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Do you fly once per battery or multiple times
2412 28 2018-1-24
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Malakai_UK
Captain
Flight distance : 536115 ft
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United Kingdom
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Hey all I want to know, when you guys and girls are out hiking or whatever, do you get to a location and fly and shoot your photos/videos till your battery runs out all in one go or will you get the shot and land and move on to the next location and keep doing this until the battery is too low to fly?
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2018-1-24
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A CW
Captain
Flight distance : 13838848 ft
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United Kingdom
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Always take off with 100% and land around 15%. I never take off with a partly charged battery and do my very best not to land with a critical warning.
2018-1-24
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robnav
lvl.1
United States
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Same here. Go up at 100% and start coming back down when I get the warning.
2018-1-24
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DJT_MVSP
Captain
Flight distance : 2018645 ft
Singapore
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Make sure to take off at 100% battery. If you take off with less than 100%, the smart battery estimation may become incorrect, at times leading to the lack of smart RTH feature..
2018-1-24
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Solestacz
Second Officer
Flight distance : 489193 ft
United States
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I have launched more than once on 1 battery to get shots from different locations in the same vicinity, using maybe 25% of the battery each launch. Have not encountered trouble doing so.
2018-1-24
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A CW
Captain
Flight distance : 13838848 ft
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United Kingdom
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Solestacz Posted at 2018-1-24 07:29
I have launched more than once on 1 battery to get shots from different locations in the same vicinity, using maybe 25% of the battery each launch. Have not encountered trouble doing so.

I think it was more of an issue on the older batteries in the previous models. The issue with part charge flight now is mainly not gauging distances to battery remaining effectively but thats what low battery RTH is for I guess.
2018-1-24
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warubikku
Captain
Flight distance : 1592264 ft
United States
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Try my best to only use 1 battery at one location (i have 3) because if i use more than one, sure enough i get down the road and see another place i want to fly....but don't we all
2018-1-24
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FatherXmas
Captain
Flight distance : 4058619 ft
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United States
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Always try to launch with a full battery. I'm always afraid if I launch with a partial charge, I'll see something cool I want to capture but have to land because I'm out of battery. It's probably silly since the exact same scenario might happen anyway.
2018-1-24
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Gunship9
Captain
United States
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I launch and get the shots I need.  I am not touring around with the Spark seeing the sights.  I use it more like a camera and my shortest flying to get a zoom in shot and a orbit shot was two minutes from hand take off to hand landing.  Quick video of barbecuing steaks in the winter snows.

I have a RC airplane if I just want to fly.  Oddly, I have a model plane that can fly for 35-40 minutes but I land after only 10 minutes or so.  Land, sit back and enjoy a beverage, then take back off with the same battery.  I figured phantom pilots were doing the same unless they were flying across a harbor and needed the flight time.
2018-1-24
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heliman
First Officer
Denmark
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The battery does not need to be run down before recharging, so I take the shots I need, replace the battery and move
to next location. Meanwhile the first battery usually has become almost recharged by my power bank (which has a 220VAC output).
That way I can keep going with my two batteries and the fly more charging cradle.

Without the charger, I use the same battery multiple times until it's below 30%.
2018-1-24
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LouisP
Captain
Flight distance : 41952 ft
United States
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I do a little of both.  Sometimes it is fun to practice landings, other times just fly around until the battery is used.     One think I like is to use the camera to try to land on something that is our of sight.  (not far away, .like behind some trees or something.)   Then take off again.     I have used that trick to take off from an area with obstructions (trees)   ..fly to a wide open area and land.. then take off again.. the RTH point is then set to the wide open area.
2018-1-24
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Gunship9
Captain
United States
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LouisP Posted at 2018-1-24 13:02
I do a little of both.  Sometimes it is fun to practice landings, other times just fly around until the battery is used.     One think I like is to use the camera to try to land on something that is our of sight.  (not far away, .like behind some trees or something.)   Then take off again.     I have used that trick to take off from an area with obstructions (trees)   ..fly to a wide open area and land.. then take off again.. the RTH point is then set to the wide open area.

I have seen your work

Is this you landing your spark on a train and taking off again?:
2018-1-24
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spookster
Captain
Flight distance : 419649 ft
Germany
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I did four 360° panoramas at four different locations on one battery once.
A panorama takes up to 12% percent of your battery alone with windspeed around one meter per second.
But taking the spark four times a couple of meters up, shooting 46 pictures and land ends with a battery ~40% charge left.
Then I went to a park and had fun with my other two charged batteries
2018-1-24
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Foxeuphoria
lvl.4
Flight distance : 8110 ft
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United States
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While I have on rare occasion broken my battery charges between flights, I try my best to run the battery for each flight uninterrupted.  Not only do I get more time in the air and less time in set up and tear down, but I also target my practices to  reach the longest cycle life and battery reuse over time.
2018-1-24
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Malakai_UK
Captain
Flight distance : 536115 ft
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United Kingdom
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Thanks for your input guys and girls. Personally I try to do a single flight per battery, sometimes Ill do two flights if I have about 70% battery left after the first flight. In most cases if I'm moving about I'll try and stick the spark back on charge via USB when I'm not using it.
2018-1-25
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SOUNDWAVE439
Second Officer
Flight distance : 115597 ft
United States
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Buy an extended batter it will help
2018-1-25
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Malakai_UK
Captain
Flight distance : 536115 ft
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United Kingdom
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SOUNDWAVE439 Posted at 2018-1-25 04:37
Buy an extended batter it will help

I already carry an Anker 22000mah charger to keep my spark topped up. I might have to upgrade to a QC3.0 battery charger for quicker charge times. Anyone else use a QC3.0 battery they can recommend?
2018-1-25
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Vulcan-XH558
First Officer
Flight distance : 62054 ft
United Kingdom
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If the battery has enough juice left after I've finished shooting, I generally switch to S mode and zip around for a bit until it's down to a single LED.

The only times I've packed up mid-battery is when the weather changes, or if the location starts to get busier.
2018-1-25
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djiuser_yxfdr03
Second Officer
Flight distance : 338222 ft
Canada
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Doesn't matter to me. If im done, I'm done. Pack it up and move on down the road. If Batt is almost done I'll burn it up in sport. My spots seem to be pretty close together tho.
2018-1-25
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Strobing_NYC_Sp
First Officer
Flight distance : 3866470 ft
United States
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I fly till I I get bored, if there is 40% left I'll either let it hover at 1 foot off the ground and run the battery down till 5% and then do a full recharge on a 1 Amp charger for a deep charge. I also have the 4 battery rappid charger I use if I want to fly all day non-stop. Adding a Mavic pro to the mix soon
2018-1-25
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mtnlandpix
Captain
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United States
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Always 100% before takeoff.
2018-1-25
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Gunship9
Captain
United States
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I'm a fan of fresh batteries.  My old job had us doing all kinds of gymnastics trying to get the most out of a battery's lifespan.  The effort (and using batteries that gave crap performance) didn't seem to be worth the reward.  Nothing like buying a new battery to see the folly in keeping an old battery on life support.  Batteries just last a certain amount of charges.

Regular new batteries are in my budget which is worth it so I don't have to fuss with best practices to maintain battery health.  The replacement battery price is just one more advantage the Spark has over the Mavic Pro.
2018-1-25
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choban
First Officer
Flight distance : 30784 ft
Germany
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I fly until I'm finished with my planned shots. If there's more than 50% battery left, I usually use it again...depending on shots I am planning to take.
2018-1-25
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hallmark007
Captain
Flight distance : 9812789 ft
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Ireland
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Always try to use freshly charged battery at 100%, if it has been lying around for a few days it might not be exactly what you think it is, it fine to land and take off again but make sure second missions are short as you only have about 12 minutes.
2018-1-25
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Montfrooij
Captain
Flight distance : 2560453 ft
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Netherlands
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Depends on what I am planning on shooting I guess.
2018-1-25
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BeastMaster_101
First Officer
Flight distance : 1082992 ft
Canada
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Gunship9 Posted at 2018-1-24 14:52
I have seen your work

Is this you landing your spark on a train and taking off again?:

that video is amazing but i dont think thats with a spark, the spark cant do flips or any acro
2018-1-27
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Aeromirage
Captain
Flight distance : 1778045 ft
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United States
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BeastMaster_101 Posted at 2018-1-27 14:08
that video is amazing but i dont think thats with a spark, the spark cant do flips or any acro

That vid was definitely not a Spark. Racing drone with a supercharged RC.
One hell of a pilot too!!
2018-1-27
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Gunship9
Captain
United States
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It is the Spark.  It is running the latest firmware and wifi connection to an iOS device.  Android owners just haven't tried the firmware yet.  The Spark owner was also being a little too gentle on his train stunts.  I sent him some coaching tips to put more snap in his split-s maneuvers.  It would have even been better if the sun wasn't causing glare on the phone's screen.  Spark lands at the end by some other drone pilots, missing a chance to show off a hand landing.  

2018-1-27
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BeastMaster_101
First Officer
Flight distance : 1082992 ft
Canada
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Gunship9 Posted at 2018-1-27 21:46
It is the Spark.  It is running the latest firmware and wifi connection to an iOS device.  Android owners just haven't tried the firmware yet.  The Spark owner was also being a little too gentle on his train stunts.  I sent him some coaching tips to put more snap in his split-s maneuvers.  It would have even been better if the sun wasn't causing glare on the phone's screen.  Spark lands at the end by some other drone pilots, missing a chance to show off a hand landing.

In the video description they list the parts to making that custom quad. Again the spark can not perform acros or any flips.
2018-1-28
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