Lost my Spark. Disconnected/Fly Away

[brycep]

This evening I took my Spark out for a short flight. Beautiful night, little to no wind, nice sunset, etc. All was going well, strong connection, enough satellites connected, good distance, then it went into ATTI mode...which isn't a problem. I attempted to fly it back home when all went to hell. Before I knew it the Spark had lost signal and the screen went blank.

I used the "Find My Drone" locator and walked through a knee deep marsh, over a barbed wire fence and into a newly plowed field. No luck. I can't find it.

I don't think I am at fault here. I'm always careful when I fly. Was I far away from home? Yes. But that isn't the issue. It is the furthest the Spark has gone, but up until that point my signal was oddly strong. Before I made it to around 7,000 feet before the Spark needed to come back. My intention was to test without and then with the range extender on my remote. The little $8 things. I usually use it for long flights, but this time I was trying without....and WAS having better results. Before the end.

Thanks for any and all help!

DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

 

[Cody j Waldron]

Why did you cancel the return to home when the drone tried to force it itself

 

[brycep]

Why did you cancel the return to home when the drone tried to force it itself

So that I could get the Spark home sooner using Sport mode. I’m this mode you have a 1/3higher speed to get home, and can descend during flight to get home and to the ground with battery life to spare.

 

[gareth5000]

Apparently it's better to let it come home in rth and give it some forward stick as well.
Too late now, sorry You must be feeling p'd off.
Lucky it wasn't a P4p...

 

[brycep]

Apparently it's better to let it come home in rth and give it some forward stick as well.
Too late now, sorry You must be feeling p'd off.
Lucky it wasn't a P4p...

I’m mainly just bummed. I work awake nights and am on my week off now. I’m kind of obsessed with this drone and wanted to go fly before it got dark. And of course wanted it for this week that I don’t work. :/

Using this Spark made me realize this is the hobby for me. The joy of flying plus learning how to edit the footage. I have some amazing sufff already that I’ll share on here. It’s temlting to just upgrade to a Mavic Air or Pro.... but I invested in a lot of batteries, portable charging hub, case, etc.

 

[brycep]

And yeah....I’m out around $300. That isn’t bad I’m the scheme of things. Especially with this hobby. But I’m not a rich man so every dollar matters. I’m OCD when it comes to how well I take care of my things. But testing this little guy seemed safe and I feel like I did what I could given the situation.

 

[gareth5000]

This is my second Spark, the first one fell in a river and died
I nagged DJI until they gave me 50% discount. ( I didn't really expect any help from them but they were really good to me.)
You may have to bite the bullet and get another...

 

[gareth5000]

 

[KenTheJeepGuy]

I lost mine a couple weeks ago and searched for hours. Part of the problem was I “knew” roughly where it landed. Went back the next day and, on a whim, entered its last known GPS coordinates on my “Gaia” app and walked right to the Spark. Later it crashed in some bushes quite a ways from me (I think it had moisture in it from being out overnight) and the coordinates again led me right to it.

 

[brycep]

I lost mine a couple weeks ago and searched for hours. Part of the problem was I “knew” roughly where it landed. Went back the next day and, on a whim, entered its last known GPS coordinates on my “Gaia” app and walked right to the Spark. Later it crashed in some bushes quite a ways from me (I think it had moisture in it from being out overnight) and the coordinates again led me right to it.

Where did you get the last known coordinates? Was this more accurate than using find my drone via the DJI app?

 

[brycep]

I ended up buying a Mavic Pro Fly More Combo yesterday. Haven’t flown yet. After having the Spark the WiFi drones make me too nervous.

I has the Spark for such a short time and spent more on accessories than on the drone itself. Had 5 batteries for more fly time. Now down to four. I may be posting things for sale here soon. I got a case number from DJI. We shall see what they say. I know I flew far, but the drone didn’t behave as it should. A few guys on the official forum are kinda jerks about it. Flying overly safe would be too boring.

 

[KenTheJeepGuy]

Where did you get the last known coordinates? Was this more accurate than using find my drone via the DJI app?

Where I lost the drone was out of cell range in the mountains. The Gaia Maps, once downloaded, working straight off of satellite and are highly accurate showing you exactly where you are. I got the coordinates off the bottom of the screen from my flight record, and entered them in, and it showed exactly where the drone was so I could walk straight to it.

 

[BobD]

I'm sure I would have lost my Spark, as we have VLOS rules here in Germany and your Spark was way out of sight. At that distance, you have no idea of where it went down.

 

[tmgrood]

I ended up buying a Mavic Pro Fly More Combo yesterday. Haven’t flown yet. After having the Spark the WiFi drones make me too nervous.
Flying overly safe would be too boring.

I think the Mavic Pro will suit your way of flying better. It’s a good “distance” drone than the “selfie” drone.

 

[brycep]

This morning I heard back from DJI. It was a malfunction and the units fault. They are sending me a replacement.

Expect to see a new in box refurbished Spark with remote 5 batteries, props, portable charging station, portable charging station bag, another charger, and prop guards for sale soon.

 

[MicroModDude]

Wow, you canceled return to home!!! That's like burning $350 in fire. Hard lesson to learn. This might help the next person in avoiding the same mistake.

Thanks for posting though and sorry to hear about your loss.

 

[brycep]

Wow, you canceled return to home!!! That's like burning $350 in fire. Hard lesson to learn. This might help the next person in avoiding the same mistake.

Thanks for posting though and sorry to hear about your loss.

Of course I did! So I could bring it home faster. I thought all Spark pilots knew this.

No mistakes were made. That’s why DJI is sending a replacement. It’s a Spark issue.

 

[brycep]

It’s not like hitting RTH would have made any difference in this situation.

When flying home manually in sport mode you get home much quicker with battery to spare.

People just once blaming the pilot and not admitting this product has problems.

 

[Zagaemundo]

Bad luck with all that happened man though it did make you realize you wanted the Mavic. So if you really aren’t keeping the spark when you get the refurbished one I may be interested.

 

[Jeffrey Journey]

I have viewed the end of your posted video several times and there is a lot going on there. At one point I think you achieved slightly over 10K feet in horizontal distance which is impressive where as I usually start to loose image transmission signal around 2500 ft but I realize it's all in the particular area you are flying. I do have to give you props (drone pun intended...Ha Ha) to ride your flight out that far. I would have hit RTH way earlier. Although you were taking a great risk running it out to such limits you should have been able to cancel the "low battery" RTH safe mode and flowned it back manually. The compass and GPS errors were several and it's had to tell if you actually lost connection with the drone and the RC. The video gets choppy and then goes black a few times then comes back. Does image transmission guarantee you have control connectivity of the drone? Guess not in this scenario. Also I'm sure the compass and GPS errors did not help the already depleting battery level.
Thanks for sharing your painful experience so that we all can learn from it...Jeff