Flew about half a battery in each because it's only around 20F outside. Mavic Air flew great. Then flew the Spark and it was quite strange that it disconnected from the controller and started RTH. I was in sport mode about 120 feet away and 45 feet high. I was flying down my street, stopped, turned around and then it disconnected and started the RTH. There's plenty of wifi in the area so I figured that was the reason, right? Even though I've flown here plenty of times before without problems.

One thing I noticed was that the Mavic Air chose 2.4GHz and the Spark chose 5.8GHz. Something I did different today was to power them on inside the house to do any updates and then bring them outside. Maybe the Spark picked the cleanest channel from what it saw in the house but that wasn't the cleanest channel when it was flying down my street.

Is that a plausable theory?

One thing I think these forums have figured out, is that Spark tends to act up, and behave badly when flown in Sport mode, something about tight turns it doesn't like.

Definitely seems to be some bugs with the spark recently. I lost my spark a couple days ago on sports mode. I lost connection same situation. It took off and never returned home

Hey Mark,

Can you make any comment about Spark vs Air in Sports Mode. I flew 3 batteries each with mine today, and feel that my Spark is way zippier in Sports Mode. I've got all relevant settings correct on both drones.

Steve

Grmachine Posted at 2018-2-12 17:38
One thing I think these forums have figured out, is that Spark tends to act up, and behave badly when flown in Sport mode, something about tight turns it doesn't like.

Even though I was in sports mode I never gave it more than half stick and then gently came to a stop. I rotated 180 degrees and lost connection a few seconds later. So it's not like I was banging that sticks around with it.

forbsie Posted at 2018-2-12 17:57
Hey Mark,

Can you make any comment about Spark vs Air in Sports Mode. I flew 3 batteries each with mine today, and feel that my Spark is way zippier in Sports Mode. I've got all relevant settings correct on both drones.

I had the Mavic Air in sport mode only a couple times and it was just going in a straight line to test the speed. It does feel different than the spark. I'll get to really test it out in spring in my local parks.

Interesting to see you have both.
Curious how you like them.

My Spark is being sent in for repairs, so I can't compare the two right now. I know that my Mavic Air flies faster, but I'm not sure if the Spark has better acceleration. That could be possible but will have to wait until the Spark comes back to test that.  I tend to get a better connection with the Spark using 2.4ghz but it always wants to choose 5.8 if it auto selects a channel. Mobile devices and smart watches seem to have more of an effect on the Spark. The Mavic Air is definitely better than the Spark, but the Spark does some things that the Mavic Air does not. If you have the goggles, you can connect your smart phone or tablet to the goggles using a HDMI adaptor so you can view the screen while someone else wears the goggles. Since the Mavic Air controller only uses OTG, you can't do this. The OTG connection does seem to give a more reliable video stream though and OTG doesn't work reliably on the Spark. It works with some devices, but doesn't seem to support setting the programmable buttons on the remote.

Can someone confirm whether the Spark has a slightly wider angle of view? I think it might.

Tom_A Posted at 2018-2-12 23:34
Can someone confirm whether the Spark has a slightly wider angle of view? I think it might.

From the specs:
Mavic Air FOV 85 degrees. Spark FOV 81.9 degrees.

Interestingly enough, not that much difference.
Yet, for a sphere, Spark takes 46 pictures where Mavic Air takes 25.
Must be more overlap in the Spark's panos.
Hmmmmm..........

Where you using an OTG cable for either one?

over 100 flights and never use return home because of known issues on the forum

Aeromirage Posted at 2018-2-13 09:23
From the specs:
Mavic Air FOV 85 degrees. Spark FOV 81.9 degrees.

Interesting facts.  

Smark Posted at 2018-2-13 09:38
Where you using an OTG cable for either one?

I assume you are asking the OP, which is me. No OTG for the Spark but the MA requires it. I'll play around some more tonight: 2.4 vs 5.8, regular mode vs sport, OTG vs no OTG, and then I'll add those $8 range extenders and see what happens.

fansdcf05e40 Posted at 2018-2-13 10:06
over 100 flights and never use return home because of known issues on the forum

I've never initiated RTH either....it just did it on it's own.

One thing I didn't do before flying yesterday, and I don't know how you guys usually do it, but I normally re- calibrate the compass and IMU after there's some kind of firmware update, whether its the GO4 app or the UAV firmware...but I didn't do it yesterday after updating the GO4 app to the latest version....whats its at now, 4.2.26 or something like that (iOS)?

I did a follow-up test today. Powered up Spark outside and it chose 5.8GHz band. I had those range extenders installed and the OTG cable. Hovered a bit to warm up and then flew down the street and back in regular mode. Then finished the battery off in sport mode doing fast passes up and down the street while recording video. Worked flawlessly. I'm not saying the range extenders and OTG cable fixed anything...but I'll probably stick to using them whenever possible just because of the confidence I have after flying with them.

Mark Blaide Posted at 2018-2-13 14:06
I did a follow-up test today. Powered up Spark outside and it chose 5.8GHz band. I had those range extenders installed and the OTG cable. Hovered a bit to warm up and then flew down the street and back in regular mode. Then finished the battery off in sport mode doing fast passes up and down the street while recording video. Worked flawlessly. I'm not saying the range extenders and OTG cable fixed anything...but I'll probably stick to using them whenever possible just because of the confidence I have after flying with them.

I wouldn't expect the range extenders to make that much of a difference unless you were flying further away. Given the mixed reviews I have seen on range extenders, I think that some users don't understand exactly what they are doing. They are taking your transmission signal and focusing it out in front of you and focusing the received signal assuming you are pointed towards the drone. If you are not facing the right way, it's going to make your signal worse. I would be worried about losing sight of the drone, turning the wrong way and then not being able to figure out which direction to turn to re-establish the connection.