You all should not complain OP. He is just one among hundred thousands who buy Spark and DJI should be well aware about this. So, DJI should not build Spark to fly higher than 30 m. and further than 50 m. radius to make it safe in hand of most people like OP, ordinary people with average skill. Sell high capability aircraft only to people with licence only.

It is ok to let anybody to ride a bike but only licenced people to ride a car.

As a instrument rated commercial pilot who used to flight instruct, the barometric pressure does not change as you fly in and out of clouds.
With several thousand hours i have learned that almost all FAA regulations are written in blood. Usually someone died for a regulation to be created. Do us all a favor and follow them weather you think the 'blanket rules' are stupid or not.

fansa7dc5944 Posted at 2017-9-16 18:23
It is ok to let anybody to ride a bike but only licenced people to ride a car.

are you drinking or something?   almost sounds like you defeated your own argument with that bike vs car thing, im not sure...

but, long story short, no it is stupid to force a license because some stupid snow flakes screw it all up..  it only hurts us as a community.   idiots who will be idiots either way and NO MATTER WAT.   i dont know if you ever driven on public roads a lot.. but a lot of people i suspect dont deserve their license they have to drive.. and i mean few years back i had a brush ups...i watched licensed drivers miss turns and fly off the road, right in front of me a few times! i watched people eat curbs with their cars and hit things that anyone with IQ of at least Celery could have handled better..


but lets say they put a law in place, limited 50M all around us and required provisioning in app....  good people who wish to take on the hobby will obviously go and do it.. but you know what else will likely happen.. ..some jerk will walk out of bestbuy with their new spark they got off the shelf.. and fly it 50M into a car or into the store..  or launch into over into the public road or whatever..  eventually drones start growing more accessible.. more special snopw flakes will get passed on tests.. get license and proceed to contionue being special snow flakes flying drones into people and cars and clouds and watever..

rick_od Posted at 2017-9-16 18:29
As a instrument rated commercial pilot who used to flight instruct, the barometric pressure does not change as you fly in and out of clouds.
With several thousand hours i have learned that almost all FAA regulations are written in blood. Usually someone died for a regulation to be created. Do us all a favor and follow them weather you think the 'blanket rules' are stupid or not.

ill continue to fly how i fly.. .. i respect aircraft and other people, but blanketing everything in same max.  limitations ins very dumb in my mind.  for example, at my farm, i can tell you for certain im not going to endangering a single person flying 500M up...  all of the aircraft i ever seen fly several miles over to south east and south of my farm, which makes good sense as they get to avoid some of the mountains in the way.. i do understand is a extremely small chance maybe one will cut over into my area...if i saw that was happening, i would do a CSC on my mavic pro, let it free fall so i'm below 400 feet..then do CSC again and recover it before hits the ground.. its going to free fall very fast, i have tested it once, it gets down to 400 feet quickly from 1600 feet.   if i mess up i have only myself to blame for my mavic smashing into pieces or damaging something else of my own..
the other thing is i fly out of eye shot, but when i do that i pick the best route with fewest chances of if my aircraft fell or or malfunction ill hit someone...  lot of times may force my to fields or over roads..i stay below 400 feet AGL if i can out of eye shot.. but sometimes i cant tell how much the terrain is creeping up or down..so i give myself a buffer zone 250AGL that gives me some area to go up and down in.. i try to stay away from houses/backyards where kids maybe..and stick to roads or fields..  where sure may hit a car if it fell.. but a car isnt a person's head or face...

Just be aware that clouds and fog, sometimes even water can mess with your spark. Numerous posts about this.
Also when your spark tells you something is wrong, don't ignore it, land it safely right away. The fact that yours survived is nothing short of a miracle.

Rawsome Posted at 2017-9-16 19:44
Just be aware that clouds and fog, sometimes even water can mess with your spark. Numerous posts about this.
Also when your spark tells you something is wrong, don't ignore it, land it safely right away. The fact that yours survived is nothing short of a miracle.

ya sparks are way way more susceptible to ..basically everything..

Had same problem with my Spark but not so high only about 30 metres up .It was in a low lying area and there was a thin blanket of mist

Sorry hit wrong button stopped short of full reply !!
Thought would get picture from above mist maybe a cool shot . When got up to 30 metres starting showing it was 2.5 m to 0 metres and would come down.  thought was going to stay up there till battery drained and crash to ground .So re positioned to above a tree could just about see it as mist was patchy hoping tree would break its fall when it came down .
Luckily it then readjusted  and corrected its height maybe because moisture from sensor underneath cleared not sure and was able to land safely .
wont be doing that again !!

The flight was very isolated with no other people to endanger .
An over ride option would have been good to be able to bring it down safely?

Dji Community A Posted at 2017-9-16 16:59
i'll Agree to Disagree...  horrible examples by the way.

but ill change my Name here to better reflect what is being said

They were intended to be bad examples.

The point is, that *one guy* who did that ruins it for everyone. Best to not be that guy.

OneMatt Posted at 2017-9-16 23:30
They were intended to be bad examples.

The point is, that *one guy* who did that ruins it for everyone. Best to not be that guy.

i am not that guy..

here is a question using just the same logic but in reverse so you understand the issue i take with your wording..

would you want to be held responsible for my actions? i dont want that... your examples are weak and barely standing up on their own.. completely unrelated in fact i feel like..   

if it takes that one guy to ruin it for all, welcome to the world we been living in for last i dont know 10-20 years of overly sensitive people and its only getting worse day by day..   unfortunately nothing we me, you or anyone here can do about that one guy..  and just because that one guy ruins it for everyone, will not ruin it for me.. i hope more people stand behind me in being both responsible but also standing firm and continue to do what we do..  

Is any way to disable vps?I want also to take a pic from fog

fansa7dc5944 Posted at 2017-9-16 18:23
It is ok to let anybody to ride a bike but only licenced people to ride a car.

but what are you saying?
the seller does not care if you have the driving license .. only if you have the MONEY to buy the car.

but we are on the kindergarten?if you want only those who have the license to buy some drones ....
DJI closed tomorrow and the day after declaring bankruptcy.

in this f**** world:

the first place there are the money, then life and then everything else ... so ... never mind ideas respectable ...

you have a wrong universe ....

Guys dont hijack my topic with regulations. Pls stick to the topic. Disabling or overriding vps would be very helpful...

Omg amongst so many crybabies only a handful of useful posts about the original issue. Somewhere I read that they fly IFR here. I cant stop laughing. For your information, flying IFR demands sticking to air traffic corridors. We dont have low altitude corridors here nor any VOR or ADF stations so you cant fly ifr here on 500m because the mountains around this area are higher. Only a fool would fly vfr here in fog conditions so stop being such smarthats.

Dji Community Posted at 2017-9-16 23:50
i am not that guy..

here is a question using just the same logic but in reverse so you understand the issue i take with your wording..

I think we are on the same page.

Especially the part where we need to stand firm against that "one guy" and show others that what we do is safe. Do what you do, so long as you can demonstrate/explain that it is safe.
I don't see it as being "held responsible" for your actions, but rather being limited by the consequence of your actions.

For example: a friend of mine is in an exotic car club. One day, someone brought a drone to take video of the event, crashed it into one of the cars causing some damage. Now, drones are not welcome at these events. It doesn't matter if this was an irresponsible pilot, equipment error, or whatever. Nobody there wants drones around at all, those are the rules, and I don't think the owners of $200,000+ cars are being overly sensitive about it.

Now, because of things like this, and other such incidents, blanket laws are in place. If you decide to fly over a car club again, there are clear consequences now. But if you get permission from them to fly first, then have at it.

Koppo Posted at 2017-9-16 08:59
Here you go... I don't know, it all looks very odd
- link removedSeems its a spark error ??? Would be great if some DJI employee takes a look at this!

It seems you removed the link to your flight log WHY ?
I think the thread has turned against you simply because of your attitude, it seems according to you you did everything right, but one thing you said in your OP was when you knew your AC was falling either on to public highway or on to someone or someone's property, you said that you ran for cover, although you were responsible you were going to lookout for yourself first how brave of you.

but looking at your log they're was several occasions you stopped the process of RTH by pushing on the sticks, this is your error but you seem to think that is is an error of your spark.
The environment you flew in is also your error , sometimes it's better to be humble about this stuff, rather than blame everything else but the person responsible.
Regarding VPS you cannot disable VPS you would have known this before you flew.
The fact that you posted should help others  realise the possible pitfalls of flying in heavy clouds, you are to be commended this.
Looking for people to help with your problem while you take your log down may not be the best thing.

OneMatt Posted at 2017-9-17 04:30
I think we are on the same page.

Especially the part where we need to stand firm against that "one guy" and show others that what we do is safe. Do what you do, so long as you can demonstrate/explain that it is safe.

well as unfortunate as that is, that someone decided to go full retard and made mistake probably showing off to the people at the gathering..  however, that is a closed group event, and and any decisions and such are within the group, they have no control outside of the group.  that im ok with.  regardless if their cars are $500 lemons racers or $1,000,000+  LaFerraris that doesn't impact me or anyone outside of the group.  if i spotted a exotic car gathering, which i'm familiar with having friends willing to spend half a million on some italian supercars, i would definitely ask before i do a buzz over.. any car gathering or closed group gathering at that..   common sense policy is what im on about.

i have may a few errors in my relatively short time flying like buzzing over parking lots were full, decided to continue and change course on the way back..or at the park i thought was fairly empty, some kids gathered around where i was practicing my FPV flying going around some trees, and some kids snuck up and were watching it right below where i was flying, luckily i heard them and looked over and decided to move to another area before i started ground runs to slalom around tree trunks..  (god the mavic is lazy at slaloming!)

Crash, go drunk your home.  And change your name back, its more fitting.

This thread confirms the need for regulation and hefty fines those that choose to contravene.

My question is what if the spark hit a person on top of their head?

I can only repeat, there is no point in discussing this case any longer. This highly irresponsible person does not deserve any attention other than from the police, certainly not our attention. The guy was very lucky that nobody gut hurt or worse. But first of all he should never ever fly a drone again until he gets reasonable!

El Diablo Posted at 2017-9-17 14:54
You state in your post that you carry a gun to help others in situations that require "deadly force"... and because the police will need 9 minutes to get there, you will have enough time to play Bruce Willis and shoot some bullets... nice.

But then you give advices to others on flying safe... a little controversial?

its cut and dry.. black and white with guns..  not a new subject, just a debated subject.    but yes, in the US as a whole by FBI statistics, avg police response time is 9 minutes.  that doesn't means 9 minutes will turn up, could be around 9 minutes or in the one case when my GF called the police because she thought someone was attempting to break into the house, police took 20 minutes!  the guys were obviously kicking the door.  i was not home at the time, and this was a quiet safe area..  it is these sort of things i wish people get a grasp on and understand why i have guns and i support responsible gun owners.  my GF now carries a gun on her concealed, and pretty good at her draw..she can put 9mm lead on target pretty well.  but it took that event to wake her up and realize that there is a real world purpose for civilians to carry..she used to be like many people, not really supporting but ok with it...
  

drone laws and limits are still extremely new in contrast and constantly changing, thus it is open to discuss more about it..  yes drones and such have been around for a while but we are only just just starting to rework entire system...so yes it is open to discuss, i feel like responsible and reasonable drone pilots shouldn't have to listen to "blanket laws"  if they remain reasonable and responsible and use common sense not fly 500 meters above residential house, and save that for an empty park with no air traffic overhead or something..

Lucas775 Posted at 2017-9-17 10:28
My question is what if the spark hit a person on top of their head?

Well it won't hit the OP because as he said when he knew it was falling he ran for cover, not much concern for those around him. The captain is jumping ship. Lol

El Diablo Posted at 2017-9-17 23:18
Well the mix of an "I am here to crash" with an "I am here for the beer" gives some weird combinations...

In any case, every man is entitled to his own opinion and in your case to carry a gun. I just commented on this because the conversation deviated from the drone topic.

bit dramatic, i think the spark is small enough that it would fit past the bypass in the turbine which is designed for birds and such, also i doubt the spark would do enough damage to down a jet and kill everyone on board, yes, they may lose an engine in worse of cases, have to disable or or cut fuel to it and use the other engine and make an emergency approach..

i understand your logic, i dont want people flying 2KM up in the air in the path of airplanes and helicopters, that's not using common sense..  i can't tell you if those people on youtube got permission or known nothing above them or what, lack of info means we are left assuming that they are just idiots.  and hey, that's probably true, but they aren't using common sense, they dont represent me, you and most other people here i would hope, they are outliers.    and the culture too much of the world is living in is too sensitive to things.. there will always be an idiot who doesn't represent me, or you or other people here, that will fly a drone up 500 meters over others and endanger people, changing a law wont mean suddenly those idiots stop being idiots..
also as for my name, im just being a nut..  it sounded good..  hereforthebeer      and the crashing name, im here to crash, just my style of identifying myself.  im like the one causing a bit of a mess.

I contacted DJI support about the VPS issue and will clarify that with them because the discussion here makes no sense at all. Topic hijacked and destroyed. Unfortunately, other users that are interested in the issue of VPS locking on clouds or fog/mist will not find the useful 1 or 2 sentences in this offtopic mess. Thanks guys

Thank you for the sweet emoticon buddy.  

Firstly, thanks for breaking any and all drone regulations.  We are trying to get our countries to relax the drone regulations and then this happens.  

I get it you want to push your drone to see how high you could get it and well that didn't work out so well.  Glad your spark is still functional and didn't get destroyed in the process.

All I ask and I'm sure I'm not the only one here to say this.  Can you stay within the regulation so that our government don't restrict us more than we are now.  Canada is looking at a mandatory liability insurance for all drones over 250grams.  Which I can understand way after reading your post.

Wow did I miss an interesting conversation over the weekend!

My personal style is to politely state that I would not have made the same flight choices as someone who has violated any of the rules, and then to suggest that they review those rules if they have not already done so.  But I like and appreciate all the different opinions and communication styles that exist in this forum.

I do have four observations though about our forum participants:

1.  We have some participants that are extremely knowledgeable, and provide great insight, wisdom and analysis when reviewing flights.

2.  We have some participants who have not (yet) made a complaint about crashing a drone.  Note there's a difference between "reporting" and "complaining".

3.  We have some participants that are strong advocates for following the national rules under which drone operators are required to fly.

4.  All three of these subsets of individuals seem to be the same individuals.  I do not believe that this is a coincidence.

If I'm in violation of any of the rules, I want my peers here to call me on it.

If an individual can accept the various communication styles that exist here, and if that individual can choose to not be insulted or not take personal the council provided here, there is really a lot of help and wisdom to be had here.

Hopefully DJI will find a way so we can safely get our spark down when we accidentially or not, get caught into a cloud.

Charles Adams Posted at 2017-9-18 08:18
Wow did I miss an interesting conversation over the weekend!

My personal style is to politely state that I would not have made the same flight choices as someone who has violated any of the rules, and then to suggest that they review those rules if they have not already done so.  But I like and appreciate all the different opinions and communication styles that exist in this forum.

I very much agree with you, it's not a big deal if someone breaks the rules unintentionally or because he or she has knowledge that he is clear to fly and taking a very small risk, but it seems to offend some to point out this, I'm sure we are all guilty of a breech of the rules, we've flown to far we lost VLOS at sometime or other.
Pointing out when this happens is not a direct accusation against the poster, but can have an effect of helping those who are not sure of the rules. I say suck it up put it down to experience and hopefully learn from our mistakes, whether they were purposely done or accidental.

Charles Adams Posted at 2017-9-18 08:18
Wow did I miss an interesting conversation over the weekend!

My personal style is to politely state that I would not have made the same flight choices as someone who has violated any of the rules, and then to suggest that they review those rules if they have not already done so.  But I like and appreciate all the different opinions and communication styles that exist in this forum.

This is a case were if you happen to be out of VLOS what could happen if you were not able to to do anything.

http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/ ... -beach-air-13638144

This whole topic went ridiculous. Nothing happened. The point is, that the Spark is not reliable in such environment and that there is clearly an issue with the VPS not giving an option to override.
Also, that fog, mist and clouds block WIFI signal very strong - obviously.
Also, THERE IS NO 150m altitute regulation in Croatia, feel free to dig through the Croatian laws in the internet, but not any 3rd party website. The only thing that is really restricted is recording aerial videos. You have to send the footage to the agency so you get a 6 month permit to use this footage publicly. That is still the old regulation from Yugoslawia where military objects should be protected.
So, needless to say, don't lecture me about something you don't have a clue. And no, I don't represent you or your community, I represent myself, as I represent myself when driving a car or drinking beer or smoking pot whatever. And I honestly don't give a **** about some newspaper articles where someone hit some other guy with a drone. It's the same I could dig out an article showing someone driving a car 250km/h and ramming a pedestrian and then waving infront of your face and telling you: you are endagering the community of carusers because you were driving +40 over the limit but havn't done any damage. Thats simply ridiculous but a quite common "Sheep" phenomenon in online forums.

Koppo Posted at 2017-9-19 03:24
This whole topic went ridiculous. Nothing happened. The point is, that the Spark is not reliable in such environment and that there is clearly an issue with the VPS not giving an option to override.
Also, that fog, mist and clouds block WIFI signal very strong - obviously.
Also, THERE IS NO 150m altitute regulation in Croatia, feel free to dig through the Croatian laws in the internet, but not any 3rd party website. The only thing that is really restricted is recording aerial videos. You have to send the footage to the agency so you get a 6 month permit to use this footage publicly. That is still the old regulation from Yugoslawia where military objects should be protected.

You'll find your are supposed to be no more than 500 metres from your drone and it must be VLOS. You are also bound by 79 joules rule.
Only a fool would think there is no limit to flying as high as he can with an unmanned AC into manned airspace.
You might try being humble about the mistakes you made and you would have got a better response.
You should have read your manual regarding flying environments, and maybe you wouldn't have ended up making a total mess of your mission.
I don't believe there is any flaw with spark with VPS , this was down to a clueless pilot.

Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.”

hallmark007 Posted at 2017-9-19 03:50
You'll find your are supposed to be no more than 500 metres from your drone and it must be VLOS. You are also bound by 79 joules rule.
Only a fool would think there is no limit to flying as high as he can with an unmanned AC into manned airspace.
You might try being humble about the mistakes you made and you would have got a better response.

I really don't give a crap about your opinion. And I am bound to no rules, just sayin'. I will fly again and again on 500m altitude. Why? Because I can.

Koppo Posted at 2017-9-19 04:00
I really don't give a crap about your opinion. And I am bound to no rules, just sayin'. I will fly again and again on 500m altitude. Why? Because I can.

Well that's the problem you've already proved you can't , maybe go to flying school they might teach you how to fly a drone correctly.