DJI SPARK FLY MORE COMBO
I always wanted a drone ever since these things became popular. For it was the idea to just play around in my free time. Make some awesome scenery movies on holiday and all the things. I’ve now been playing around with the Spark for a few weeks now and this is what I think about it.
What is in it? I have the DJI Spark fly more combo. This pack has the drone itself, the remote control, 2 batteries, 2 sets of spare propellers, a charger and 2 travel bags to transport the drone safely.
Unpacking. Well here it starts to be a bit hairy, I opened the carton box that looks like an Apple product. Its slick, minimalistic and a clean look. I took everything out and wanted to start right away, well that doesn’t work because DJI drains the batteries before shipping, so you start with charging the batteries, its a plug and play system so far. After 1.5 hours I took the batteries out and I was ready to fly. Well, wrong again. I had to download the app and had to configure the drone with my phone and the remote. the problem is, my Android phone was not able to be connected to the WIFI of the remote and download all updates at the same time via cellular. The solution online I found quickly the use of an OTG cable. All shops closed up already so it took a day. In the morning the cable arrived and everything worked right away. No jokes, why didn’t DJI just put this cable in the pack? Well, that became clear as a started to look further into the Spark. DJI just doesn’t want that because of the higher quality drone MAVIC and people might find range an important thing.
Flying. The DJI Spark is easy to fly, you start it up, connect it with the remote (happens automatically in the Fly more combo) and put my cable in the phone. You start the engines by putting the 2 joysticks on the remote together in and down. The propellers start spinning and you can take-off. Its a very user-friendly drone but I would advise you not to use it inside, not even with propeller guards. Big chances you will damage something or the drone itself. (I hit a guitar and both survived, and I’m not even playing guitar.) Outside went much better but the range was more limited than what I saw all the time on youtube with others. I could find out what I did wrong, till I got back home and started to look around. The newest DJI GO APP limited the use of the Spark. The solution was simple, download an older app version. With this the range got bigger, I more options regarding offline maps and with the use of the cable that I bought I could see my attitude and distance. So that did make me a happy guy. I flew around and the drone was unbelievable stable in the wind at that moment. The images I go on my phone where crystal clear even with a 1080 HD camera. It was stable and easy to fly, the GPS function helped me out when I almost drained my battery and the drone safely landed from the point I took off.
Nice extra is that you can fly the Spark with Gesture mode (no remote or phone needed) I tried this but I should have informed the manual first because I had no idea how to land the Spark with my hand, I kept flying away from me until I took a sprint behind it and just grabbed it. It turned out to be that I had to keep my hand underneath it and it would land on my hand.
You will see much more nice video’s from me made with this DJI Spark.
+ Easy to fly
+ very good price to quality ratio
+ Small and makes it easy to take during travel
+ Enough options to play around
– Difficult to install
– 1080 HD 30 frames per second
– A wider landing gear to keep the sensors further from the ground would be nice (cheap to order)
This was one of the first days I was flying with the drone in the Netherlands.
