I don't fly that far out.  Some of these range tester YT videos will get  some noob excited, they'll fly out, return upwind and lose their MA. Give it a few weeks. Same thing happened with Spark users trying to test the limits. Spark is meant for VLOS, and all the fun stuff you do vacationing. Mavic looks military to people and they get bothered by it. Spark they think it's cool and neat. I've taken many drones to the parks here and people are the most less freaked out by the Spark. I flew a Syma quad inside a small ballfied and it made people nervous enough to call the cops. Spark, I just ascend and move it around, take footage. Nobody is ever bothered by it. One guy had an Inspire 2 and that thing freaked out a lot of people. They called the cops on that pilot and he had to bring it down.

I still have to get enough time into my Spark before jumping into MA. I have sport drones, H501s and others too if I want to get crazy.
Was just at my Sams Club and they had a sale on Mavic for $819. Mavic Air is $969 a lot of places.

2KM is more than fine for me in a CE area but it's the quality of the transmission, latency and FHD live feed that makes OcuSync

I did my own Spark Range Test and was successful at 10,000 feet.

Here's the video:

bobsma Posted at 2018-2-15 16:03
I live in the North East. I can wait.  $800 vs the Mavic Pro for the same price or less on sale.

I rest my case.

Your rationale is pretty much likely going to be the case.

sidtx Posted at 2018-2-20 09:14
Spark seems to be dropping in price  lately.

I paid $549 for the Fly More combo on Amazon a week ago.

I paid $569 but that was during January, I also bought DJI Care Refresh.

m1n1s Posted at 2018-2-8 01:00
i'm sure the mavic air will only get 500m in my back yard , the spark stumbles below 300m.

mavic pro is the only way i will go when i lose spark no.3

How did you lose your Sparks?

sidtx Posted at 2018-2-20 09:13
I get about 1600 feet before losing signal in a very crowded urban area.     lots of wifi routers, extenders, etc.

that's roughly 490m?     Seems like a good distance for my usage.   The spark isn't really visible at that distance.

Have you tried Parabolic Dish Range Extenders?

BeastMaster_101 Posted at 2018-2-12 16:15
Yes but when it does eventually drop, there is already a latest and greatest drone already made and probably will be much better than the Air altho im questioning what else they can make better

The Mavic Air will go down by $100 on both the Drone itself and the Fly More Combo, probably during the Spring.

lannes Posted at 2018-1-29 22:14
A tad confused, how does this relate to the range test, could you please explain ?

I did my Spark Range Test and was successful at 10,000 feet. Here's the video:

davidmartingraf Posted at 2018-2-27 10:34
Have you tried Parabolic Dish Range Extenders?

Not yet.

I tried one on my P3S, and it seemed to give me 10 - 20% more range -- in this same urban environment.

I'll probably get the Spark version.   

For me,  helping with the interference is more important than extending the range.   The one I got for the P3 seemed to do just that!

Sid

sidtx Posted at 2018-2-27 14:26
Not yet.

I tried one on my P3S, and it seemed to give me 10 - 20% more range -- in this same urban environment.

I purchased a cheap good folding pair from Amazon for around $8.00

I love your video thank you for sharing

To me, flight time is more important than range....  I get up to 11 minutes on a Spark typically, as I generally dont like to let it below 20%.  If I had more flight time, then distance would be more interesting.  Next drone perhaps.

Can't really comment...  I only own a spark..  if someone has one of each they could compare..

I also like to keep an eye on my spark when flying. Maybe from flying RC planes my whole life. It's a habit lol

I think the Spark gets better range than Mavic Air.

davidmartingraf Posted at 2018-2-27 10:40
I did my Spark Range Test and was successful at 10,000 feet. Here's the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8VkiY2nlic&t=2s

Impressive distance with that drone David

I gotten up to 6000/7000' with the two spark i ve had. Never used a mavic Air, but the Mavic Pro is in a different league from spark when it comes to range.

Indeed the purpose of a drone is pretty much to get a camera where your land based  camera  cant go. This makes both range and flight time critical to a drone's usefulness. After loosing two sparks (one flew away, one crashed in water right after takeoff) i decided to try the new anafi. Range is the same as Spark but flight time is twice as long resulting in a more relaxed flight with plenty of time to get all the footage i want. No more coming back after 10/11 minutes, swap batteries and reboot. I routinely get 18/20 minutes with good reserves

Eventually i will probably get a mavic because of its superior range but still i mostly fly from a boat over water im still a little reluctant to spend $1000+

A CW Posted at 2018-9-22 05:36
Impressive distance with that drone David

Thank you. I'm very happy with my Spark it has been extremely reliable and overall awesome. I find the form factor of the Spark excellent in flying short or long distance.

If only DJI would do a Spark Refresh including larger motors with quieter props, OcuSync 2.0, and a little larger battery where we could get the specs of the drone to be:

-36 MPH
-20 mins flight time
-OcuSync 2.0 with 1080p HD down stream transmission
-3.5 mile flight range

We would then have ourselves a true winner.

davidmartingraf Posted at 2018-9-22 11:18
Thank you. I'm very happy with my Spark it has been extremely reliable and overall awesome. I find the form factor of the Spark excellent in flying short or long distance.

If only DJI would do a Spark Refresh including larger motors with quieter props, OcuSync 2.0, and a little larger battery where we could get the specs of the drone to be:

Good performance there Dave

Its not a Mavic/2....Its a selfie drone, IDK why people are so hung up on the range of the spark. Get something else with a bigger battery and better camera if you intend to fly it that far. Its currently at about the limits of its range in terms of battery performance at that point anyway....

For me, Spark is fine as far as range. I live in USA and we pilots aren’t supposed to fly out of VLOS. I don’t know of anywhere in the world where even 1km is out of VLOS. I don’t need that kind of insane range.

Nice to see

It is not always about the range we get from these drones. WiFi or Occusync also determines how good the live camera feed is, without which good filming is impossible.