Flew my Spark for the first outdoor session Last Sunday and lost it.  It went up with 15 sattelites, home recorded, good signal, lost it all about 1200 feet out when I could not control it in Atti.  I can see from the log that some of my commands got through to it but not many.  I'm putting the log up here in hope that someone much more savy then I am at this point can clue me in on where I should look.

https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/9AZ6637R4LSV5SRIQIGA/

Hello and good day TimShufflin. I am sorry to read and to read and to know what happened to your DJI Spark. Since this unfortunate incident happened. I would highly recommend to contact our DJI support team at https://www.dji.com/support?site=brandsite&from=nav for us to be able to assist you further with regards to this issue.  We have the team who would do their best to find out the reason of the said incident and then the corresponding resolution would be provided. Please note that DJI will not perform data analysis for cases occurring after the expiry of the warranty period; otherwise, valid charges will apply. Again I am sorry for the trouble and thank for your support.

DJI Stephen Posted at 12-22 07:40
Hello and good day TimShufflin. I am sorry to read and to read and to know what happened to your DJI Spark. Since this unfortunate incident happened. I would highly recommend to contact our DJI support team at https://www.dji.com/support?site=brandsite&from=nav for us to be able to assist you further with regards to this issue.  We have the team who would do their best to find out the reason of the said incident and then the corresponding resolution would be provided. Please note that DJI will not perform data analysis for cases occurring after the expiry of the warranty period; otherwise, valid charges will apply. Again I am sorry for the trouble and thank for your support.

Thank you Stephen.  I did call DJI but with the broken English from the DJI rep I’m not sure if anything was done.

Aside that "cell deviation", more as 0.1Volt, did lead to yaw error, did lead to compass error, did lead to GPS "loss" (no using it is , mostly, but still recorded in flight log)
But: Use the "Find my drone" function in the App, it seems you even had "almost a official" GPS position during "auto landing"
So you should be able to find the bird, where the app shows it, it should be near that location.
If not someone else found it already!

Yes gave a 3 hour search again yesterday.  Been 400 feet from the epicenter in many search circles.  Leaves are off the trees so they were easy to check too.  I saw the cell deviation and really have no idea how that affects anything.

Oh, and using find my drone it shows the drone no further than the green line, in my woods.  Only using phantom do I get the long red line signal another 2400 or so feet away.  I’ve searched both areas.

Ok, so the last white dot is:
5m 51.9s        Auto Landing        15satellites        123.0ft        N/A        0.2mph        2,043.7ft        56%        10.981V        3.671V        3.675V        3.64V        0.04V        Downlink Restored (after 0m 1s); Aircraft GPS signal too weak. Home Point not updated.; Yaw Error

How strong was the wind? It need another12+ seconds for the drone, to get down to your HP altitude from 123ft.
So my guess is, calculating from  the sec. last red dot, look further right, just behind the farm lane on the sat-map

It is just a guess, you would really need one of the flight record analysts looking at it!

I only had owned the machine two days and each battery had 5 uses up till this point.  Good grief

Wind was 10mph out of west according to our little airport 5 miles away.  It did feel slightly less then 10 though.  Maybe 10 gusts for sure.

So follow the direction of the red path for 25-50 meters.
In case the ground is at same altitude, like the HP
But: If the bird saw the trees as ground, there are minutes to calculate, in which the bird could have waited "just over ground", till battery end!

S-e-ven Posted at 12-22 10:41
So follow the direction of the red path for 25-50 meters.
In case the ground is at same altitude, like the HP
But: If the bird saw the trees as ground, there are minutes to calculate, in which the bird could have waited "just over ground", till battery end!

S-e-ven, just got done searching the area again with an emphasis on the location you were guessing at... BINGO!  I was in that area yesterday but with little faith.  Today we went to that area, right where that finger starts jutting out towards the right (East) and there the baby was, laying right next to a tree, white side up, blades tucked in, looked unharmed.  

It is now my guess that the battery which came with this thing is not up to standards (spec) and could cause me harm if used in the future?  

S-e-ven, anyone can sling crap out there but you put your pair out there and got me to within 15 feet of the location, thank you!

The extra red dot to the right was the location.  On second thought, that dot is about 1/3 too far from where it was.

TimShufflin Posted at 12-22 12:25
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The extra red dot to the right was the location.  On second thought, that dot is about 1/3 too far from where it was.

Great to read that my guessing helped!
The battery deviation, that is a interesting thing.
I too think, it can be the reason for "misbehavior" of our birds.
But I am just not sure, is it the battery itself  or the power management of the bird, that is causing this high deviation for just a sec, always.

Never the less, you got your bird back.

Now contact DJI Stephen, update him with this great news and ask, if they could/would analyse the black box.
And what they think about he deviation thing in the record.
Merry X-mas!

S-e-ven Posted at 12-22 18:33
Great to read that my guessing helped!
The battery deviation, that is a interesting thing.
I too think, it can be the reason for "misbehavior" of our birds.

Merry Christmas to you!

TimShufflin Posted at 12-22 08:46
Thank you Stephen.  I did call DJI but with the broken English from the DJI rep I’m not sure if anything was done.

Thank you for the given update TimShufflin. Rest assured that you will be notified once the assessment is finalized. Thank you.

My sympathy on your recent loss!

I’ve surprised myself having taken over 112 flights and just over 12 hours flying time and not lost my Spark, my one and only drone.

Far out with a spark, you can't really see it well...

The whole thing about flying is to have backup for something to go wrong. When it switched to atti mode way out and not far up, you can't really see what it's doing to fly it well. Tip: go up. Don't try to yaw the aircraft unless there's a good landmark you can spot in the screen. Pull it back toward you with the right stick. If it's not coming straight back, use the right stick. If think it's pointed the wrong way, you'll see it goes the opposite direction you expected. This is a tip which way it's pointed. The little map display can help... as long as something else does not go wrong.

Glad you found it! These guys are wizards at reading the log and figuring where to look.

Tentoes Posted at 12-27 09:38
Far out with a spark, you can't really see it well...

The whole thing about flying is to have backup for something to go wrong. When it switched to atti mode way out and not far up, you can't really see what it's doing to fly it well. Tip: go up. Don't try to yaw the aircraft unless there's a good landmark you can spot in the screen. Pull it back toward you with the right stick. If it's not coming straight back, use the right stick. If think it's pointed the wrong way, you'll see it goes the opposite direction you expected. This is a tip which way it's pointed. The little map display can help... as long as something else does not go wrong.

2 ways to bring back SPARK when you have no clue where its flying....

First point RC towards drone, using the att indicator ; bring center compass, red arrow and top white marking in one line.

1) yaw craft to point red arrow toward center of compass
2) use map view and align craft with the line connection HP

cheers
JJB

My son lost his on Boxing day after only just getting it, we are gutted as he is autistic and was extremely attached to it. he reported it and has been told it was due to adverse flying conditions.
He was ok at low level, went up high and got a warning so he RTH but the drone did not descend and just kept flying further away until it was last seen with 66% battery at 340ft so could be anywhere

djiuser_QqckMzNb0U8V Posted at 2019-12-30 05:17
My son lost his on Boxing day after only just getting it, we are gutted as he is autistic and was extremely attached to it. he reported it and has been told it was due to adverse flying conditions.
He was ok at low level, went up high and got a warning so he RTH but the drone did not descend and just kept flying further away until it was last seen with 66% battery at 340ft so could be anywhere

Buy another, remove it from the box, program it, give it to him saying you found it.

Great job @S-e-ven
@TimShufflin congrats on finding your baby!

That's great! congrats on finding it