Need an Expert's Opinion - ATTI flying

[Roy Talangbayan]

My Spark is now at DjI for repair or replace... for $49. Not a bad deal. Maybe if I had calibrated the compass I wouldn't have had the flyaway. I'll definitely do it next time... and every time I fly. I, too, wish there were a way to force the ATTI mode so we newbies could learn to fly better without GPS. Maybe this will come in a future update. Meanwhile, I'll calibrate, take a deep breath, and try to gain the confidence to fly.

As what Sparkbart said, get a cheap non GPS drone like Alias or Dromida to practice your controls. Why take a chance with a lot more expensive dji.

 

[Xopher]

I have to agree. Before I got my Spark, I got an inexpensive non-GPS quad to practice with. I also have an inexpensive GPS drone as well. It's definitely a different animal to fly with automatic stabilization. It definitely helped me with learning how to control them.

I haven't had any issues with my Spark, but if it went in to ATTI mode, I'll feel a little more comfortable knowing how to handle the situation.

 

[ageloreyes27]

Been flying FPV racers for 6 years now, take the spark to a open car park or field and practice ATTI mode at a low height, it will make a huge difference

 

[msinger]

take the spark to a open car park or field and practice ATTI mode at a low height

Unfortunately, that isn't possible since ATTI mode cannot be manually selected.

 

[Zoran]

I also own a little Parrot Mambo drone, no GPS, good way to practice ones flying skills, I had the spark go into Atti mode and I didn't find it a big problem, as long as I know which way sparks pointing all is good

 

[Wombatclay]

From now on I'm just going to say refresh your spark firmware.... I've never had any of these issues and I hold that to updating via DJI Assistant in my pc and making sure nothing goes wrong with the updating process. If unsure I hit refresh firmware any way as all it takes is 1 error to build up to another error then you have a fly away....

 

[Darren Roach]

If you lose gps and the spark goes into atti mode don't panic it only means that it no longer knows where it is, its really no big deal once you have gained some experience. The spark will still hold altitude and you should still have your live video feed.
Have a look at what the camera is seeing and see if you can determine which way the spark is facing, if you can determine this you can slowly turn the spark around so that you are facing back toward you. Hopefully you will see some familiar land marks you can head for on your way back.
Depending on what your height was you may want to rise the spark a little to make sure that you clear any obstacle's on your way back.
be aware that any wind however gentle will push it either to the left or right and maybe away from you at the same time. Now you need to allow for any drift that there may be on the way back. When you get back just fly it in and land slowly. You may very well get a gps back again.
I fly my p4 in atti mode all the time and on a windy day it drifts pretty fast.
I did this weekend fly my spark through a hay barn and as soon as it entered that space it went to atti mode but gps cam back again once I exited the barn at the other end. I did have it in sight all the time so I could see what it was doing and correct any drift. Have fun and if your very new to flying drones don't fly it too fare from you until you have got some flying hours under your belt and your confidence has grown along with your flying skills.
Some people just go out a buy a drone and just go fly out as far and as high as they can then when something goes wrong they panic and lose their drone. Most crashes or fly a ways are down to pilot error.

 

[Spark 317]

I recently won a little drone that has no GPS and fly on WiFi.

Great little practice drone with the same stick configurations as the Spark.

This drone has a "headless" mode that can be switched on to fly the drone if you lose orientation of it.

Why is this not an option for a $500 quad copter vs. a $60 one?

 

[Darren Roach]

I have not looked at all the sparks settings yet but there is a headless mode on my p4

 

[Robert G]

When you lost video did you still have telemetry? If you do/did, you can watch whether spark's distance from you increases or decreases and manouevre accordingly.