I am just home after taking my Spark and Air for a comparison flight. I had suspected from previous flights, but was surprised to find that my Spark in Sports Mode is way more zippy than my Air!
Air did increase speed slightly over its Intelligent Flight Mode, but nothing like the change in Spark.


I have seen other threads reporting poor Sports Mode performance by the Mavic Air, and have ensured that all settings recommended in those threads have been set on my Air.

Are others experiencing this?

Apart from the Sports Mode issue, both performed perfectly. I tested all the Quickshot modes on both and everything worked as expected.

The Air is SO transportable, and is very quick to get into the sky (probably due to Air's OTG cable). Add to that the better video capabilities, and I'd have to say it is the ideal travel drone, but I love them both!

Interesting, I haven’t flown my Spark and Air back to back yet to really compare them. Sparky has been grounded the past few days as I’ve been having too much fun playing around with the Air. Just from flying the air only the past couple days, it does seem faster than I remember the Spark ever being but I can’t be certain. I can say for certain that the Air handles WAY better than the Spark did in sports mode though. Does sharp turns and quick altitude changes no problem and really zips and the braking distance is really impressive. The Spark always felt noticeably clumbsy in sports mode.

Kevin79 Posted at 2018-2-12 19:15
Interesting, I haven’t flown my Spark and Air back to back yet to really compare them. Sparky has been grounded the past few days as I’ve been having too much fun playing around with the Air. Just from flying the air only the past couple days, it does seem faster than I remember the Spark ever being but I can’t be certain. I can say for certain that the Air handles WAY better than the Spark did in sports mode though. Does sharp turns and quick altitude changes no problem and really zips and the braking distance is really impressive. The Spark always felt noticeably clumbsy in sports mode.

Thanks for replying Kevin, unfortunately that's not my experience so far. Just checked my flight records in DJI Go 4, and max speed for my Spark was 46.9km/h and the Air 38.4 km/h. Something is not quite right!

forbsie Posted at 2018-2-12 19:41
Thanks for replying Kevin, unfortunately that's not my experience so far. Just checked my flight records in DJI Go 4, and max speed for my Spark was 46.9km/h and the Air 38.4 km/h. Something is not quite right!

Check the setting under the rc controls. Max flight speed setting.

Just For Fun Posted at 2018-2-12 21:55
Check the setting under the rc controls. Max flight speed setting.

Thanks for the tip, but for the life of me I cannot find a max speed setting under RC setting via DJI Go 4, or anywhere else.

forbsie Posted at 2018-2-12 19:41
Thanks for replying Kevin, unfortunately that's not my experience so far. Just checked my flight records in DJI Go 4, and max speed for my Spark was 46.9km/h and the Air 38.4 km/h. Something is not quite right!

That is at least not what was stated.
Although I personally don't bother these high speeds.
More interested in slow and steady.
But still, the air 'should' be quicker indeed.

Montfrooij Posted at 2018-2-12 23:21
That is at least not what was stated.
Although I personally don't bother these high speeds.
More interested in slow and steady.

No, I agree 100%. However, the sport mode capabilities could be important if you need to bring the drone back to you into a headwind.

forbsie Posted at 2018-2-12 23:42
No, I agree 100%. However, the sport mode capabilities could be important if you need to bring the drone back to you into a headwind.

That is true indeed.

forbsie Posted at 2018-2-12 19:41
Thanks for replying Kevin, unfortunately that's not my experience so far. Just checked my flight records in DJI Go 4, and max speed for my Spark was 46.9km/h and the Air 38.4 km/h. Something is not quite right!

My max speed for Mavic Air was 68,6 km/h, when I checked it from DJI Go 4.

forbsie Posted at 2018-2-12 19:41
Thanks for replying Kevin, unfortunately that's not my experience so far. Just checked my flight records in DJI Go 4, and max speed for my Spark was 46.9km/h and the Air 38.4 km/h. Something is not quite right!

Can it be that the wind conditions changed during the two tests?

forbsie Posted at 2018-2-12 19:41
Thanks for replying Kevin, unfortunately that's not my experience so far. Just checked my flight records in DJI Go 4, and max speed for my Spark was 46.9km/h and the Air 38.4 km/h. Something is not quite right!

Depends on settings of OA sensors on or off.

djiuser_fPsGZXet0pZe Posted at 2018-2-13 02:33
Can it be that the wind conditions changed during the two tests?

No, the wind conditions were pretty much identical between the two flights

G_Sig Posted at 2018-2-13 03:44
Depends on settings of OA sensors on or off.

I thought the OA sensors were automatically turned off when you switch to Sports Mode

escore Posted at 2018-2-13 02:01
My max speed for Mavic Air was 68,6 km/h, when I checked it from DJI Go 4.

Hopefully I can eventually resolve my issue and also get a speed of 68.6 km/h

for me: Spark top speed was 34.2 mph and Mavic air is 45.9 mph
However, I noticed that it takes more time to the Mavic Air to reach top speed.

I find that my Air is a good deal faster than the spark at top speed but the Spark is quicker to accelerate.  

Mavic Ace Posted at 2018-2-13 08:42
I find that my Air is a good deal faster than the spark at top speed but the Spark is quicker to accelerate.

Thanks. I'm going to try a few things once I can get out and fly .. we have thunder and strong winds here today

forbsie Posted at 2018-2-13 13:06
Thanks. I'm going to try a few things once I can get out and fly .. we have thunder and strong winds here today

I’m in the US and the weather is crappy here too.

forbsie Posted at 2018-2-13 13:06
Thanks. I'm going to try a few things once I can get out and fly .. we have thunder and strong winds here today

Make sure sticks sensitivity for roll/pitch is at 100 for maximum speed in Sports mode.
With some gravity and wind assistance, MA is able to go well over 80km/h!!!

Is there an 'enable multiple flight mode' switch in the app under general settings?

A CW Posted at 2018-2-13 13:15
Is there an 'enable multiple flight mode' switch in the app under general settings?

Thanks for your reply. There isn't any "Enable Multiple Flight Mode" switch under General Setting, however, there is a "Multiple Flight Modes" switch under Main Controller Settings. I have this turned on.

forbsie Posted at 2018-2-13 13:35
Thanks for your reply. There isn't any "Enable Multiple Flight Mode" switch under General Setting, however, there is a "Multiple Flight Modes" switch under Main Controller Settings. I have this turned on.

Don't own the Air but going by the drones I do own - same thing I guess. Do you have EXP, sensitivity and gain settings? Have these been changed at all?

eYeSkYeYe Posted at 2018-2-13 13:13
Make sure sticks sensitivity for roll/pitch is at 100 for maximum speed in Sports mode.
With some gravity and wind assistance, MA is able to go well over 80km/h!!!

Thanks for your reply. The only mention I can find of Pitch/Roll are in Main Controller Settings/Advanced Setting/Gain & Expo Tuning/Gain. Both Pitch and Roll are set to 100 here.

Some of the replies I have been receiving make me wonder how many versions of DJI Go 4 are out there, I had suggestions to set things in the app that I simply cannot find

forbsie Posted at 2018-2-13 13:40
Thanks for your reply. The only mention I can find of Pitch/Roll are in Main Controller Settings/Advanced Setting/Gain & Expo Tuning/Gain. Both Pitch and Roll are set to 100 here.

Some of the replies I have been receiving make me wonder how many versions of DJI Go 4 are out there, I had suggestions to set things in the app that I simply cannot find

Gazillion for Android and always gazillion + 1 for iOS.
And yes, your settings for the sticks are fine.... something else must be going on.

A CW Posted at 2018-2-13 13:39
Don't own the Air but going by the drones I do own - same thing I guess. Do you have EXP, sensitivity and gain settings? Have these been changed at all?

All set to 100, which is apparently ok. Frustrating me because I cannot get out to fly today to do any more testing, it is a howling gale here

Very strange - may be refresh the FW using Assistant 2 and change the props and see if that improves the performance. Otherwise, the ESC's in your Air may be defective...

eYeSkYeYe Posted at 2018-2-13 13:43
Gazillion for Android and always gazillion + 1 for iOS.
And yes, your settings for the sticks are fine.... something else must be going on.

Thanks again. Yes it is weird. Never had to do anything special to have my Spark do top speed in Sports Mode, why wouldn't the factory settings for the Air allow top performance in Sports Mode, and then make it so hard to trouble shoot?

A CW Posted at 2018-2-13 13:50
Very strange - may be refresh the FW using Assistant 2 and change the props and see if that improves the performance. Otherwise, the ESC's in your Air may be defective...

Yeah, I'll do that. ESC's? What does that acronym mean? Something Speed Controller I'm guessing

forbsie Posted at 2018-2-13 13:55
Yeah, I'll do that. ESC's? What does that acronym mean? Something Speed Controller I'm guessing

Yeah, the electronic speed controllers which drive the motors. Fingers crossed for you.

A CW Posted at 2018-2-13 13:59
Yeah, the electronic speed controllers which drive the motors. Fingers crossed for you.

Thanks, appreciate your advice.

I touched 74kph with Mavic Air .

hallmark007 Posted at 2018-2-13 14:08
I touched 74kph with Mavic Air .

Now you're just rubbing it in ;)

forbsie Posted at 2018-2-13 14:15
Now you're just rubbing it in ;)

Get into the car, head to highway.... do some speeding. Turn on mavic air, make sure it gets some gps signal. Brag about that 120mph.... Or if you have Cessna.... you can profit even more.
Current known DJI made drone speed record is about at least 800kph and altitude record at about 10km. Achieved with DJI Spark flown aboard Emirates plane by Casey Neistat.

eYeSkYeYe Posted at 2018-2-13 14:37
Get into the car, head to highway.... do some speeding. Turn on mavic air, make sure it gets some gps signal. Brag about that 120mph....  Or if you have Cessna.... you can profit even more.
Current known DJI made drone speed record is about at least 800kph and altitude record at about 10km. Achieved with DJI Spark flown aboard Emirates plane by Casey Neistat.

Yeah, gotta put a lighter side on this saga. It is quite frustrating when your Spark flies faster than your new Air!! ;-)

forbsie Posted at 2018-2-13 14:58
Yeah, gotta put a lighter side on this saga. It is quite frustrating when your Spark flies faster than your new Air!! ;-)

Yeah... and maybe to bug those guys at DJI Support.... once in a 1000 attempts, they must help someone. Maybe you get lucky...

A CW Posted at 2018-2-13 13:59
Yeah, the electronic speed controllers which drive the motors. Fingers crossed for you.

Thanks for your suggestions and assistance. I have resolved the issue. I've discovered that unlike Spark, prop guards have a huge effect on Sports Mode performance in the Mavic Air. Took them off and hit 58 km/h in windy conditions today, much closer to what I expected.

The performance degradation appears to be imposed by DJI firmware, and I find it very strange that they would do this. I always flew the Spark with prop guards attached, however, that will not be the case with my Air because although they help protect the drone, if I encounter adverse conditions while in flight with them on, I will be unable to count of Sports Mode to help get me out of the situation.

hallmark007 Posted at 2018-2-13 14:08
I touched 74kph with Mavic Air .

Problem solved, it was the prop guards. Hit 58 km/h in windy conditions without them on this morning

eYeSkYeYe Posted at 2018-2-13 15:01
Yeah... and maybe to bug those guys at DJI Support.... once in a 1000 attempts, they must help someone. Maybe you get lucky...

Thanks for your support. I've solved the issue. Prop guards badly effect Sport Mode performance. I took them off and hit 58 km/h in windy conditions today, much closer to what I expected. See my reply to A CW for my thoughts on the matter.

forbsie Posted at 2018-2-15 17:07
Thanks for your suggestions and assistance. I have resolved the issue. I've discovered that unlike Spark, prop guards have a huge effect on Sports Mode performance in the Mavic Air. Took them off and hit 58 km/h in windy conditions today, much closer to what I expected.

The performance degradation appears to be imposed by DJI firmware, and I find it very strange that they would do this. I always flew the Spark with prop guards attached, however, that will not be the case with my Air because although they help protect the drone, if I encounter adverse conditions while in flight with them on, I will be unable to count of Sports Mode to help get me out of the situation.

Thats interesting to know - thanks for sharing.