Kloo Gee
First Officer
Flight distance : 16783757 ft
United States
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hallmark007 Posted at 2017-10-10 07:46
I fully agree, and while I’ve explained what happens in this situation, it doesn’t mean loss of aircraft and there is a redundancy for this just as there is for loss of gps in fact they are the same.
If there is a firmware causing compass problems then this should be fixed although I haven’t seen any proof that this is the case, I do believe as people gain more experience on how and where to fly these Aircraft we will see a lot less of what we are seeing for what is a very new aircraft and a lot of first time users.
Firstly, keep in mind that I am someone that is a very strong proponent of personal responsibility and have made a video about this in relation to the Spark as well as many posts on this forum of the same.
I see LOTS of instances where drone pilots make terrible decisions that end up leading to bad results. One of the videos I made discusses breaking the chain of events that lead to a potential disaster. It is very rare that it is a single thing that leads to a lost drone.
In my opinion based on what I've seen in logs from users posted in this forum, one of the events in that chain quite frequently ends up being the compass error which results in AC going into ATTI mode. As a pilot, choosing to fly in a better location may have avoided the situation from the beginning. As a pilot they can also be better prepared for this situation so that if/when this happens, they are able to adequately prepared fly their AC to safety. I think this is what you are advocating and I strongly agree.
However, in my opinion, that shouldn't be the last failsafe point. Due to the audience the Spark is being marketed to (new users with no experience or training) as well as the potential for other links in the chain to go wrong (i.e. connection lost), I think there should be an additional software failsafe to break that chain. I think if you read my proposal post #73 of this thread, you may find yourself agreeing with what I'm talking about.
Let's not try to conflate different error sources and assume the solution to them is the same. I think I agree with you that with either a Compass or GPS error, the intermediary solution is to hand control to the pilot in ATTI mode and let them try to save themselves. However, in the case of a Compass error, if they aren't able to save themselves and the drone loses connection with the controlling device, why not initiate an RTH procedure that uses the resources available on the AC to get it back home?
In the case of a GPS error, you are right to say that it should switch to ATTI mode. In this case, I don't have a proposed solution if the AC then also loses connection to the controlling device. But just because a good solution may not be available for this particular case doesn't mean that a software solution shouldn't be provided for the Compass error use case.
In my opinion as a pilot, I should do everything I can to prevent problems and be as best prepared as I can to handle a situation where errors happen. However, I strongly believe that DJI should also be doing everything they can from their side to implement failsafe features from their side to prevent lost drones as well.
To think that there may not be some sort of a problem with the Spark (either software or hardware) that contributes to a portion of the Compass error ATTI mode flights might be a bit of a stretch. Keep in mind that all of the other DJI drones above the Spark (including Mavic Pro, Phantom, etc) have redundant systems (2 compass, 2 gyros, etc, etc). The Spark does NOT have this same redundancy built into it. So DJI has already added a link to the chain by deciding not to make the Spark with redundant systems.
The Mavic Pro had a documented issue with electromagnetic interference when flying fast that was causing compass problems. They fixed the issue by failing over to the other compass mid-flight. So it is not hard to imagine some sort of software or hardware issue that POTENTIALLY could be involved with a percentage of these Spark errors that occur. See this thread about Mavic issue: https://forum.dji.com/thread-76005-1-1.html
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