My Spark Flew away after 11 seconds of flight in a completely unobstructed and remote place.  At 500 feet away the Drone dropped reception to the controller and just flew away at 35 MPH never to be seen again. It could have flew into a highway traffic, kids in a park, path of an airplane. DJI looked at the flight data and said because it was in ATTI mode it was totally my fault. I feel this is ridiculous. They refuse to answer these questions:
1) Even thought it was in ATTI mode why did it loose connection to my controller in a remote area with no RF interference or physical obstructions? ATTO Mode should not limit RF connectivity.
2) There are audible warnings about taking off, landing, low battery, etc. so if you are at such a risk of  losing your Drone when it unknowing goes into ATTI mode, why is there not a similar warning?
3) The area I was at had STRONG GPS signal (which I tested), why will they not answer my question how the failure of the GPS was not the true problem. Search for GPS issues with Spark and see how many have had GPS issues!
4) When the Drone lost connectivity to the controller, why did it not stop and hover as they said it should have done? I could have retrieved it had this happened.

I believe DJI should replace my lost Drone for 3 reasons:
a) GPS failure (a common complaint online)
b) Drone did not stop and hover when losing connectivity (thus could result in very dangerous consequences). Two DJI agents said it should have stopped by design.
c)  Inadequate warnings when flying in the dangerous condition they call ATTI mode

I look forward to DJI answering these points

You seem to think it should hover in place after losing GPS and connection. But how can it do that without GPS connection?

You also mention it losing connection and flying away at 35mph. How do you know how fast it was going if you lost connection?

If you go to this site: http://phantomhelp.com/logviewer/Upload/
and follow the directions to upload your flight log, then post the link back here, there are many people here willing to take a look at it and try to determine just what happened.

As Mark said, hovering requires a lot of constant corrections to the drone using GPS and the compass.  If it loses one of those, the drone will try to maintain an upright and sorta level orientation.  It will not hover accurately.  

It will auto land where it is if it loses RC connection and is in ATTI mode (no ability to GPS home).  It will head home and land there if it loses RC connection with good GPS and compass.

An audio ATTI mode warning would be handy.  GPS and compass performance is subject to lots of environmental variables.  

MarkMN Posted at 2018-8-1 08:07
You seem to think it should hover in place after losing GPS and connection. But how can it do that without GPS connection?

You also mention it losing connection and flying away at 35mph. How do you know how fast it was going if you lost connection?

MarkMN seems to be a DJI employee. When losing connectivity, the drone should not continue flying away at an ESTIMATED 35 MPH. That would be a BIG public danger and all SPARKS should be grounded if that is by design. Either its design is to stop, or to continue. Which is it? The answer would be either a failure of the Drone, or a dangerous design by DJI!

I had the Drone set to standard speed, yet it flew away at the fastest I have ever seen it! That's why I say 35 MPH. I tried to make it return and it just lost connection to the controller. there was a red light showing no connection and I saw the drone continue to fly away and disappear as it got too little to see.

Funny how you did not address the shortcoming in the software not warning about ATTI mode taking over! There are so many other almost stupid audible warnings! You can't even take off without clicking on OK and then hear it say "lift off". If it has no GPS signal, you should also be required to accept that responsibility as you do to a take off. I honestly didn't know it was in ATTI since the software did not say this. DJI looked at my log and told me this. WHY DO YOU NOT COMMENT ON THIS BIG SHORTCOMING IN THE SOFTWARE? Low GPS signal was a almost common pop up on my screen but it still flew fine until the loss. How was I to know this was a sign of a defective GPS in the drone? DJI needs to send a warning to all users about this hazard!

You also failed to address the GPS issue. I have read online about almost 100 people say their Spark has crashed, flown away, went out of control, when it for no apparent reason had a GPS loss. One person said they were flying with a friend who also had a Spark and the friend's drone had no GPS low  warning or lost signal when his did at the same location. There are too many people with GPS issues to blame on user error.

Do I hear Class Action Suit?

Please just replace my Drone

Gunship9 Posted at 2018-8-1 08:24
As Mark said, hovering requires a lot of constant corrections to the drone using GPS and the compass.  If it loses one of those, the drone will try to maintain an upright and sorta level orientation.  It will not hover accurately.  

It will auto land where it is if it loses RC connection and is in ATTI mode (no ability to GPS home).  It will head home and land there if it loses RC connection with good GPS and compass.

I agree with Gunship9. Without GPS it could not maintain a perfect hover, but it should have stopped! It should have done a number of things other than fly away and become a public danger. What if it hit some kid on a playground 2 miles away? Or hit a car and caused an accident? Maybe even flown in the path of a plane? It was a full battery and theoretically could have flown 8 miles, I was 6 miles from an airport.

genewSpark Posted at 2018-8-1 09:06
I agree with Gunship9. Without GPS it could not maintain a perfect hover, but it should have stopped! It should have done a number of things other than fly away and become a public danger. What if it hit some kid on a playground 2 miles away? Or hit a car and caused an accident? Maybe even flown in the path of a plane? It was a full battery and theoretically could have flown 8 miles, I was 6 miles from an airport.

I'm not a DJI employee, just a satisfied customer. But I have been a software developer for over 30 years, so I tend to think in terms of how software should react when presented with unexpected situations.

For example, you seem to imply that when connection or GPS is lost, it should just shut down or drop from the sky. Maybe that's not what you meant, but you weren't very specific, yet that's exactly what you need to be when developing software for something like a drone.

What would I have done? I would attempt to maintain altitude, and zero out any forces acting on the IMU, while hoping that either GPS or connection to the remote is restored. At some point the batteries will become depleted to the point where it must try to land, but dropping altitude is a hazardous thing to do, as you may be flying into a populated area. It would be a last resort as power is depleted.

That seems to be how DJI has decided to handle the situation as well.

As I stated above, if you post the link to your flight log you will get much better help.

Hi, my deepest apologies regarding what happens on your aircraft. May we have the case number first so that we could check it for you?

DJI Tony Posted at 2018-8-1 09:36
Hi, my deepest apologies regarding what happens on your aircraft. May we have the case number first so that we could check it for you?

Thank you for looking into this! My DJI support experience has been very frustrating.

CAS-2055658-P0R0X1 CRM:0636000000594

genewSpark Posted at 2018-8-1 09:48
Thank you for looking into this! My DJI support experience has been very frustrating.

CAS-2055658-P0R0X1 CRM:0636000000594

Thank you so much for the case number, we have reviewed your case and it appears to be that one of our manager were trying to call you but unable to reach you.  We will forward this again to the higher department to contact you and be able to provide you a possible resolution with your case.

DJI Diana Posted at 2018-8-1 10:54
Thank you so much for the case number, we have reviewed your case and it appears to be that one of our manager were trying to call you but unable to reach you.  We will forward this again to the higher department to contact you and be able to provide you a possible resolution with your case.

Thank you for your help!
Honestly the DJI representatives have said many things including they would call or call back and it just doesn't happen. I have my phone with me at all times and no one has called in 2 weeks.

genewSpark Posted at 2018-8-1 11:29
Thank you for your help!
Honestly the DJI representatives have said many things including they would call or call back and it just doesn't happen. I have my phone with me at all times and no one has called in 2 weeks.

It does not sound like the kind of experience we would want you to have. Once again, we are really sorry to hear about this. We will make sure that you will be contacted by the higher department  within 24 to 48 business hours. We hope for your patience,

genewSpark Posted at 2018-8-1 09:06
I agree with Gunship9. Without GPS it could not maintain a perfect hover, but it should have stopped! It should have done a number of things other than fly away and become a public danger. What if it hit some kid on a playground 2 miles away? Or hit a car and caused an accident? Maybe even flown in the path of a plane? It was a full battery and theoretically could have flown 8 miles, I was 6 miles from an airport.

It won't do those things unless the pilot flies it to hit a kid, car, or path of plane.  In control of the remote control in the pilot's hands it will continue to fly.  So it is on the pilot and their liability while the remote has a link.  Hence the need to keep it close, in line of sight, and fly in open areas.

When it loses signal it will go home if it has GPS info or land where it is if it is in ATTI mode.  I used to think it would just fly off with no radio control and continue on its own, but it won't.  There isn't a mode where it is flying uncontrolled across the nation's airspace.  It lands now or goes home.  I think the consumer and FAA/aviation laws make it behave that way.

Gunship9 Posted at 2018-8-1 16:27
It won't do those things unless the pilot flies it to hit a kid, car, or path of plane.  In control of the remote control in the pilot's hands it will continue to fly.  So it is on the pilot and their liability while the remote has a link.  Hence the need to keep it close, in line of sight, and fly in open areas.

When it loses signal it will go home if it has GPS info or land where it is if it is in ATTI mode.  I used to think it would just fly off with no radio control and continue on its own, but it won't.  There isn't a mode where it is flying uncontrolled across the nation's airspace.  It lands now or goes home.  I think the consumer and FAA/aviation laws make it behave that way.

After talking to a DJI manger today, he admitted in ATTI and connection is lost and I did not select 'Hover when connection' is lost in the software', it will indeed fly off! What a disaster!  How many people have lost their Drones due to this? How many injuries have occured? Even one injury is too much!

Here is more details of the conversation with the DJI manger:

I had a DJI manger call me today. After a lengthy conversation he kept going back to I was flying in ATTI mode and thus I fly at my own risk. It didn't matter any logical points I brought out, the DJI manger kept saying basically 'so what, you flew in ATTI mode.' He still was unable to answer 3 main questions:
1) If ATTI mode is so dangerous, why is there a not greater warning when the drone goes into this mode all by itself? The warning was so small I did not even notice it! When you take off there is an audible warning and a popup you must acknowledge by pressing OK. When you want to land there is an audible warning and you further you must click OK on a popup, since they say they won't replace my drone because it was in ATTI mode (which ends up being possibly a very dangerous mode) then why is no audible warning and popup to acknowledge I am willing to take the risk? DJI has failed us and thus should replace my drone!
2) When my drone 400-500 feet away it lost radio connection to my controller. The DJI manager said it was because the GPS signal was lost, yet he also admitted you can fly without GPS, and 500' is well within range of the controller. He was unwilling to admit this loss of connection was a defect, basically saying the ATTI trumps any other defect I brought out. When it comes down to it, ATTI mode or not, it should not have connection that close no matter excuse he comes up with.
3) When the Drone lost RF connection it just kept flying away. How dangerous it that? Hopefully it didn't hit anyone or  cause an accident. When losing connection it was supposed to return to the home point, but with no GPS it couldn't so apparently just kept flying. What a dangerous design disaster!  Why isn't it designed to fail safe over to hovering when GPS is lost? The DJI manger said if I had set it to hover instead of Return to Home, it would have hovered. Had this Drone brought down a plane or killed a kid, DJI would certainly be sued for this design flaw, so they certainly should replace my Drone

Finally, he mentioned I needed to calibrate the Drone. I had earlier. I had flown the drone in Tahiti and New Zealand, as well around California with no issues. If Calibration is so important, why doesn't the software remind you, in fact warn you about this. It should notice it needs to be done!

genewSpark Posted at 2018-8-2 16:26
After talking to a DJI manger today, he admitted in ATTI and connection is lost and I did not select 'Hover when connection' is lost in the software', it will indeed fly off! What a disaster!  How many people have lost their Drones due to this? How many injuries have occured? Even one injury is too much!

Here is more details of the conversation with the DJI manger:

Hi genewSpark, I understand your point, but there is still something that needs to be clarified:
1. In ATTI mode, the drone will not hover or brake immediately due to the lack of GPS signal, which requires high flying skills. Generally, we suggest flying in open filed when the GPS signal is good enough for flying. You may find more details from the user manual: https://dl.djicdn.com/downloads/ ... 0Manual%20V1.6-.pdf
2. Regarding the disconnection around 400-500 feet, there are many factors, we are not sure which one might be the clue for now. You may adjust the antennas direction or change another open filed to verify.
3. Flight safety is always the top priority. Therefore, we sincerely suggest to fly in an open field without the crowd and do a fully pre-flight checklist every flight.
The designated team will keep follow up and see if there are better solutions. Appreciate your understanding.

DJI Susan Posted at 2018-8-3 00:00
Hi genewSpark, I understand your point, but there is still something that needs to be clarified:
1. In ATTI mode, the drone will not hover or brake immediately due to the lack of GPS signal, which requires high flying skills. Generally, we suggest flying in open filed when the GPS signal is good enough for flying. You may find more details from the user manual: https://dl.djicdn.com/downloads/ ... 0Manual%20V1.6-.pdf
2. Regarding the disconnection around 400-500 feet, there are many factors, we are not sure which one might be the clue for now. You may adjust the antennas direction or change another open filed to verify.

Thank you for your reply where you said:
1. In ATTI mode, the drone will not hover or brake immediately due to the lack of GPS signal, which requires high flying skills.

I fully understand without GPS the limitations of the drone. I have many hours of flying drones without GPS.
STILL, it should NOT fly away at top speed without GPS and then loss of connection with the controller! This is a highly dangerous design!
I understand without GPS it cannot RTH, but 2 DJI agents said it was capable of hovering , albeit not perfect hovering, and maybe not immediate. If GPS is not available it should fall over to hovering thus allowing the user to get under the drone and reconnect or wait for it to land. Dangerous design!

You also wrote:
2. Regarding the disconnection around 400-500 feet, there are many factors,

Could not disconnection at only 400'-500' with no obstructions in a remote location, (and not a temporary disconnect, but complete and permanent disconnect), not indicate a failure?

EVERYONE who has lost/crashed their drone under similar circumstances, please add your story to this post!

I ask the DJI make these immediate changes to their Drones!
1. If the drone is taking off in ATTI mode, make a audible warning of this dangerous flying condition that the user must also click OK to acknowledge this.
2. If the Drone goes into ATTI mode while flying, make a audible warning of this dangerous flying condition that the user must also click OK to acknowledge this.
3. If while flying in ATTI mode (example loss of GPS signal) and the default is set to RTH, since it cannot RTH to failover to hover and begin descending when battery is low.
4. The drone and software should determine if calibration is needed each time the drone is started and connects to the controller. If needed it should warn the user!

Until these important safety issues are implemented, DJI should take responsibility for any damage and losses. Their position thus far could be likened to an automobile manufacturer knowing their car could explode if rear ended, so they warn all the buyer to not let their car be rear ended. That is no solution! The solution is to fix the reason why the car explodes, and anyone injured or suffering loss will most certainly hold the manufacturer responsible for this design flaw!

P.S. The FAA is being contacted about this serious public safety issue.

wow, stop here, I won't agree that the app limits my behavior when flying in any mode, as a pilot, I take responsibility when flying if the environment is not suitable.I flew a spark before and the altitude is limited within 5 (or similar? I don't remember) meters when there is no GPS. I understand it after reading the manual, though I do not like it.
btw, i think a knives producer can't prevent a user from cutting his fingers.

genewSpark Posted at 2018-8-3 06:30
Thank you for your reply where you said:
1. In ATTI mode, the drone will not hover or brake immediately due to the lack of GPS signal, which requires high flying skills.

Thanks for getting back to us. The hover we mentioned here is hovering steadily, drift will not be included. If both GPS and VPS are not available, the drone will enter ATTI mode, that's the current design, we'll appreciate if you have better ideas.
For every flight, we sincerely suggest to do a fully pre-flight checklist and fly responsibly, you may check the tutorial from here:

DJI Susan Posted at 2018-8-4 00:02
Thanks for getting back to us. The hover we mentioned here is hovering steadily, drift will not be included. If both GPS and VPS are not available, the drone will enter ATTI mode, that's the current design, we'll appreciate if you have better ideas.
For every flight, we sincerely suggest to do a fully pre-flight checklist and fly responsibly, you may check the tutorial from here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6Zf90zR378&t=5s

You help me make my point that my drone had a defect! When losing connection it did not hover but continued flying away at over 30MPH, maybe close to 40MPH, I never saw it go so fast!  Had it hovered, it would not have been lost!      

genewSpark Posted at 2018-8-5 14:33
You help me make my point that my drone had a defect! When losing connection it did not hover but continued flying away at over 30MPH, maybe close to 40MPH, I never saw it go so fast!  Had it hovered, it would not have been lost!

Sorry, I'm a little confused, are we talking about the same flight when the accident happened? Pre the flight records when the drone crashed, I do not find the issue you mentioned, please kindly advise.

DJI Susan Posted at 2018-8-5 20:18
Sorry, I'm a little confused, are we talking about the same flight when the accident happened? Pre the flight records when the drone crashed, I do not find the issue you mentioned, please kindly advise.

If you take a look above you will see the drone did not crash but flew away! It took off in ATTI mode (unknown to me) and when I went up about 100 feet and moved it forward it sped off at top speed and I tried to make it turn back when it just lost connection to the controller and continued to fly away (not hover) at top speed. It would not gain connection again even though it was in site for several seconds longer until it was too far away, never to be seen again.

It should not have so easily taken off in ATTI mode but should have given warnings of this dangerous flying condition and further when losing connectivity to the controller it should not have continued to fly away at top speed!

genewSpark Posted at 2018-8-6 06:36
If you take a look above you will see the drone did not crash but flew away! It took off in ATTI mode (unknown to me) and when I went up about 100 feet and moved it forward it sped off at top speed and I tried to make it turn back when it just lost connection to the controller and continued to fly away (not hover) at top speed. It would not gain connection again even though it was in site for several seconds longer until it was too far away, never to be seen again.

It should not have so easily taken off in ATTI mode but should have given warnings of this dangerous flying condition and further when losing connectivity to the controller it should not have continued to fly away at top speed!

I understand your disappointment, but whether to fly in ATTI is optional, we cannot make it compulsory as some pilots prefer to fly in ATTI. We have tried our best to make this clear. Appreciate your understanding.

DJI Susan Posted at 2018-8-6 23:17
I understand your disappointment, but whether to fly in ATTI is optional, we cannot make it compulsory as some pilots prefer to fly in ATTI. We have tried our best to make this clear. Appreciate your understanding.

A manager promised to call me back last Friday but I have not heard back from him! No surprise, he is the 3rd manager who promised to call back and never did. Can you have him call me back as he promised?

By the way ATTI is not optional as you mentioned above. It automatically went into ATTI mode and flashed a tiny box (at least that is what they tell showed me from my log) about the size of your fingernail. That was not an option, That is why I say DJI has a big liability on their hands, which can lead to a potentially dangerous and life threatening situation. Please acknowledge and fix this issue!

genewSpark Posted at 2018-8-7 09:05
A manager promised to call me back last Friday but I have not heard back from him! No surprise, he is the 3rd manager who promised to call back and never did. Can you have him call me back as he promised?

By the way ATTI is not optional as you mentioned above. It automatically went into ATTI mode and flashed a tiny box (at least that is what they tell showed me from my log) about the size of your fingernail. That was not an option, That is why I say DJI has a big liability on their hands, which can lead to a potentially dangerous and life threatening situation. Please acknowledge and fix this issue!

Sorry for the confusion. Here I want to stress that you can choose the flight environment to decide whether you want to fly in ATTI mode. I'll push the team and arrange followup during the working time, thanks!

A manager named Jayson offered a 30% discount to purchase another drone, but I don;t know how to now make this purchase. Can you help Susan?

genewSpark Posted at 2018-8-13 19:01
A manager named Jayson offered a 30% discount to purchase another drone, but I don;t know how to now make this purchase. Can you help Susan?

The coupon will be sent by email, so that you can purchase from the DJI online store. The designated team will keep follow up and help you figure this out soon.

In listening to my video of the loss, at 19 seconds into the flight you can hear the announcement "ATTI MODE" and less than a second later the Spark lost connection to the controller! This is WRONG to not have warned me at take off, if it was truly in ATTI mode (as they tell me when analyzing the flight record) at take off. DJI is not without fault on this and it took 2 months to get a mere 30% discount to repurchase another Spark.
I offered some very needed improvements to the software that would also provide protection to the public and lessen liability to DJI and no one would listen.

genewSpark Posted at 2018-8-22 08:28
In listening to my video of the loss, at 19 seconds into the flight you can hear the announcement "ATTI MODE" and less than a second later the Spark lost connection to the controller! This is WRONG to not have warned me at take off, if it was truly in ATTI mode (as they tell me when analyzing the flight record) at take off. DJI is not without fault on this and it took 2 months to get a mere 30% discount to repurchase another Spark.
I offered some very needed improvements to the software that would also provide protection to the public and lessen liability to DJI and no one would listen.

Hi there, thanks for coming back, upon checking the case, the coupon has been sent to you, please make sure the GPS signal is strong in the future flight. Such a long time frame is not what we expected either, since we didn't reach an agreement, the communication was long. We will also keep improving our customer service, please let us know if you have further concern.

I just had a similar issue, while flying the controller disconnected and RTH did happen.  However it was maneuvering close to a tree and collided and crashed on concrete breaking one of the motors completely off from the arm.  We are very careful with this drone because it is not the first time it has disconnected.  When we first got the spark we had a similar situation and nearly lost the drone in some water another time it dropped gps while in flight and went into atti mode, it was completely uncontrollable and flew into a family before I could regain control, luckily nobody was hurt.  This is our third drone, the other 2 are great and dependable, the spark however cannot be trusted.  Now I have to try and to get it repaired, it just turned a year old 2 months ago and refresh is expired, so I have to deal with a support case.  What fun.

Mlemasters Posted at 2018-9-2 20:14
I just had a similar issue, while flying the controller disconnected and RTH did happen.  However it was maneuvering close to a tree and collided and crashed on concrete breaking one of the motors completely off from the arm.  We are very careful with this drone because it is not the first time it has disconnected.  When we first got the spark we had a similar situation and nearly lost the drone in some water another time it dropped gps while in flight and went into atti mode, it was completely uncontrollable and flew into a family before I could regain control, luckily nobody was hurt.  This is our third drone, the other 2 are great and dependable, the spark however cannot be trusted.  Now I have to try and to get it repaired, it just turned a year old 2 months ago and refresh is expired, so I have to deal with a support case.  What fun.

Mlemasters, we sincerely apologize for the crash accident, please contact our support to start a ticket and send in the drone for further evaluation, our repair center will help to get it fixed, sorry for the inconvenience caused.

genewSpark Posted at 8-22 08:28
In listening to my video of the loss, at 19 seconds into the flight you can hear the announcement "ATTI MODE" and less than a second later the Spark lost connection to the controller! This is WRONG to not have warned me at take off, if it was truly in ATTI mode (as they tell me when analyzing the flight record) at take off. DJI is not without fault on this and it took 2 months to get a mere 30% discount to repurchase another Spark.
I offered some very needed improvements to the software that would also provide protection to the public and lessen liability to DJI and no one would listen.

Did you look a the actual GPS & flight status on screen with your eyes or just depend on voice prompts? Please post the log for further assistance.
  

Hello, My drone took off the same way last night as genewSpark. I had a 10 minute flight and it worked fine, brought it home, changed the battery - linked everything up as normal, went and flew in the same area and within a few minutes, I heard the controller say Atti mode, it lost GPS and also connection to the controller. Reviewing the video on my phone you can see the drone turn around and take off very fast flying far until I lost it. I tried the find my drone function and it only shows up until it lost GPS signal. Now I am out a drone and have a ton of accessories that are useless. There is definitely something wrong with the software on this unit as it should not have taken off as it did when I lost signal to my controller - not impressed at all with DJI and this function or lack of! I really hope there was no personal injury or damaged caused where ever it crashed. A lot of money wasted on a unpredictable, unreliable drone!