Recent content by Eljay

The part that's new is that DJI appears to be marketing a new drone with a wink wink nudge nudge weight limit.

Likewise if you pull over to get some quick shots of a scenic area you need to walk at least a few feet away from your car.

DJI has a super muddled product line. It's not shocking they would want to reduce confusion.

There seem to be a lot of things like this that are going to make it unappealing to existing users but presumably not much of a barrier to casual new people.

I've only had one negative reaction, which is while filming a marina type area. Apparently some people live on some of the boats and the guy was concerned I might be looking in people's windows or something. I was so confused as to what he was even talking about (I figured it out in...

It's a cool drone but no real urge to switch. I still think my next drone purchase will be in the big/more professional category retaining the Spark for travel and the like. It does sound like 249g as a design goal led to some compromises and it's largely a marketing thing.

I'm in San Leandro as well. The best place I've found for general learning / casual flying is Knowland Park in Oakland. Once you get past the new zoo area you're more than 5 miles from any airport, there's a nice mix of terrain, it's pretty, and there's not a ton of people. Obviously you want...

Yeah, the two options are either a) it's stolen or b) box of bricks.

Fell off the back of a truck.

I'm only at 15 hours on the spark but I've been reading Spark forums for a while and it's not exactly a topic of conversation. I don't think I've ever seen anybody posting about it happening.

You can fly it in atti mode. The big problem is that if you can't see it, it's difficult, and if you've never flown a drone in that mode, it's difficult, and if you waste time mashing the return to home button that's bad. And if it's windy you may not have a lot of time until it's blown into...

It's remarkable how many people have posts like my drone went into ATTI mode and I pressed RTH and it didn't do anything. Well, yeah. I've had two scary moments. One was a "flyaway" except I left into the wind so the wind blew it back to me. I'm not sure what happened but watching the...

You can go remarkably far if conditions are just right. I used to do long flights along this 3 mile long abandoned pier nearby and sometimes it would get further than others, there's really a lot of variation each flight, some little detail of angles or whatever. The reflector things did help...

I always have a spare set on hand and replace if there's even a small nick, because when they go they can go quickly. Why risk it? The OEM propellers really aren't that expensive given that you shouldn't be smacking into things all that often, especially once you get some experience. I...

Yeah, definitely keep away from a car during takeoff.