How many highly experienced pilots have "lost / crashed" their Spark ?
- Thread starter Silversand
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Lastrexking
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Soo me , experience 1 year on Hubsan 501s, 2 cracked , then I bought spark, now more 150 hours flyt with my Spark...
I'm a new drone pilot, but been flying RC helicpoters and planes for 25 years. The spark flies by itself, you just tell it where to go, more or less. I've only logged south of 14h with my Spark. So far so good 
Sparkbart
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I have not. But I fly very conservatively. I know some very experienced pilots that have crashed because they were trying to do something difficult and not because of equipment failure but one may argue "pilot error" such as getting too close to an object and colliding...
sdharris
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No crash from me (yet), have had a P1, P2, P3, Typhoon H and a Mavic in addition to the Spark over the last 5 years or so. Must be quite cautious though as in all that time the nearest thing to a crash was planting a P1 in a fence, no damage done and have never had to change props on any of them.
Drone disconnected after a magnetic interference. Took off and flew west with wind. Crashed into a Gum Forest.
Luckily no damage
Luckily no damage
How many flight hour make an experienced drone pilot?
PLEASE READ THIS FOR YOUR OWN SAKES
I don't often feel like I need to comment but in this particular situation, I feel I must say something.
To be clear I have been designing aircraft, building and flying my own aircraft (including drones) since I was 17 and have been flying aircraft since I was 13.
I run my own surveying company utilizing drones and have countless hours of experience.
I see a few people on here saying how they have hours maybe even days of flight experience on their DJI drone as if it means something, I am here to say it means diddly squat.
Take driving for example, isn't is strange how someone who has been driving everyday for 20 years is still crap and gets into crash that was from some people's view avoidable.
It happens because you do not learn how to do something by only ever doing it without fault, you need to experience unexpected situations in order to get good at what you do and when unexpected situations occur you need to analyse and learn from them, not just throw the thing away and buy another (like most people who post in this forum admittedly do).
TLDR:
Flying a DJI product should not count towards flying experience hours just like being in a self driving car should not count as driving experience.
You people have no ability to deal with unexpected situations. (Now i am generalising ,there are lots of you this doesn't apply to, but there are more that it does).
This point is important because, in a court of law, the above would be why you would loose your case.
flight time != (does not equal) skill/wisdom/experience etc because you aren't really flying the thing.
I find it cringeworthy to be on this forum sometimes when noob "pilot" A complains it isn't their fault because the drone did it and noob "pilots" B through Y agree.
John Dwyer
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Very well said Jared, I agree, most people flying dji drones fail miserably when ic comes to that unexpected event happens and they have no idea on how to properly manage their situation, an overly large percentage of the drone flying community overly rely on failsafe and technology doing what should be second nature to any pilot.
I for one welcome tighter regulations, but implemented in a fair and accessible way for all to enjoy their purchases better and safer
I for one welcome tighter regulations, but implemented in a fair and accessible way for all to enjoy their purchases better and safer
My opinion on the regulations is that they shouldn't exist if you prove yourself to be competent and aware (through a test).
Specifically the CAA and FAA commercial operators test.
I do believe the test should be tiered into different difficulties based on the freedoms you want.
But they should be reasonable.
Minor crash with mine. Hit an overhanging tree limb broke a rotor blade and spark fell about 10ft to the ground. Only damage was to the rotor blade (broke one blade section) replaced the rotor blade and back flying in no time. Total operator error, lost visual for a second and that’s all it took.
Noted. Good point. Question: ....completing the current UAS Part 107 successfully does not in itself make a skilled remote pilot ? What would the "practical" curriculum need to cover vis flying skill to "graduate" a skilled (junior experienced) pilot ?
Thanks to all those who have responded thus far.
Robert
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I think the percentage of cases where it was actually DJI’s fault the drone crashed is probably minimal. I have not been flying drones that long but I had a phantom three standard for over a year and a half and I never had any issues until I tried a risky maneuver and crashed into a tree over a river which was completely my fault. I have a spark now, been flying it since it launched, and I’ve had no issues with it. That being said I also taught myself how to fly on small hubsan Drones first, and I did crash a Fair amount of those. I went from not understanding how the orientation of flight worked to flying risky maneuvers all over my yard and really getting a feel for how drones work without any GPS or other high tech assistance. After learning on those, flying a DJI especially my spark, is almost not even the same thing, it’s so controlled and packed with automated features.
GDN21
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