Hi,

I was flying today my dji spark and took it up about 28m and took sone landscape photos and videos (steady, not moving). Then about three minutes into the flight lost control of the drone and it started flying away at an incredible speed (way faster than sports mode, which was not enabled by the way). I lost video image as well and despite hitting the "return to home" option, it did not came back. I also lost visual contact from the drone so i have no idea what happened to it. No idea where it landed, etc. I checked the "find my drone" option in the app but it indicates a place where the drone is not located and it is a place very neer me when in fact i saw it going away farther than my location and at another direction. The flight path shown in the app does not really make sense to me and it most likely show that i really lost control of the drone and it did not record real location after a certain pont. Is there a way to see the real coordinates where it landed? Also, should this have not happened? I understand the drone has certain functions to return to home and other functions to be able to "recover" the drone in case things fail. I have read other threads in this forum with issues such as what i experienced today, how can i claim a warranty for malfunctions in case my drone is in fact lost?

Hi, Ricardogt. Thanks for reaching out and we're truly sorry to read about what happened. It was indeed an unfortunate experience. If there's no way to retrieve your unit and you're still within the warranty period, it is suggested to immediately reach our Customer Support and apply for Data Analysis. We're hoping that this could be sorted out as soon as possible.

Hi Ricardo,

Sorry for your loss. It seems to be a classic case of spontaneous fly-away DJI just not cares about to fix :-(
Can you upload the flight logs to have a closer look what happened?
https://www.phantomhelp.com/logviewer/upload/

Cheers,
Wolferl

DJI Gamora Posted at 12-25 23:23
Hi, Ricardogt. Thanks for reaching out and we're truly sorry to read about what happened. It was indeed an unfortunate experience. If there's no way to retrieve your unit and you're still within the warranty period, it is suggested to immediately reach our Customer Support and apply for Data Analysis. We're hoping that this could be sorted out as soon as possible.

Thanks. Where can I apply for data analysis?

Wolferl Posted at 12-26 01:06
Hi Ricardo,

Sorry for your loss. It seems to be a classic case of spontaneous fly-away DJI just not cares about to fix :-(

Hi, here is the flight log I retrieved from the last flight. It provides more information than the flight log on the DJI app and (maybe) shows a more precise information on where the drone landed but if that location is the correct one, it landed on a place unreachable in a near forest. Also I see a lot of “error” messages. Here it is for you to take a look.

https://1drv.ms/t/s!AhnjLdSMggI5jSupRrVJ13gy_GGq


Thanks!

Ricardogt Posted at 12-27 07:31
Thanks. Where can I apply for data analysis?

Hi, Ricardogt. You can reach our Customer Support via this link to help you open a ticket and apply for Data Analysis if you're within the warranty period: https://www.dji.com/support

Ricardogt Posted at 12-27 07:36
Hi, here is the flight log I retrieved from the last flight. It provides more information than the flight log on the DJI app and (maybe) shows a more precise information on where the drone landed but if that location is the correct one, it landed on a place unreachable in a near forest. Also I see a lot of “error” messages. Here it is for you to take a look.

https://1drv.ms/t/s!AhnjLdSMggI5jSupRrVJ13gy_GGq

Hi Ricardogt,

Thanks for the upload.
https://www.phantomhelp.com/logviewer/6Q6Z3JEL11ZP18YBNYN3
You started without a clean GPS signal, a thing you should never do.
At the beginning the bird was maneuvering in OPTI mode, then it eventually got GPS fix and you resumed in P-GPS.
Your Spark got a compass error at 1m42s into the flight. Thats clearly a classic flyaway problem with the Spark. It dropped to ATTI mode and subsequently got blown away with the southerly winds. Have you searched on that river banks beyond the litte forest?
You should get the Spark replaced. And then you should learn to control your bird in ATTI mode alone, so you are prepared for the next incident :-)
And DJI, PLEASE do something about that problem!

Cheers,
Wolferl

Wolferl Posted at 12-28 08:47
Hi Ricardogt,

Thanks for the upload.

Thanks for the info. I have tried to search in the area where the flight log points the drone landed but is an area difficult to reach. Haven’t been lucky so far. I do agree DJI needs to fix that. What’s the policy with DJI regarding my case? I believe the malfunction with the drone was something out of my hands.

Ricardogt Posted at 12-28 21:23
Thanks for the info. I have tried to search in the area where the flight log points the drone landed but is an area difficult to reach. Haven’t been lucky so far. I do agree DJI needs to fix that. What’s the policy with DJI regarding my case? I believe the malfunction with the drone was something out of my hands.

Hi Ricardogt,

Just contact DJI on https://www.dji.com/support, give them the log file, and let them deal with it. There have been cases where the Spark had been replaced.
The malfunction is definitely not your fault.

Cheers,
Wolferl

Ricardogt Posted at 12-28 21:23
Thanks for the info. I have tried to search in the area where the flight log points the drone landed but is an area difficult to reach. Haven’t been lucky so far. I do agree DJI needs to fix that. What’s the policy with DJI regarding my case? I believe the malfunction with the drone was something out of my hands.

Unfortunately, he was not prepared for what happened. This is evident from the fact that after falling into ATTI, he handled the joysticks strangely. With the left joystick, he kept turning the drone and obeyed it too, because he seemed to spin around. However, he did nothing with the right joystick, though he could have stopped progress with it.
I’m not saying you can make sure you lost it because it’s an unexpected (but common in Spark’s) problem. If someone is not practicing flying in ATTI mode (and it is not intentionally possible to switch Spark to this mode) then the pilot has no idea what is going on.
Almost every pilot then hears about ATTI mode first after their Spark flies away forever ... This is clearly the fault of the DJI. I have a Parrot Anafi drone and I also read the Anafi forum. No one there has ever heard of ATTI mode ...