Hi,

I'm new in the drone world and bought myself a DJI Spark. As a newbie I first used the drone in beginner mode to understand the drone and get the feeling of it.
After a couple of days it was time to use the normal mode. It's a lot more fun in this mode and try to capture some nice photos and videos.

Then I clicked the sport mode! Damn this is fun

But then... My first crash happened

I know usually if something happens, it's the users fault, but in this case I have my doubts.
I was flying in sport modus and I wanted to stop, so I stopped by letting the joystick come back to the middle. The Spark stops and hangs almost vertically and at that moment it decides to stop the engines. Luckily I was flying about 1,5 meter above the surface, so no big damage. Only some scratches on the camera. Bad luck, because 20 cm to the left, there was grass...

On my remote I saw a message that the drone was upside down, but that was not the case. I tried to find it back in the flight logs, but I don't find it in there.

I'm a bit worries now to fly in sport modus as I don't want to crash the Spark again.

Here is the flight log, I suppose that when there is an error, it should be in there?

http://www.phantomhelp.com/logviewer/1F7DX8GZWQ13WY0QHNOH/

The moment of the crash:

Hi, I'm sorry to hear about the accident. Please kindly contact our support to start a case and send it in for full diagnosis: https://www.dji.com/support. If you encounter any difficulties during the repair progress, feel free to contact us with your case number, we'll be here for help.

this is a perfect pilot error !!

Yep, this is a case of read the manual, stated on page 9

Here's an additional thought.  I have no experience to back this up, but here goes.....  It's possible that the momentum of braking and "possible" wind influence tilted your aircraft far enough vertical to stop the motors.  You might be aware that there is an optional way to stop the motors following a hand catch/landing.  

For example, if you were flying using Hand Gestures, you can catch the aircraft, and grabbing the base, turn it on it's side.  At about 90 degrees, the motors stop.   Sport mode flies the aircraft at a steep angle, I'm just speculating that the rapid stop and perhaps a gust of wind aided in flipping further forward.

WebParrot Posted at 2018-4-27 05:12
Here's an additional thought.  I have no experience to back this up, but here goes.....  It's possible that the momentum of braking and "possible" wind influence tilted your aircraft far enough vertical to stop the motors.  You might be aware that there is an optional way to stop the motors following a hand catch/landing.  

For example, if you were flying using Hand Gestures, you can catch the aircraft, and grabbing the base, turn it on it's side.  At about 90 degrees, the motors stop.   Sport mode flies the aircraft at a steep angle, I'm just speculating that the rapid stop and perhaps a gust of wind aided in flipping further forward.

The gust of wind theory seems like the most likely explanation. I can't think of another reason the Spark would "hang vertically" when stopping, and of course the motors do stop if it does get into that orientation.

JimFandango Posted at 2018-4-27 05:34
The gust of wind theory seems like the most likely explanation. I can't think of another reason the Spark would "hang vertically" when stopping, and of course the motors do stop if it does get into that orientation.

As an added thought (probably adding nothing to this conversation !! )  I've read a number of posts (here and elsewhere ) where it has been suggested to use Sport mode "to get home quickly when the batteries are getting low."  
The scenario is usually that the aircraft couldn't make it back because the pilot underestimated the headwind during the home-run.  I immediately go to this thought, that a headwind gust, while the craft was nose down in sport mode, could easily flip that puppy over, initiating the motor-stop function.  ( Cut to the video:  "diving into the drink" )

Just a thought for your (our) next flight plan!

As there are minor scratches and the drone still works fine, I'm not sending it in for repair.

I was aware that the 3D sensing system does not work in Sport modus. And I haven't crashed into anything, the motors just stopped working when the drone stopped.
Maybe it was the wind pushing the spark over it's limit, like WebParrot suggested.

Glad to hear that it's not normal behavior. I will test some more and hope that it doesn't happen again.

From my experience when flying in sport mode if you suddenly let go of the sticks while cruising at 30 mph then the drone tries to stop at the moment you let go and to do that the spark does a very aggressive almost vertical angle to do a dead stop. That’s why you should gradually release the sticks to avoid this type of behavior when flying in sport mode.

Yes, now I’m gradually releasing the sticks to make a stop and it’s less aggressive now.

Racingboy Posted at 2018-4-27 05:57
As there are minor scratches and the drone still works fine, I'm not sending it in for repair.

I was aware that the 3D sensing system does not work in Sport modus. And I haven't crashed into anything, the motors just stopped working when the drone stopped.

I think WP is correct.
It might have been too much of an angle and cause the Spark (or any DJI drone) to stop it's engines.

I never witnessed the Spark flying out of control so close to ground, but then again I rarely fly the Spark in Sport Mode so low to ground.

I’ve had an old parrot drone “over tilt” before and cut out but never a spark, from what I’ve seen the drone is very capable of dealing with this!

Wow,, if this is factual then I need to be very aware when flying in Sports Mode!!

After 6 seconds to the video you are clearly forward pitching and descenting very fast with the motors still on..?

No, it wasn’t descending. It was flying 1,5m from the ground. Then I stopped and so did the engines.

I fly my Spark in Sports mode most of the time except recording video and have done sudden stops to avoid going closer to tree etc. But never had any issues with drone going anywhere near vertical.  Usually I fly above 30m.

Is it because you were flying too low and it was a windy day ? just curious to know.
I had issues when flying too close to the ground. My Spark will do weird things if it too close to the ground specially on a windy day.

It wasn’t very windy.
Of course it was possible that there was a bit more wind after the corner of the house.