Think about how soon a Spark would be 'Out of Visual Range' , it's so small, realistically unless you have super powers, at 140x140mm dimensionally it's out of visual range after you climb or move beyond approx 40m, which is pointless.
I'll be honest and say 99% of the time, mine is well out of visual range, otherwise I'd simply carry a camera with me and forget the Spark altogether.
I've been out in the park several times this fall before the cold closed in. I took my (alpine white with no decals) Spark up to 500ft to height-test it. I found it got difficult to hear at about 200ft up, and was getting very tiny. At that point you had to maintain an iron gaze on it because if you lost it you were never going to get it back. I relied exclusively on the video feed to fly it at that point even though it was technically "within visual range". Once it got much beyond 300ft though it was pretty hopeless to see the spec.
My distance tests were at 100-200ft, and took me out about 800ft I'd estimate. Again it was extremely difficult to keep a visual lock on it, and there was NO chance of being able to determine orientation that far out, let alone whether it was moving toward or away from me. It was difficult to recognize anything but large movements left/right or up/down. I looked down at the remote and back up and was unable to re-acquire it. So going back to the video feed again I turned it around and slowly drove it back my way. I ended up hearing it before I could re-acquire a visual lock on it. "I
know it's right about *there* but I can't
find it... OH! there it is!")
So I think your range estimates are a bit pessimistic, especially considering my vision's not all that good. But clearly it's easy to fly it well outside one's visual range without having to go around terrain, buildings, treelines, etc. I do hope they don't impose any more overriding controls on the Spark though. It's bad enough not being able to take off and buzz around your own back yard if you live a few blocks from a hospital that has a disused helipad. I would not have bought my Spark if it had a 300ft range limit, and I sure as heck would be returning it right back to DJI for a refund if it got a mandatory firmware update to add such mandatory restrictions.
I may get flamed a bit for this but I'm well-known for stating my opinion regardless of whether or not its popular. In this city we have a lot of bicyclists, but not a lot of bike trails. The city we share our suburbs with DOES have a lot of bike trails. That means we have a lot of bicyclists running around town and they are either dodging traffic or riding on the sidewalks. Nobody wants to take their 7 and 10 yr old kids for a ride in traffic. So they're on the sidewalks a lot. is it legal? Actually
no it's not. But talk to any cop and they'll tell you you're much safer on the sidewalk than a busy street. But the thing is, if you happen to run into a jogger or a stroller or something that
belongs on the sidewalk, you will be absolutely, unarguably 100% at-fault because
you don't belong there. That's why the law is there, not for fines but for safety and accountability. (the law also covers cars, particularly when crossing a sidewalk while traversing their driveway - cars are 100% always at fault when they meet a pedestrian, regardless of circumstances) So if a bike (or a car) collides with a pedestrian, there's absolutely
no question of who is at fault.
I see the "line of sight" rule in a similar vein. You get out there past where you can see and all bets are closed. Everything that happens from that point forward is 100% your responsibility, regardless of circumstances or what the other party is doing. If you're getting video or even still footage then you have to be taking your eyes off the drone and looking at the screen, and it's not practical for a lot of us to have a dedicated spotter 100% of the time. But that's absolutely required if you're going to be doing
any filming or picture-taking, if you intend to follow the constant-uninterrupted-eye-contact rule. So there's always going to be a significant portion of pilots that bend that rule. But don't do that until you have developed some skill, and stay sharp. Fly defensively. Treat your flying as responsibly as you do when you're driving a car. You can do damage (and even injure people) with a drone just the same as with a car. Drive them seriously.
