ktsummey
lvl.2
Flight distance : 64491 ft
United States
Offline
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Gunship9 Posted at 2018-2-20 09:48
I think all crashes or loss of RC model results in blame being tossed around so the fault is away from the pilot. As drones that can be flown 600 meters from the pilot, fall in price, the incidence of crashes/loss will increase. Flying far from the pilot is risky. And, pilots leave out little things to the story like that they were flying behind obstacles, around buildings, or along a river under bridges.
I don't disagree that there are a lot of pilot errors, however, there are issues with the Spark. I finally received my unrepaired Spark back from the DJI Service center in Grapevine, TX. I uploaded every flight record and found in a location, I've been to more than 5 times, one flight record showed the Spark having the same episode as the day it crashed, minus the crash. It started with an error "GPS Position NoMatch" then "Yaw Errors", followed by "Magnetic Interference". It was flying over water, free of any structures, nothing remotely close where it had been flown many times before. There is a difference between the two episodes, the day it crashed you could hear the "acceleration" whereas the day it didn't crash there was no acceleration. It's not a permanent malfunction (like a Spark reboot to restore normal ops), it only lasts a matter of seconds (10 to 45 seconds), and it happens mid-flight after sensors are reporting IMU and Compass are in "good" states. I'm not sure how there is a magnetic interference unless the aircraft is interfering with itself lacking proper shielding somewhere in the design. I also don't understand how DJI can respond asking you to operate the Spark in a location free of magnetic interference when there is no indication the location is NOT a safe place to launch the Spark.
Another curious event. After I received my Spark back, I'm not sure what the DJI Service center did, but the forward two lights weren't working. I had to reflash the Spark, then restore it to factory settings to get it to work. I told the DJI Service center that I tested it before I sent it in and everything worked normally. I was missing a light diffuser and had to change some props, but it operated as expected. When I got it back it wasn't in a flyable state, so I tend to wonder if DJI is just trying to get its customers to purchase another Spark as a way to move old Spark product out in the wake of the Mavic Air release.
I believe there are lots of pilot (hidden) errors DJI has to deal with. However, DJI is hiding issues of their own pointing the finger at pilot error. The Spark is marketed as a beginner, entry-level UAV, that can be operated from a phone. There are ZERO indications to customers the Spark can malfunction mid-flight and the "beginner" pilot is expected to understand how to react to ATTI mode. |
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