Just bought my spark waiting for it to arrive anything I should know?

[João Vitor]

Any advice is apreciated

 

[msinger]

Take a look at the must-haves list here. You'll find links to important manuals and guides.

 

[Pearson]

How much experience do you have flying? When I first started out, I found it very easy to get task saturated. Too many things to manage at once. Watch YouTube, read the forums, don't rush into Sport Mode and take it s-l-o-w. Don't be like me. Third flight...fly-away right into the side of my house. I count myself as one of the lucky ones.

It's six months later and my drone is better than ever, I'm more confident and am creating great family vids (using Filmora). I'm having a blast! This Spark is more than I hoped for.

 

[Akuen_527]

Whatever you are thinking about flying inside, about it being safer and unable to fly away, forget that. Take it out in a large open area outside, and only take off after you see the "rth updated please check it on the map". Then check it on the map to be sure it has saved. Also remember to check/set your RTH altitude higher than the highest obstacle in your flight area.

I may go overboard, but my routine when flying is this: (on the app)

Check RTH point on map
Check RTH altitude
Check/adjust max height and altitude (as a new pilot this and beginner mode are your best friend) Out of the box I think these are set at 20 and 30m respectively. Helps alleviate fears of flying away your first few times out.
Check sensors (IMU and compass)
Check wifi channel interference

Also if your homepoint takes a while to update, just do all the rest of the preflight check first, and by the time you get through those few tasks the homepoint should be updated and shown on the map in yellow.

Also learn the attitude indicator within the go app, it helps show the direction of the aircraft as well as what sort of wind the spark is seeing up where it's flying.

 

[Andre Levite]

Welcome to the Forum!

 

[hunterkilla]

Buy more batteries.... I also brought the smartree portable charger... means I can go out and have 9 batteries worth of flight without having to come back to base.

As others have said, find a nice quiet empty open spot with good line of site ie fields etc practice... slowly get confident... learn the controls and def make sure RTH is set.

I can also recommend a range extender..... and I set my wifi channel to manual and it then goes to 2.4ghz which means longer distance / less video drop ( and yes... the distance is within the drone code.. ) as i was losing video even with line of site at 100m +

and the most important tip... HAVE fun.. the spark is a little sweetheart to fly

 

[Spark 317]

Any advice is apreciated

Hello from the Hoosier Heartland, João Vitor.

Before your first flight, spend some time in the DJI Go4 simulator as this will give you a little practice on how the joysticks work and the flight telemetry.

Virtually fly the Spark to a distance and pay attention to the information such as distance, orientation, etc. as you work the controls to learn how the Spark reacts to your input.

You can even fly in Sport mode during the simulation.

Have fun, be safe, and welcome to the Forum. ?

 

[Jim Bow]

Go to youtube and watch all the videos
When it arrives, read the manual.
Find an open field and practice flying. Try all the buttons.
Good luck.

 

[John MacAulay]

My 2 cents worth:
-Start out in a nice big wide open field.
-Don't fly high directly overhead. (difficult for the RC to maintain connection)
-Set a suitable RTH height for the area and wait until you have enough satellites connected and good satellite health before you take off.
-NEVER launch from a location that may distort your compass reading. ie car hood, picnic table, concrete driveway, deck, anywhere steel may distort your aircrafts compass.
- Try to remember that if you ever get a message indicating that your aircraft has dropped into Atti mode, you still have control via the RC but you will need to be able to fly it with no helpers other than altitude hold and the Spark will drift with the wind have no braking action.

Have fun, enjoy a totally awesome aircraft.

 

[ol' Sparky]

Go to the DJI site and watch all their Spark videos. Excellent introduction to how to get prepared.

DJI - The World Leader in Camera Drones/Quadcopters for Aerial Photography

As the market leader in easy-to-fly drones and aerial photography systems, DJI quadcopters like the Phantom are the standard in consumer drone technology.

www.dji.com

Would recommend DJI Care Refresh as well.
Don't care how many batteries you have...it's not enough.

 

[Spark 317]

Don't care how many batteries you have...it's not enough.

I have nine batteries and burn them quickly on a good day of flying.

 

[Northwood Mediaworks]

If you do try out the simulator, be sure to remove your props first. Read read read is my best advice and watch every Spark tutorial on YouTube. The more you know the less the chance of you losing it. And be sure to ask any question you like here.... nobody's going to raz you for what you may think is a dumb one.

 

[RichPinecone]

They claim 16 minutes of battery life. I bought the fly more combo which came with two battery’s. I start recording before I take off and stop recording when I land. I only end up with about 8-9 minute recordings and that is using the drone until it hits 30% battery.

 

[nilanjan118]

They claim 16 minutes of battery life. I bought the fly more combo which came with two battery’s. I start recording before I take off and stop recording when I land. I only end up with about 8-9 minute recordings and that is using the drone until it hits 30% battery.

The 16 mins advertised is probably from power on to 0% battery. You will get a more accurate flight time measurement if you see your flight records instead of just looking at the recorded video length. Landing at 15~20% battery, I get about 11~13mins of flight time.

 

[Sterreman Willie]

I read somewhere the two biggest reasons for drone fly-aways are (1) Wind and (2) Settings. (1) Wind is obvious, remember the windspeed dramatically increase as you gain height, so don't take any chances. (2) Make sure you understand all the settings before taking off for the first time - there are lost of YouTube videos explaining them all. Don't assume the default settings are safe to just take off after unpacking!

I found first flying in beginner mode and after that, tripod mode, makes you feel save initially and builds your confidence ... and gives you nice footage already!

 

[Greekislandlover]

Avoid trees.

Flying over water I'm fine with, but trees are very unforgiving! Just remember that the obstacle avoidance sensors do not work going backwards or sideways.

Did I mention the trees thing?????

Have fun!

 

[RichPinecone]

I believe that it also doesn’t have sensors on top of it as well.

 

[Pearson]

They claim 16 minutes of battery life. I bought the fly more combo which came with two battery’s. I start recording before I take off and stop recording when I land. I only end up with about 8-9 minute recordings and that is using the drone until it hits 30% battery.

If you're flying nearby, 30% reserve is too high. You'll get another 2-3 mins. before things get serious. Doesn't seem like much, but every minute counts! I get 11+ mins and I consider myself conservative. Well, maybe not in the below example. I was just flying as fast as I could for fun. So no way I'm ever going to get close to 16...lol.

 

[RichPinecone]

I’ve noticed the more that I fly it it the better the battery life has gotten. I’ve gone from 10 minute flights to about 12 minute flights. I have noticed that if you fly fully in sport mode the battery lasts a lot longer. Now of course I take it out of sport mode to get the smooth shots but. I fly to where I want in sport mode to get more out of the battery.

 

[Haggi]

99% to 1% in Sport mode = 14 minutes