If you follow us on Instagram you might have heard how on our recent trip to Australia, last month, I lost my DJI Spark. As you also may know, I was heartbroken. 💔 It was my third time using it, ever!
I know it is not the most expensive drone in the DJI fleet but I was most excited about this purchase I worked so hard for. Since I like to pack light, and I am a photographer that prefers to pack more cameras than clothes 😂, it was the perfect size. See the lost poster down below for its exact size.
Having said that, the reason I bought the Spark was for those awesome arial shots that I crave as a photographer. Is is a perspective that can't be achieved unless you are in the air, and I love that they are not as common. I'm also a person that loves small scale things, so this perspective is a win win for me. Sorry to those that find them annoying. I agree, they are annoying but sometimes you have to be annoying to get some cool shots.
Anyway, here is what happened. I have not had a ton of experience with the Spark but had a decent handle on its general functions. If you are like me, and have had a hard time adjusting to the controls to figure out which way is up, down, left, right, you would love the return home button. I use the return home button often. The day I lost it, I did the same exact thing. We got to Bronte Beach and I wanted to get a shot that I envisioned right away so the rest of the time I could enjoy our beach time.
I planned on sending it up in the air for roughly five minutes, the battery life makes me nervous so I am always extra cautious of that. Sent Sparky up, got my shots within a couple minutes and hit the return home button, Within that time I got a notification on my phone that the firmware needed to be updated. I figured I would do it as soon as it came back to me. Everything was working just fine. Sparky hovered right above us, about 30 feet up in the air. It hovered for about 2 minutes until it got a mind of its own and darted out over the ocean, about 300 feet out, for absolutely no reason. I was already a bit nervous by this point but when it darted out without my command to do so, I got suuuuuper nervous. In a panic, I manually tried to bring it back to safety, but nothing was working. I was able to see the view even though I lost sight of the poor little guy. I received a few notifications of it only having enough battery power to come back home, I hit return home again!
The final notification was that it had to make an emergency landing. I didn't care where it landed at this point, as long as it was on land! The good thing about its design is it tells you its last know GPS location when the battery dies. Figures crossed, I was hoping it made its final decent on to land, but sure enough it was over water. It was just on the outskirts, so I took a hike to some rocky cliffs (pictured above and below) in the area of its last known location, in hopes I can spot it, NO LUCK! I was heartbroken. Not only did I lose my new drone, but I lost the photos from a few days before, I took at Brighton Beach in Melbourne. I always download footage and photos before sending it up in the air again, but not this time of course, I completely spaced it out. I was so sad. I bought damage insurance for it, but you have to have the drone to get a new one so that was a lost cause. It still makes me sad thinking about it.
Who would have thought such a gorgeous view was going to cause so much stress? I had a bad feeling about it and I should have listened to it before I sent it up in the air. I thought about it afterwards, and I realized I was having horrible connection problems with my cellular data upon arrival to Sydney.. I should have known better than connection may have been a problem with the drone.
Hope you enjoy some of the pictures I took with my other camera from a higher up point at least 😊. I am in the market for another small drone, I will probably get another Spark before our next adventure but will be much more cautious about everything. I do love DJI products, they have awesome designs but any drone can have a crazy malfunction, I'm willing to give it another chance. If you are interested in any DJI products please use our link below to get a free remote. Thanks for reading!😘
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