it effective cannot return to home."

Anyways, it does seems like you (on the boat) and the Spark must have fly/moved far away from the home point, you must have passed the maximum fly away distance from the opposite direction of the home point. The Spark reached the maximum fly away distance set on the app and it cannot fly farther to where you are. At that point two things could had help regain control: get closer to the drone and increase the maximum fly away distance, then fly back to you or a safe place.

Now, this is where hitting RTH would have complicated things for the knowledge I have. I am thinking of duplicating this scenario next time I go out so I can learn what to do.

 

[Mrmund]

Just sayin'
Why would anyone ever hit RTH?
I'm sincerely sorry Limesqueezy for your loss. If I lost my Spark it would be terrible.

To all you Spark pilots, if you read this forum you will see case after case of RTH not working!
RTH is a (safety feature)! Your spark is running out of juice, hit cancel and fly it back, signal loss, fly it back.
If your Spark won't respond for some reason hopefully the home point is somewhere near you and it comes back.
Always set your home point upon take off but remember, if anything is wrong,GPS, Compass, IMU or your Spark is just plain confused when you hit RTH it's going where ever it thinks it should.
Aren't you smarter than a drone? Fly that S@#t home boys

 

[RaWine]

Just sayin'
Why would anyone ever hit RTH?
I'm sincerely sorry Limesqueezy for your loss. If I lost my Spark it would be terrible.

To all you Spark pilots, if you read this forum you will see case after case of RTH not working!
RTH is a (safety feature)! Your spark is running out of juice, hit cancel and fly it back, signal loss, fly it back.
If your Spark won't respond for some reason hopefully the home point is somewhere near you and it comes back.
Always set your home point upon take off but remember, if anything is wrong,GPS, Compass, IMU or your Spark is just plain confused when you hit RTH it's going where ever it thinks it should.
Aren't you smarter than a drone? Fly that S@#t home boys

 

[RaWine]

I generally try to get some altitude if I get a chance for recovery. Altitude generally means better reception. Of course there is going to be odd chance that makes it worse if you run into something, but I'd bet on it more than any other move.

 

[RLB]

So, I took my Spark kit to Costa Rica for a fishing trip. Then I drowned it.

I launched the Spark with no trouble off the stern of the sportfishing boat. Gauges all in the green. The boat was moving.

I flew around the stern for a while, and then saw some birds a couple of hundred yards away. I flew towards them. I received a "max flight distance" notification and immediately executed RTH from the Remote Controller. The drone would not move home (dynamic home point). I tried RTH several times, no joy. The aircraft appeared to hover and eventually dunked, although I had great video of its hovering position if you like to look at waves.

Sent the flight .dat file to DJI. First, language barrier. Second, they stated that once the drone moves out of the safe fly zone, it effective cannot return to home. Third, they ended my claim saying "there will be no more reviews" and "pilot error, launched from moving object".

What a bunch of horseshit. I even offered to pay partial amount of a refurbished drone and they blew me off. Conclusion... I'm out a spark and DJI continues its crappy customer service. Where in the manual does it say if the PILOT moves out of the safe fly zone the drone will freeze. And despite a warning about flying off of moving objects, there's nothing in the Spark manual that says it is an automatic pilot error to fly off a moving object.

Given the broken English of the repetitive e-mails from DJI, they are supporting the product from China. How about getting some native English speakers to handle these delicate cases?

I have great empathy for your encounter with one of the most frustrating customer service operations I have ever experienced. Language barrier is particularly annoying even though this is supposed to be based in Cerritos, Ca. All DJI responses are read from a template; rigid cultural influence prevents the company from
ever coming close to meeting the real needs of a customer service policy. DJI Care is total B.S.; charged me postage on goggles sent for repair; nothing wrong on their bench test, refused to send me a set of cables/adapter used in the testing and would not consider letting me pay for the the cables/adapter-"must buy DJI Store, thank you Mr. Bob is there anything else I help you with today".

 

[steve.r]

Can someone explain exactly the 'safe fly zone' as I was thinking that if the drone reached it's limit or lost connection then it would RTH anyway

 

[MannyCAM2001]

" they stated that once the drone moves out of the safe fly zone, it effective cannot return to home."
I don't understand what that means. I assume "safe fly zone" means an area where there is contact between controller and drone. It may be the drone was set to hover when contact was lost so it did. And it may be there was never enough contact again to tell it to RTH, so it hovered until the battery died and went down. Dynamic home point is risky, especially over water because that point, when set, changes immediately as the boat moves away from it. Same with setting the home point of where the drone itself is. If over water, then that is where it will land. The other thing you can watch is distance, keeping it pretty close when over water. Even if GPS is lost you can fly in the direction that the drone distance decreases as you watch on your screen, even if you don't know where you are in the view. But once you lose contact, even that is not an option.

I totally agree with you. WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN? ......Safe FlyZone?...?.?.?.?
Someone tell me what page thats on!
And Ben, so sorry to hear about losing your Spark. Not only the Spark, but 400.00 to boot. A bad customer service experience with “home based barely knowledgeable, English challenged, poorly paid agents”.
The last thing you needed from us was a bunch of fellow Spark enthusiasts to gang up on you.
No lectures on what you should have done. You most likely know what you could have done differently.
It sucks in any case, your fault, their fault, whatever.
You needed a friendly gesture.
Part of being emphatic is to know what to say, and when to say it.
Sorry Ben, we’ve all made mistakes flying this a-cursed little bastard..lol. But move past it my friend, don’t give up. Flying from a boat can challenge even the best of us. A curve ball will confound even the most seasoned professional.

Peace out bro.
Live to fly another day.

 

[Skynet HK Aerial]

I'm sorry man. I drowned mine in the Gulf of Mexico this past weekend. It was my fault though.

Best of luck.

 

[RLB]

My experience with RTH and hopefully lessons learned - all be it a slow process in my case! First, lost site of drone over heavily wooded area and a low battery warning. I panicked and hit RTH. The drone started back but I never gained sight of it so cancelled RTH and took over manually and flew it into a tree. I did recover the drone after paying a tree service $150 to climb the tree and saw the offending limb off the tree. The drone had been in the tree for 6 days and two days of rain.
Recovered and dried out after two days I was able to fly it without incident. Lesson learned: don't cancel RTH if you can't see the drone, make sure that RTH is set
before flight so as to avoid the highest object on the return path. Keep in mind the collision sensors will not work in RTH. Don't allow your remaining flight time put you into a situation where the battery life cannot get the drone back on the ground.

Second incident, same or similar mistakes make re battery life and RTH altitude setting. I had flown the drone out of sight behind a tree when the low battery warning came on, hit RTH and it flew into the tree-failed to set RTH altitude before flight. I never saw the drone in the tree, searched over several days and decided that it probably fell into the pond below, never recovered. Now on second Spark and had another RTH incident, low battery hovering against small branches with obstacle warning at 1'. I went over to pick up the drone and the fail safe RTH took over and the drone shot straight up. Fortunately it didn't encounter any branches
and I was able to take over manually as the battery was down to 10%. At max altitude on RTH I was finally able to start the descent and got it on the ground with @ 6% battery left.

Two stupid mistakes, lost one drone. Recommendation: find a big clear open area and become totally familiar with the variables of RTH and practice, practice, practice, practice. Do Not let the remaining battery life get below 25% before you start your inbound flight. Spark battery power at the low end drops like a rock. Best practice suggestions: Ensure that you have a clear landing area of at least 35' in radius, RTH or Dynamic RTH. Ensure that you have a clear approach path to the RTH before T/off. If these two are addressed then RTH is the safest way to get back on the ground if you lose sight of the drone.

One dumb *** drone pilot in need of remedial training course; input welcome.
Bob

 

[happyshot]

I double what others are saying about RTH not being a fail-safe way to return the drone back to you. Is just NOT reliable. Fly your drone back manually, RTH button is just not worth the risk. Activate sports mode and fly it back to you. Ive made it a rule that at >12% i sport-mode it back to me.

 

[MannyCAM2001]

I don’t even wait for 12%. I do hate that nauseous feeling when it gets that low.

 

[RaWine]

Do Not let the remaining battery life get below 25% before you start your inbound flight.
Bob

This is one I've noticed seems to happen as people actually get more confident about their flying abilities and let the drone fly longer.. Then they either get a very close call but get it back, or sometimes don't.