Hi Everyone,
I’ve seen this post a number of times but it’s only until it happens to you that the frustration kicks in. I set my spark off two days ago and It flew approximately 180m away at about 50m. I live in a small country town in the north west of Australia and I live 7km out of town so there are no buildings. I was using the remote connected to my iPhone. I had been flying for just over three minutes and wasn’t quite sure where the drone exactly was and I pressed the returned to home button. The drone on my flight log turned to home and sat there then the connection dropped out and I haven’t seen it since. When the connection dropped out should the spark have just stayed where it was or as it had already turned for RTH should it have just flown home. On the flight log clip it was next door hovering just above there house. There house is on a five acre block basically cleared with only a few trees. Th final msg on the flight record is RTH at 30m and was pointing directly at the H for home. It’s only 150 m away but I can’t find it anywhere. Thoughts…
The home point was not set until 44 seconds into your flight, so it was likely not in the place where you took off. It was marked at -15.71801861, 128.7405857 (at the yellow pin in the image below):
Where it took off from there’s quite a few trees and I have to get it up to about 20m so it picks up the gps.
But what you are saying is it should have returned to home despite the connection dropping out. Would it have stayed at the same altitude it was at when the connection dropped out as it headed back home? I have been on the roof and all around but unfortunately with no luck.
Since you had the RTH altitude set to 98 feet (30 meters), the Spark returned home at its current altitude of 193 feet. If there were any trees higher than between the last point on the flight log above and the home point, the Spark would have crashed into them on the way home.
That’s what I thought which makes it all the more frustrating as we don’t have any trees that big and my wife was outside at home ( I had gone looking for it when it disconnected, not quite in the right direction) and she didn’t hear it come back.
Good news, I found it.
Just to the very left of the house in the photo where it stopped is a tree which looks like it’s touching the house. It was at the base of the tree but the battery was at the back of the house. Does this mean the battery wasn’t in properly? Would it have flown that far if the battery wasn’t in properly? Slight scratch to the side of the lens but not interfering with the vision. Battery cracked and will need replaced. All in all quite happy with the outcome. Thanks for your interest and taking the time out to respond.
It means it likely crashed into something that was high in the air (like a tree). If the battery ejected when the Spark was near the ground, the drone and battery would have been pretty close.
While it’s possible that you didn’t snap the battery in properly, batteries often pop out when drones crash. Checking that the battery is snapped in on both sides is a great pre-flight checklist item to have (if you’re not already checking that).
