Category Archives: DJI Spark

DJI Spark, Drones, Mavic

I liked my Spark but LOVE the Mavic Air

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Yes, previously I have said how much I love my DJI Spark. Flies very well. I had some problems but those were in each case, my fault. I was able to fly my new drone, the Mavic Air on Friday evening when I arrived home and the rain and wind had stopped.

I had been told the Mavic Air was very loud, the WiFi connection wasn’t that good and the range was bad etc. etc..

I’m here to tell you that all of those negative statements are far from the truth. The drone flew wonderfully smooth compared to the Spark, The Mavic Air was actually quiet compared to the Spark, not much but was quiet. The Wifi was clear with a great signal without my range extenders. I took a short video which I will post here tonight when I down res to 720p, currently it is 4k.

I LOVE it and can’t wait to bring it to the mountain cabin.

DJI Spark

Thanksgiving Holiday

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T’was the Thanksgiving holiday time the last four days and it was relaxing. That means I did nothing, no exercise or anything but this was only because I was SICK the entire four days!

Yes, I was sick the entire holiday time. I had to skip dinner with friends and could not taste anything until last night around 4:00 pm. There was no really good eating, either good for me or good tasting. I am officially not giving any vitals today as I know they won’t be the best.

I came close to losing my Spark again. I went flying Wednesday night and I don’t think the batteries were up to the flight. They were charged but I think the cold weather got the better of them. Anyway about eight minutes into the flight the drone became a bit unresponsive and started to land where she was. Not far away and not any kind of hard landing, just wend down in what looked like a grassy area. I quickly left and headed out toward where I thought it was and ran into a couple that had found it. Fantastic of them, just asked if I was looking for anything and handed it over. I did lose the battery though.

I made some Tater tot Casserole during the holiday weekend, one was made on Wednesday evening but by that time my taste buds were so far gone I had no clue if it turned out good or not. I made the second yesterday and by the afternoon I could taste and was pleasantly surprised by my creation. Not really my creation but one I found online. I’ll edit with the picture I took before placing in the oven.

DJI Spark, Drones

New Toy Pics

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Vitals first then pics

Vitals this week:

  • Resting Heart Rate: 77
  • Blood Pressure: 118/66
  • Weight: 240 (Going down)

I had an interesting weekend of flying.  I had done all my pre-flight checks, batteries, props, drone body, memory card and everything else I could think of except….. you’ll see..

I started the flight around 6:45 am on a beautiful Saturday morning. It was a little chilly but by batteries were kept warm and just charged the night before. My controller had the parabolic range extenders on and I was on my was to fly over the top of my normal flight area. I lingered around over the flight area, turned to the right towards the freeway (I do not fly over the freeway, just turned towards the freeway). I kept turning toward the right and was heading toward another flight area of mine all the while keeping the drone within visual range. I had been flying for approximately five minutes and this is when the fun started.

My phone died! Yes, the one thing I did not check was the battery level of the phone.

My screen went black and after a little panic attack when the phone died I lost visual of the drone. I kept calm and mashed the RTH (Return To Home) button and prayed… After about two minutes I heard the drone flying over head and then it dropped down out of the sky right where it had taken off from. Missed a little and crashed through the branches of the tree but all was good. I charged up my phone and flew again about tree hours later.

Below is a picture of when signal was lost from my phone and then the crash.

Phone died and drone lost signal here
Returning home. You can see my location but after a brief panic period I had lost the drone
Dropping down thru the trees outside my home
Crash landing but all is well. No damage and was flying again after a phone recharge about 5 hours later.

My new toys

Force1 F100 beginner drone: This is not for beginners. No GPS – intermediate outside flights only. Watch the propellers with or without guards
DJI Tello: Great for beginners both inside and out. Make sure you get the remote to make for a much easier flying experience. Wind will tend to take the drone outside.
DJI Spark: Great for all levels of flying experience, just a joy to fly. Sports a 1080p HD camera on a 2 axis gimbal.
Angela, DJI Spark, Tello by DJI

I hope it is finally over

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I have spent the last 21 months trying to get Angie over the “I want $X.XX and I want it now”. I went ahead like I said and gave her 8,500.00 to pay off her car and all the stupid loans she had plus pay for her fathers tomb stone and let her know she can’t ask for anymore. Well since then she has gone off the deep end and every time she asks (yes, she has not stopped), she asks for four to five hundred at a freaking pop. Finally I just told her I’m not paying you anymore, stop asking. Her next response was “Would you turn this phone off please”. Wow a please out of her and needless to say I said ‘No, I have to pay for it anyway’ and her response was ‘Well I most likely will turn it off’. Go ahead I say. Now, the next time she talks to me in a couple years she can not say I turned off her phone. She also can’t get married to get another phone because she never got the divorce she said she would get. I have not heard from her in a few days and that is still not enough.

Now, Vitals this week, better than last:

  • Resting Heart Rate: 69
  • Blood Pressure: 128/78 (No bike last week)
  • Weight: 241 (Going down)

I have been on a non exercising trend lately and I think Angie had put me in a depressed state. I didn’t want to do anything but buy toys and lay around. Specifically I did not want to get on the bike. Last week screwed up my streak for the year which upsets me a bit however this week I’m back on the bike and will be getting out of this depression.

I was completely out of my routine for the last month at least and now have started again and adjusted a bit. Getting up earlier, around 2:00 to 2:10 in the morning instead of 2:30. Last week and so far this week it has made a big difference.

New toys:

I purchased a DJI Osmo gimbal camera which takes great buttery smooth shots, a GoPro Hero5 which is leaps and bounds over my other GoPro and I will receive a new label maker Friday to attach my FAA registration number on the spark.

The remote controller for my Tello arrived and it makes a huge difference, much easier to control. The last three of four flights I have made I have not crashed at all and I finally received my 15″ landing pad.

All of that should make me all set to go fly! I have a flight plan set up for Sunday barring any weather changes.

DJI Spark, Drones, Tello by DJI

DJI Spark

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My vitals checking batteries need replacing so back to that next week.

On to the good stuff!

I added Drone number two to my collection and it is the DJI Spark. A nice compact drone, great for learning the larger size drones. My Tello has been great for learning to control the drones especially muscle memory for the left and right controls. Moving the little guy around inside the apartment teaches you quite well, lots of crashes but the little guy is rough and tough, no damage to the drone or anything around the apartment.

The Spark will be a different story, no flying indoors until I am very used to flying. It looks like I may have found the perfect spot near my place, Jackson Park which seems to be outside any restricted areas, close by with flat and open areas to fly.

I purchased the Spark on eBay getting what was supposed to be the fly more combo but missing the DJI Spark bag and extra propellers but did get a hard case two extra batteries and parabolic range extenders for the controller. After purchasing the bag, extra propellers, landing pad, gimbal, joystick protection and OTG (On the Go) cables I still saved 300.00 over the regular fly more combo. I did not get any manuals but downloaded them from DJI’s website. Now I think I will be ready for my first flight this weekend.

Edit: Probably won’t fly this weekend, the weather forecast is looking to prevent that – it is what it is.