So firstly I know ultimately I’m to blame its my drone and I chose where to and not to fly before world war three breaks out....

Had a little incident today but was very interesting how it happened and something to learn from.

Found a loverly piece of land down in Dorset and thought I’ve gotta get some photos. 1 attached

This was the photo take just before the crash. All flying well not to close to the trees and very confident in what I’m doing.

Battery was getting low so thought time to come home, interested to see how close to take off point it can get and wanted to start packing up so hit the return home function.

RTH Altitude set to 20 meters thinking this was more than enough, but as the photo is taken I’m situated just to the left of the photo along the road about 150 meters away with a tree between me and the drone as you can see. As soon as the drone received its return home command I expected it to raise up and come home but it turned left and flew into the tree, I got a overload warning on a motor and it disconnected.

A quick 150 meter run to the area with fingers crossed all the way and I’m stood under the tree thinking where do I start as there is some over grown areas.

Drone reconnects but no real useful image at this point so I cringe worried about further damage and press the take off button and just to my left I hear a little beep and a whir as it decides then stops take off to say can’t take off.

So there’s my spark perfectly sat after it’s at least 20 meter fall nicely in a lovely little bed of dry leaves.

I’ve got a scuff on 1 rear prop, a rear prop missing but not a single mark on the drone or gimble.

Got the drone home, new props all round just in case, test flight and all is good no issues at all.

So lessons learned
1. Make sure the RTH altitude is sufficient.

2. Don’t trust anyone to fly your spark, not even the RTH


Questions though......!!!!!!!!!

Shouldnt the drones front facing sensor have picked up the tree and changed the path of the Spark. Hence the light hearted "whos to blame"

Secondly maybe you can and i dont know how but is it possible to make the drone beep from the remote ? could be handy

All in all no harm done and good lessons learned.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading

You can go into 'find my drone' and enable ESC Beeping... It might be my bad ears... or my spark might not be typical.. but I can hardly hear it even with the drone a couple of feet away. So, useless in my opinion... it is not even nearly as loud as the startup sounds that the spark makes when you turn it on.

Sorry for this crash. Please kindly send the drone in for diagnose. We will also arrange an overall check for the drone to ensure the flight performance. Please contact our support on the following page to start a case: http://www.dji.com/support

Check to make sure your RTH is still set.  I've had my reset unexpectedly -- I  now check it before every flight.

As for the obstacle  avoidance -- I don't the the spark used obstacle  avoidance on RTH when more than 30 meters away from home.   

Glad it wasn't damaged too much.

Sid

Page 15, Spark manual...if RTH is initiated greater than 100 meters, obstacle avoidance is not available.

"I’ve got a scuff on 1 rear prop, a rear prop missing but not a single mark on the drone or gimble."
Check on broken parts from the prop IN the motor area.
Can be, one or both of the attchment hooks broke and they still waiting in there to trouble you!

DJI Thor Posted at 2018-4-19 18:03
Sorry for this crash. Please kindly send the drone in for diagnose. We will also arrange an overall check for the drone to ensure the flight performance. Please contact our support on the following page to start a case: http://www.dji.com/support

Is this a must, I’m uk based do you have uk centres?

There wasn’t a mark on the body and the drone is flying perfectly

S-e-ven Posted at 2018-4-19 21:01
"I’ve got a scuff on 1 rear prop, a rear prop missing but not a single mark on the drone or gimble."
Check on broken parts from the prop IN the motor area.
Can be, one or both of the attchment hooks broke and they still waiting in there to trouble you!

I did, all clear and nothing there.

Also checked the obstacle avoidance against the wall in the garden and all good...

NedUK Posted at 2018-4-19 22:04
I did, all clear and nothing there.

Also checked the obstacle avoidance against the wall in the garden and all good...

Height is all about startup height.
RTH set to 20m? Uphill?... Well, if drone sits 21m above start height, it will just go home...even if drone is 12 meter over grass.

Haggi Posted at 2018-4-19 22:52
Height is all about startup height.
RTH set to 20m? Uphill?... Well, if drone sits 21m above start height, it will just go home...even if drone is 12 meter over grass.

All making sense now, the area it was flying was up hill. Sat in the ground it said it was at altitude of 21 meters it crashed at 25 meters...

Very interesting that you almost have to look at your current altitude before a return to hom can be set..

Note to self fly it home yourself

NedUK Posted at 2018-4-19 22:02
Is this a must, I’m uk based do you have uk centres?

There wasn’t a mark on the body and the drone is flying perfectly

If I were you, I would like to send it in for checking. DJI official repair center is in the Netherlands, if there is a need to send it back, please contact our support to get a case number, or fill in the online repair case request at https://repair.dji.com/en/SelfRepair/Area