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NorCal Coast, Just got my Spark this afternoon

Oliver Blitz

Member
Join
Jun 17, 2017
Messages
15
Age
69
Hi All,

Got my Spark Combo outfit this afternoon and finally just barely got one flight in before dark. I love this little parakeet! She was in a real bad mood though, probably from being the in the bowels of a creaky old 747 freighter or such for 17 hours from China, and gave me a very hard time with the "activation" dance. About two hours worth.

And then she threw another fit about controller binding, which was apparently lost in the course of the first struggle. But I did prevail in the end, and it's all working.

I was especially happy to find that the basic framework of the Spark controller is the same as the Mavic's, in particular the handles, which allows me to use my iPad Mini 2 directly. (Yes it does fit and yes, it's scary tight but I have had no problems since October using it on the Mavic, and it feels exactly the same here.)

I only got a couple of minutes of video and a few stills, but like what I saw. 4K is nice and all, but 1080 is still a good look. It was windy, but I see the typical DJI rock-steadiness. Wish the stills could be saved in a RAW format, but the jpegs look good.

Not entirely sure if the blades are the most efficient possible, they're a bit on the flexible side, maybe for aerodynamic reasons but perhaps more likely because they're a lot safer than straight carbon fiber.

The peripherals look good - the multi-battery (3) charger is compact, the transformer looks to be the same as the Mavics, cables are good, etc. The prop guards are well designed, easy to mount and stout-looking, I won't be using them much unless flying into really tight places, where they could be good to have.

Anyway, this is my latest of many drones (yes, I use that word) going back to the days when we had to roll our own. I still have hanging from the ceiling a PixHawk/APM hex on a DJI FlameWheel frame, among other antiques, some with homebrew gimbals etc. My current flyers are a Mavic, a Yuneek/Blade Chroma (actually quite a sweetheart, but which was also hanging from the rafters after having been shocked into paralysis by my bringing home Ms Mavic, until I took pity on her a couple of months ago and got her an absolutely outrageous new set of clothes, the full-stop Rakon bling treatment, which has transformed her into a genuine showboat, she now sits in the air like a giant very bright dragonfly, it's really quite remarkable), then there's a randy Traxxas Aton hot-rod that makes great ripping noises when thrown around, a couple of Blade 200QXes, one stock, a great little zipper, and one in a Phoenix frame hauling a Mobious, a Blade Torrent FPV, and then a passle of tiny quads, Whoops both custom and stock, FPV and not (I'm still addicted mainly to LOS flying). Glowering at all of them is a T-Rex 600 with early Helicommand stabilization, and assorted other smaller helis. And there's a half dozen planks, and some R/C crawlers.

Otherwise, I have my 107 certification, and I'm involved with a company making drone safety vests, which pays for at least some of my addictions to these great little flying machines!
 

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