i experienced a glitch yesterday, for the first time in dozens of flights, when I the RC lost contact at close range (75' or so ) and spark first attempted to come home but the went into autoland mode. Twice. Luckily I wa able to cancel it and eventually brought it back to the boat.

For some reason I can't upload the file to phantomhelp, it times out. Flew it a couple of times later yesterday without incident.

I suspect a heat issue as it was really hot and the only difference between this flight and all the others was that I let the spark sit longer than usual befor turning on the motors... maybe 3 minutes in full Bahamian sun.

I really wish DJI would inlude on option to disable autoland as long a battery isn't critical. Return the drone to the home point if case of lost signal or lost gps but don't land it until battery is critical. This woudl give us more time to regain control.  It s a bit aggravating to see a drone with plenty of battery decide to start descending towards th water.  Caught it at about 10'...  there should also be anaudible warning that autoland has been initiated so you catch it right away if not looking at the screen. I caught it right away as I mostly look at th screen but when you have Signal issues you will spend more time looking at the drone than the screen

Maybe the distance to the HP was less then 20m. If you disable „rth at current altitude“ in the go settings (defaultt is off) the spark will land within a distance of 20m to the HP instead of flying back.
The request for more failsafe options like hover or land is forwarded to dji according to a admin here.

Dirk52 Posted at 2017-8-14 04:42
Maybe the distance to the HP was less then 20m. If you disable „rth at current altitude“ in the go settings (defaultt is off) the spark will land within a distance of 20m to the HP instead of flying back.
The request for more failsafe options like hover or land is forwarded to dji according to a admin here.

Dirk52 is probably right. the boat drifted away from the home point. the drone did what it was programmed to do, so there's no glitch besides the fact that it got disconnected from the Controller

We were anchored in very calm winds and I was at the bow so the home point  didn't move by more than a few feet.  Whether it is within x meters doesn't matter, we should be able to disable autoland until critical battery.  It's not just about flying from one a boat, but from a beach, near obstacles, etc...

PascalG Posted at 2017-8-14 05:09
We were anchored in very calm winds and I was at the bow so the home point  didn't move by more than a few feet.  Whether it is within x meters doesn't matter, we should be able to disable autoland until critical battery.  It's not just about flying from one a boat, but from a beach, near obstacles, etc...

It's a case of reading the manual, it does state not to fly over bodies of water.

i do agree with you, there should be an option for auto hover, kind of like how the sparks "obstacle avoidance", or so they call it, works. it just hovers in place if there's an obstacle in its path. even in active track mode, kind of useless if you ask me.

fans5d9349b7 Posted at 2017-8-14 05:26
It's a case of reading the manual, it does state not to fly over bodies of water.

Yeah that s helpful... I live, work and play on the water... I don't need a drone if can not fly it over water!

fans5d9349b7 Posted at 2017-8-14 05:26
It's a case of reading the manual, it does state not to fly over bodies of water.

fans5d9349b7, that's not quite right.

Page 10 of the manual lists a variety of situations to "Please be vigilant when operating Spark in following situations:" and the fourth bullet is "Flying over water or transparent surfaces".

In other locations in the manual, it does state to not to fly over water when using a specific mode.  But the manual does not make a general statement that flying over water is prohibited.  Just that we need to be vigilant.  And we do need to be vigilant.

" .... we should be able to disable autoland until critical battery.  It's not just about flying from one a boat, but from a beach, near obstacles, etc... "

I would like this option.

Even as a preset, hovering till critical battery, in maybe 2m height or such, NOT to disable by "us", would it be my choice!
More as the "get home and land immediately" thing.

Get home immediately
And hover till someone grabs and tilts you or can reconnect phone/rc to you or critical batterie.

But:
A drone, hovering without its owner, in a public spot with others (maybe kids?)?
(Fly aways?)
Could probably become a bigger problem (for DJI?), as one that is trying to land in water, over a cliff, ....

Lets see, anyone of DJI have a opinion to tell?

Charles Adams Posted at 2017-8-14 07:14
fans5d9349b7, that's not quite right.

Page 10 of the manual lists a variety of situations to "Please be vigilant when operating Spark in following situations:" and the fourth bullet is "Flying over water or transparent surfaces".

P44 Avoid obstacles crowds high voltage power lines trees and bodies of Water.

You say you managed to cancel twice, so you can cancel, were you by any chance in an NFZ zone?

hallmark007 Posted at 2017-8-14 08:34
P44 Avoid obstacles crowds high voltage power lines trees and bodies of Water.

Yep, there it is (page 46 in my manual, but still...)

So, "be vigilant" on page 12 and "avoid" on page 46.  I think my neck is going to crack.  Vigilantly avoid?  Avoid vigilance?

DJI Moderators:  Can you help me (maybe others) understand the instructions provided us in the manual?  Page 12 indicates that we should be vigilant over water, and Page 46 says avoid bodies of water.  What's the official position?