Spark-Mini

[Kkniery]

I have had a Spark for 2 years and l flew it a lot over our property hundreds of times & the first x I flew the Mini over our house it went into auto landing & crashed into a tree. I am 1.5 miles away from an executive airport & I get a warning that I override and it worked perfect, I am careful not to go towards the airport on my Spark & fly 200 ft or less and it works flawlessly. I used the refresh insurance and just got the new Mini and I wondered if anyone had advice for me. Kevin in CT

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Welcome to the forum Kevin.

Read up here, especially the Crash / Flyaway section.
It's (unfortunately) littered with Mini cases, understandably a lot of flyaways with wind, but as concerning prop / power / uncommanded descent issues for many . . . many report no problems, but it seems there is an underlying problem that affects a lot of owners.
Just be aware of what can happen, and if any further developments come about to fix this.

I won't go as far as say sell the mini and continue enjoying the Spark, or maybe consider the new Air 2 (which is awesome on paper), but just be aware and prepared if a problems arises, eg if you crash with an uncommanded descent, you SHOULD easily get a replacement from DJI under warranty.

 

[Kkniery]

Welcome to the forum Kevin.

Read up here, especially the Crash / Flyaway section.
It's (unfortunately) littered with Mini cases, understandably a lot of flyaways with wind, but as concerning prop / power / uncommanded descent issues for many . . . many report no problems, but it seems there is an underlying problem that affects a lot of owners.
Just be aware of what can happen, and if any further developments come about to fix this.

I won't go as far as say sell the mini and continue enjoying the Spark, or maybe consider the new Air 2 (which is awesome on paper), but just be aware and prepared if a problems arises, eg if you crash with an uncommanded descent, you SHOULD easily get a replacement from DJI under warranty.

Thanks for your note and i have seen the reports of these auto landing incidents. When i sent it in to be repaired or replaced they sent me a note that since i had used it in an “unauthorized” area I would be responsible, yet they replaced it with the refresh insurance, and within 2 weeks, which I was impressed with! I just wondered why it would be different than the Spark, which i unfortunately lost in a lake, and it was my carelessness & the insurance had expired. I had gotten very comfortable with my Spark, “too comfortable” and yet I flew it for 2 years over 30 miles and have thousands of awesome pictures so I got more than my $ back!! The mini is so light and toy like! I may consider a Mavic Air 2, we will see. Thanks for your thoughts. Kevin

 

[Johnmcl7]

If you can get the logs from your phone/tablet and post them to the forum section above you'll likely get a definite answer back or at least a suggestion on what may have happened.

The refresh insurance covers pretty much any incident with the drone as long as you can get it back, if you were not at fault they would have replaced it under warranty and not used your refresh.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

if you were not at fault they would have replaced it under warranty and not used your refresh.

Worth checking if you still have the TXT log on your device @Kkniery

Go here and get the info on getting that if needed, if it can be shown uncommanded descent, then DJI should have picked that up and given you a new mini, it may not be too late in retrospect to ask them about it, if it did turn out to be an aircraft fault.

DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help

Upload and view flight logs from your DJI drones

www.phantomhelp.com

Just post up the Phantom Help (url) to the report after it loads.