Hi All,
My first post, I wish it could have been a postive one, but sadly not.

Yesterday, just as I thought my Spark was starting to behave consistently well, it spontaniously broke loose and flew off.  
I realise this is a long post, so if you just want the synopsis, here it is:  My Spark flew away, crashed, and set off a series of events that eventually saw me lucky enough to retrieve it, but severely damaged.
Back Story (you can skip this part if you want to get to the gist of it):
I finally bought my Spark earlier in December, after long deliberation and watching countless Youtube videos.  I was initially frustrated by the fact that the QR code did not want to scan and that no decent manual came with the Fly More Combo. At least I managed to eventually register without scanning the QR and later found a download link for the manual.  

I then started out cautiously with small beginner mode flights and quickshots.  

My first long(ish) flight prooved ill fated, with a magnetic interference warning, and the Spark flying away.  Luckily after about an hours' search and knocking on 13 front doors, I recovered it.  I partially put that fly away down to my inexperience, by flying close to a big metal structure.  Still, I was dissappointed that it happened at all.  Lesson learnt, I did not attempt that again.  That incident was a day before setting off on holiday, so packed the Spark away, thankful that my investment was still in one piece.  
Carefully, over the holiday, I ventured out with the Spark again.  This time even taking off my wristwatch when calibrating the compass.  The Spark flew better, but still suffered quite a bit from sudden GPS signal loss, reverting to ATTI mode, before connecting to GPS again.  It also felt as though it often lost comms with the RC and frequently lost the video feed.  
During one flight, after doing a "dronie" and the Spark returning to its auto position, I attempted to start a "helix".  The Spark again performed a "dronie"?! I made sure to return the spark much closer before attempted the "helix" again.  That is when I noticed that it was stuck on "dronie".  I had to go into active track and circle the subject to get the desired video.  Then I noticed the landing button was greyed out, while take-off was not (this while the craft was hovering only a few feet away).  Try as I may, I could not get it to land.  
It seemed that the Spark thought it was on the ground, while it was hovering a few meters away.
I eventually brought it is close as I could with the remote, turned on tripod mode to keep it static, and then took hold of it and turned it over to shut down the motors.  
This was the first time I suspected that maybe all the weird cutouts and behaviour was not simply pilot error.  Anyway, I perservered, as I was really trying to like using the Spark and the footage that I did get was great.
Things started to improve slightly (might have coincided with firmware upgrade - but I cant recall exactly), and I thought to do another longish flight.  Since I was still a little edgy, I thought it best to do this on the quiet beach close by.  There are no power lines or large metal objects of any sort in the area.  Now for yesterday's happenings...

Fly Away during active track:
Yesterday afternoon I suggested to my daughter that we go to the beach, where she can do her running, while I play with the drone.  I took both my fully charged batteries, phone and remote with (the remote was not fully charged but on two solid and blinking third light).  
As my daughter set off on her run I set up the Spark, set the home point and starting flying (not far but in eye conctact and not far over the water...still to cautious for that).  The flight went well with no incidents that I can recall.  I set Spark on Active Track and allowed it to arc around me and also increased altitude for shots straight from above.  Again no issue.  I continued to walk in the direction that my daughter set off to, planning to use the second battery for an Active Track flight around her as she did her return run.  All was set up and a new home point set on the firm beach sand as she started approaching from the front.  Active Track engaged quite easily and again the Spark tracked her quite well, the video looked good and I was pleased.  
I again toyed with the "arc" feature in Active Track, taking care to circle to the beach side and not over the water.  All was going well, with me following at walking pace back in the direction we came, with the home point now behind me (this will turn out to be important later).  A couple of minutes in the flight I was watching video feed (although Spark and daughter was still easily in eyeshot) and I noticed that Spark was moving rapidly away from my daughter (unprovoked fly away).  As I looked up, I saw it careening towards the bushy dunes and tried to gain altitude.  The drone did gain some altitude but the fly away was at such rapid pace that it had little effect.  My worst fear came true with the Spark crashing into the bushy sand dune.  I quickly searched to see if I could find the Spark, but after not finding it quickly (and the green light turning to red on the remote), I marked the approximate spot with some driftwood.  I then set off to catch up with my daughter, to tell her the drone is down and to get her to assist me in the search.  We got back to the spot within minutes and started reviewing the last video link.  Climbing the dunes, we recognised some of the video feed and felt confident that it had to be in the area.  A long search followed with my bare feet getting cut to shreds in the underbrush.  
Unfortuntely "find my drone" proved fairly useless as it did not show a map, a legend or a scale.  It was difficult to tell which triangle on the map was me and which was the drone, so we reverted to watching the video over and over.  We managed to determine quite accurately the flight path by identifying unique shrubs and logs in the video...still we did not find the Spark and the light was fading and phone battery was low.
I quickly checked the weather report and noted that no overnight rain was expected, so resolved to continue the search in the morning.

As we got to our holiday accomodation, I started charging the phone and reviewed the video again.  I also sat about figuring out the "find my drone".  Then I reviewed the flight log.  I noticed something peculiar, in that it seems that the Spark did make contact with the remote again to transmit additional flight information.  It seemed unbelievable, but I was willing to try any longshot.  What it looked like was that the Spark somehow flew again after the crash and RTH.  I put on my shoes (not going to cut my feet further) and made double quick pace to the RTH position...amazingly there was my Spark.  Unfortunately (after the time that had now elapsed) so was the tide.  The Spark clearly had not been washed by a wave and was not in water, but had gotten wet with the start of the tide pushing up.


Thankful to have retrieved it, I made up my mind that something is clearly wrong with the craft (issues described above and this recent fly away) and I needed to contact DJI.  

Where I am now:
I have reported the incident to DJI via the Go 4 App earlier today and will await their response.

I took out the SD card, and copied all the info onto my laptop.  Is there any way I can get the blackbox info from there (bearing in mind I already have the flight log from my phone).

I've edited the video recording to show how well it tracked and also the fly away and crash scene.  I will link it in a separate post below...please let me know if you can view it or whether I need to link via Youtube.   
I will also post the link to the flight log, in case anyone can shed some light on what may have happened.
I have also made a screen capture video of the flight log replay, but this file ended up being quite huge, wont post this unless someone can really assist with the info it might provide.  As far as I can see, the only useful info on it, is that you can see the craft flying off with no stick involvement (GPS warnings / ATTI warning, etc) and that it eventually RTH, strangely before low battery threshold (presume due to not being in comms with controller).


Technical details:
Drone and batteries are on firmware released on 19 December 2017
App is running on Samsung Galaxy 6 (Android 7), no OTG

Any advice would be most welcome.  I truly hope that DJI will get to the bottom of this issue.  I really would like to trust and fly the Spark!

Link to flight log

Link to edited video of flight and crash

Hi PerdixPE, sorry to read your post, and I sympathize with your situation. Please start a case and send it in for a fully diagnosis. Data analysis is recommended so that we can offer you the corresponding solutions. https://www.dji.com/support

Looks to me like it went into dronie mode.
Interesting!

One question: Have you set a max flight distance?

Super frightening! Almost fell victim to win, wasn't good at all!

May I ask how the wind was? and wind direction...

DJI Susan Posted at 2017-12-31 19:32
Hi PerdixPE, sorry to read your post, and I sympathize with your situation. Please start a case and send it in for a fully diagnosis. Data analysis is recommended so that we can offer you the corresponding solutions. https://www.dji.com/support

Hi Susan, Thanks for your reply.  

As stated in my first post, I have reported the issue via the Go 4 App.  Is there any additional steps to take to start a case or is that it?

I assume, by "it" you mean the Spark?  Can you please assist with how I would go about sending it in?  I do not know of a service center in South Africa?  Do I just return it to the shop where I bought it?  

Thanks in advance

S-e-ven Posted at 2017-12-31 20:18
Looks to me like it went into dronie mode.
Interesting!

Hi, I think I've got max distance set at 500m, but don't know if I can verify that without connecting to the drone.  

I did not see any "Distance limit reached" warnings though, and don't see it coming up in the flight log either.  Max distance from home point on this flight seems <150m.

Enri Posted at 2017-12-31 23:49
May I ask how the wind was? and wind direction...

Hi Enri,

There was not much wind to speak off, quite calm actually.  

Did you lose the video feed? Was there not further footage of it ascending and returning to home?

Nothing too long, all relevant explanation and sincerely hope you receive an amicable resolution.

PerdixPE Posted at 2018-1-1 01:26
Hi Susan, Thanks for your reply.  

As stated in my first post, I have reported the issue via the Go 4 App.  Is there any additional steps to take to start a case or is that it?

To be on the safe side you should open a support case here: https://www.dji.com/support
I also would like to draw your attention to 3m 15.4s in your flight record. Did you try to land immediately as requested in the error message?

Paul Lee Posted at 2018-1-1 04:26
Did you lose the video feed? Was there not further footage of it ascending and returning to home?

Hi Paul Lee,

Yes lost the video feed on the phone and it does not show the drone RTH.  

I reviewed the full video from the recovered SD card, and its the same as what was on the phone...no RTH.  

Wachtberger Posted at 2018-1-1 04:58
To be on the safe side you should open a support case here: https://www.dji.com/support
I also would like to draw your attention to 3m 15.4s in your flight record. Did you try to land immediately as requested in the error message?

Hi Wachtberger,
Thanks for your suggestion on opening the support case on the web site.  I will do that!

That error message popped up on crash impact.  There was no warning before then.

PerdixPE Posted at 2018-1-1 06:22
Hi Wachtberger,
Thanks for your suggestion on opening the support case on the web site.  I will do that!

The warning came at 3m 15.4s, your flightrecord ends at 9m 5.2s (the presumable moment of crash).

Wachtberger Posted at 2018-1-1 06:37
The warning came at 3m 15.4s, your flightrecord ends at 9m 5.2s (the presumable moment of crash).

No that is the peculiar thing, and why I say the fly away and crash set off a tragic series of events.  The crash was at around 3m15s.  

As explained in my original post, I later (while reviewing the flight log at home) suspected that despite the violent crash, the Spark somehow did RTH, and hence the duration of the flight log beyond the crash time.

The flight log seems to have reconnected with the phone at around 8m25, showing the drone jumping from the crash site halfway to the RTH point and flying home.  Unfortunately I only discovered this info when reviewing log at home.  On site during the search, I was unaware of this and certainly did not get any comms to this effect, but may have been reviewing the video at this time.  

PerdixPE Posted at 2018-1-1 08:41
No that is the peculiar thing, and why I say the fly away and crash set off a tragic series of events.  The crash was at around 3m15s.  

As explained in my original post, I later (while reviewing the flight log at home) suspected that despite the violent crash, the Spark somehow did RTH, and hence the duration of the flight log beyond the crash time.

Ah ok, that explains it but then it wasn't a crash but rather a "touch down". What puzzles me however is that altitude remains stable at around 32 feet or more.

What was the pilot doing as the drone backed up from its tracking position?  There have been several other instances of the Active track happily keeping the subject centered in the camera frame as the drone slides off into the distance.  The pilot is responsible for putting down his refreshing beverage and controlling the drone.  I doubt GPS coordinates are factored in as the drone active tracks the image.  Hence the rapid slide off as if the video subject is racing towards the drone.  The Spark still thinks everything is fine because it still has the target centered.  

Intelligent flight modes don't mean the pilot is done.  They just help precisely position/move the camera as a top notch Hollywood drone pilot could do.

Goose, "Maverick, time for you to do some of that pilot sh__!"

Oh, now I remember where I have seen it before
You should contact Adriano Araujo
Some time ago, he had one of his runs ending about the same way, I think
Active track, bird stops and flies backwards away till crash
My question  that time, or my thought, bc flying with phone only:
End of 100m from homepoint, but still trying to track.
So flying the max radius circle till bang.
Maybe he found out about it?   Did you use dynamic homepoint?

From your post I can tell that you have done a lot of planning and have praticed flying, which I think was quite smart. Seems as though your drone either went into Ätti mode and flew away or as stated below  did a dronie quickshot . I hope you get your Spark back into the air soon and don't have any issues.

PerdixPE Posted at 2018-1-1 01:26
Hi Susan, Thanks for your reply.  

As stated in my first post, I have reported the issue via the Go 4 App.  Is there any additional steps to take to start a case or is that it?

May I know how do you report this in DJI GO 4? Contacting our Support? Is there any ticket number or case number for follow up? If not, please refer my previous suggestion and start a case. Alternatively, you can contact the dealer and ask them report in dealer system, there will be case number as well. Please let us know the latest progress, thanks!