Last week I almost lost my Spark as it started to fly away at a dangerous altitude. Luckily it was in a sparsely populated area. Spark was in Active Track mode tracking the car while flying close to some power lines. It came close to the car, lost sight of it and decided to fly far away. It would have been lost in the water if it was flying a few inches lower!

I wasn't aware of navigation issues while flying near power lines. I'm curious why it flew so far and so fasr after getting out of the interference zone.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UV0AzRY7gO4

wrong video link, here's the right one:

Wrong title selection for the post!
It suggests that this is another spark technical failure. But this is more a user error!
Serious mistake! Sensitive electrical devices near several 10,000V lines ...?Before a mistake, he is flying a metal column next to half a meter
No more comment ...

bayarea Posted at 2018-6-3 13:16
wrong video link, here's the right one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmOFEWdhuaw

Not a flyaway - I think the culmination of flying backward at that height around power lines caused the momentary interference where the Spark briefly lost control.

Hey Bayarea ! First of all you have a Beautiful Car, Buddy !

Just keep in mind that the Spark doesn't have Side and Back Collision Sensors, but only Front Collision Sensors.

The Bottom Sensors are there for Precise Landing and under engage under Approx 6m (20ft) of Altitude (Mostly for Landing and keeping Ground Clearance).

Also Note that when in Sports Mode the Front Collision Sensors are Turned Off.

Last thing is that if you are >100m and press RTH the Front Collision Sensors are Turned Off to Save Battery Life.

I am happy your Spark is 100% !

That was a real close call near that High Grass, I thought the Rotors would get entangled, but your Spark is a Bad Boy and Made It Safely !

Good day. I understand that you had an issue with your spark last time you flew it. The reason why it did that is because the powerline can interfere with the signals from the remote to the Spark. Please try to avoid these powerlines so that you will be able to use your Spark properly.

Jakab Gipsz Posted at 2018-6-3 14:10
Wrong title selection for the post!
It suggests that this is another spark technical failure. But this is more a user error!
Serious mistake! Sensitive electrical devices near several 10,000V lines ...?Before a mistake, he is flying a metal column next to half a meter

Yeah! I'm sure he knows that by now!
A few of us in this forum feel pleasure to see a pilot error. We  loooove pointing it.
Come on, let's be less critic and more helpful. If you point a mistake without giving a solution you are actually not helping at all.

Well, technically the Spark did flew away. I'd consider it a fly away, even if the AC wasn't lost, even if it turns out it was a pilot error. I'd love to see the flight log, see if it contains any compass errors.
And is Active track a sport mode? It sure looks like the Spark went berserk there, just watch the tilted horizon. If there really was magnetic interference, why would it go in sport mode?

Well spoken BrilhasMuito too many on here quick to point the finger , they forget we all have to learn from our mistakes.

Bay Area Please upload your flight logs some technical guys on here can pick through the bones.

i think it has nothing to do with interference. SPARK might have captured your tracking position using the images on the ground. In your case it was water !! Also you were speeding more than what SPARK can chew while tracking your car. SPARK software might have gone nuts in this case.

I would be interested in seeing your logs to see if there is anything that can be learned from there.  Without seeing the logs, it is just speculation what may or may not have happened.  The logs may not have an answer, but there is a possibility there may be an explanation.  

If interested, please upload your log to the following site (instructions on that page) and then paste the resulting URL here in this thread.

http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/

Thanks for the replies, everyone! I almost never use sport mode, unless it's doing RTH. It was in ActiveTrack mode while the car was being driven at 7-8mph or so. All of a sudden it picks up speed after losing track of the car. In fact, that was the fastest my Spark had flown at that time.

In terms of pilot error, I've flown that exact route back and fourth at least 6 times over 2 days without any navigation issues. I had to stop filming the other day due to high winds. I did recognize that power lines could potentially cause an issue, especially flying with 25-30m of horizontal separation from the power lines. But I wasn't expecting that behavior, i.e. flying very fast and very far.

Here's the log: https://www.dropbox.com/s/v4vrny ... PowerLines.csv?dl=0

Weirdness starts around line #3050

bayarea Posted at 2018-6-4 13:40
Thanks for the replies, everyone! I almost never use sport mode, unless it's doing RTH. It was in ActiveTrack mode while the car was being driven at 7-8mph or so. All of a sudden it picks up speed after losing track of the car. In fact, that was the fastest my Spark had flown at that time.

In terms of pilot error, I've flown that exact route back and fourth at least 6 times over 2 days without any navigation issues. I had to stop filming the other day due to high winds. I did recognize that power lines could potentially cause an issue, especially flying with 25-30m of horizontal separation from the power lines. But I wasn't expecting that behavior, i.e. flying very fast and very far.

Glad the spark didnt fly straight to the Porsche.
Even with interference or the reflection of the water it shouldnt go that crazy. IMHO!

bayarea Posted at 2018-6-4 13:40
Thanks for the replies, everyone! I almost never use sport mode, unless it's doing RTH. It was in ActiveTrack mode while the car was being driven at 7-8mph or so. All of a sudden it picks up speed after losing track of the car. In fact, that was the fastest my Spark had flown at that time.

In terms of pilot error, I've flown that exact route back and fourth at least 6 times over 2 days without any navigation issues. I had to stop filming the other day due to high winds. I did recognize that power lines could potentially cause an issue, especially flying with 25-30m of horizontal separation from the power lines. But I wasn't expecting that behavior, i.e. flying very fast and very far.

Active track isn't exactly using GPS stabilization to hold a point or control the flight with pilot stick input.  It is using the tracked image to stabilize the flight.  Control the drone's flight per what the image is seeing.  If the drone is tilted to the max, and flying away at full speed into the ground, but the image looks good to the software,...no problem.

The spark doesn't know the car isn't charging at it and slowly diving underground, as the image it sees suggests, so it tracks it tightly.

Pilots need to be watching the drone to ensure safe flight while the drone's computer does the fancy camera shots for them.

But nicely cut off grass