Bought a new drone..and then....

[Shankapod]

Got a new DJI Spark. Have some experience flying drones around my farm, but nothing that's like 500 bucks!

 

Got it in the mail today; unpacked and promptly started charging batteries. Only takes about 50 minutes so I was out on my property in no time. Fly's like a dream. Went through both batteries and then charged again then went back out.

 

I have about a 1-1.5 acre pond. Yep....Was getting some neat footage of some frogs on the bank when a little user error and SPLASH....went for a swim. I dove in after it and grabbed it, but it was fully submerged for 30 seconds or so. Dried it off and dumped it in rice....hoping for the best! :| :/ :s :'(

[ldandrea]

Any update? Crashing a drone is heartbreaking! I’ve been there. If it doesn’t work after drying out there are a lot of videos on you tube to help rebuild it.

[padget]

I also have the spark. I use it for work and just to mess around if we are at the beach or something.

 

I bought the DJI care refresh or whatever it’s called and definitely had to use it to have my drone replaced after I ran it into a pine tree and it crashed. I had another crash and just had to replace the propellers.

 

They are fun. Hope yours is ok and working after the crash.

[Murphy76]

My brother bought me a $100 drone for Christmas.

The first time I flew it, I went up about 50 feet. A gush of wind took it above my neighbors trees'. I never saw it again.

 

Go to hell non-ground-based RC.

 

I will stick with my 1/5 scale RC gas buggy.

[Mych]

> @Murphy76 said:

> My brother bought me a $100 drone for Christmas.

> The first time I flew it, I went up about 50 feet. A gush of wind took it above my neighbors trees'. I never saw it again.

>

> Go to **** non-ground-based RC.

>

> I will stick with my 1/5 scale RC gas buggy.

I'm with you... I can wreck and repair my truck 10 times while I'm still waiting for a new set of rotors to arrive from China.

[Shankapod]

Good news! Worked fine!!

 

Sorry, completely forgot to update you guys. In looking around with similar crashes, seems like I am a lucky one, though. Sounds like usually there are RC connectivity issues, which ironically I was having before the crash and not after.

[padget]

> @Shankapod said:

> Good news! Worked fine!!

>

> Sorry, completely forgot to update you guys. In looking around with similar crashes, seems like I am a lucky one, though. Sounds like usually there are RC connectivity issues, which ironically I was having before the crash and not after.

 

Awesome! I would recommend looking into the DJI resfresh warranty if they still have it. It was pretty reasonably priced and I definitely had to use it for a user error crash I had. They even offered to let me buy another year of it but I forgot to renew it in time.

 

They are pretty neat.

 

What do you use to edit your footage afterwards? I have not found a real simple user friendly program that I like. I just want to string together some of the videos and have some side by side comparison shots.

[Shankapod]

> @padget said:

> > @Shankapod said:

> > Good news! Worked fine!!

> >

> > Sorry, completely forgot to update you guys. In looking around with similar crashes, seems like I am a lucky one, though. Sounds like usually there are RC connectivity issues, which ironically I was having before the crash and not after.

>

> Awesome! I would recommend looking into the DJI resfresh warranty if they still have it. It was pretty reasonably priced and I definitely had to use it for a user error crash I had. They even offered to let me buy another year of it but I forgot to renew it in time.

>

> They are pretty neat.

>

> What do you use to edit your footage afterwards? I have not found a real simple user friendly program that I like. I just want to string together some of the videos and have some side by side comparison shots.

 

I am super new, so I have not even tried yet. I will start looking in to that soon I think, but for now I am still in the phase where I love just flying around and looking at my property (I have a 170 acre farm) from a birds eye view

[rickdarris2004]

That would not be a good time. I fly drones commercially, so I have a $15k drone I fly on a regular basis. I also have a Phantom 4 Pro I fly. Would be heart wrenching to watch a big drone fall out of the sky!

[Man_O_War]

what kind of practice should one get before buying an expensive drone? is there like a training manual lol..or trial and error till the good shows up?. It's time to get into this

[padget]

> @Man_O_War said:

> what kind of practice should one get before buying an expensive drone? is there like a training manual lol..or trial and error till the good shows up?. It's time to get into this

 

Get a cheaper one, doesn’t even have to have a camera so you can get a feel for it before you get a big boy. It’s easy to say just don’t fly into a tree etc, but once you go up a few times you can get a feel for what is a bad takeoff zone or area to fly in, how easy it is to get the steering confused, how to get your drone back when the battery goes low, etc. it just takes a little practice, it’s not rocket science. But I would practice with a $50-100 drone a few times before I invested in a really nice one.

 

[Man_O_War]

> @padget said:

> > @Man_O_War said:

> > what kind of practice should one get before buying an expensive drone? is there like a training manual lol..or trial and error till the good shows up?. It's time to get into this

>

> Get a cheaper one, doesn’t even have to have a camera so you can get a feel for it before you get a big boy. It’s easy to say just don’t fly into a tree etc, but once you go up a few times you can get a feel for what is a bad takeoff zone or area to fly in, how easy it is to get the steering confused, how to get your drone back when the battery goes low, etc. it just takes a little practice, it’s not rocket science. But I would practice with a $50-100 drone a few times before I invested in a really nice one.

>

 

thank you matey. I will be doing that !!

[ZAP]

My son who is a senior in high school really loves drones. He has built his own from parts and flies on the school drone team. His problem is he tries to as fast as possible all the time and does stunts so his drones are often in need of repair. I would like to buy him a drone for graduation.

I am sure he will give me some ideas but it would be fun to surprise him. They Fly Beta FPV 75x for school competitions. I'll have to read up on the DJI Spark.

[Mych]

> @ZAP said:

> My son who is a senior in high school really loves drones. He has built his own from parts and flies on the school drone team. His problem is he tries to as fast as possible all the time and does stunts so his drones are often in need of repair. I would like to buy him a drone for graduation.

> I am sure he will give me some ideas but it would be fun to surprise him. They Fly Beta FPV 75x for school competitions. I'll have to read up on the DJI Spark.

 

My guess is he would want something like a 5" racer. I'd recommend asking here: https://www.rcgroups.com/mini-multirotor-drones-800/

If he wants to go fast, there are plenty of good options.

 

Another fun option would be getting him a 3d printer and letting him learn to print his own airframes, arms, camera/battery/motor mounts, etc. (https://all3dp.com/3d-print-drone-parts/)

[Shankapod]

> @Man_O_War said:

> > @padget said:

> > > @Man_O_War said:

> > > what kind of practice should one get before buying an expensive drone? is there like a training manual lol..or trial and error till the good shows up?. It's time to get into this

> >

> > Get a cheaper one, doesn’t even have to have a camera so you can get a feel for it before you get a big boy. It’s easy to say just don’t fly into a tree etc, but once you go up a few times you can get a feel for what is a bad takeoff zone or area to fly in, how easy it is to get the steering confused, how to get your drone back when the battery goes low, etc. it just takes a little practice, it’s not rocket science. But I would practice with a $50-100 drone a few times before I invested in a really nice one.

> >

>

> thank you matey. I will be doing that !!

 

I second this. I started with a $50 drone and it helped a ton. The controls on the nicer ones are 100X better than the more affordable ones, so if you get halfway decent with a 40-50 drone then flying the 400-500+ ones will be a breeze and make the whole experience that much more fun. I love flying mine around my property and just seeing what wildlife is up to. Some call it lame, but at least I am not collecting stamps for a hobby..