Maximum distance travel per battery (not range)

[homeyjay]

Hi all,
First full day of flying the Spark in the UK (iOS + fly more bundle).
I’m really struggling to get anything approaching 1km per battery charge. I’m not talking about starting at point A and just going as far and as fast as I can in a straight line, I’m just buzzing around the garden the field next door and never going beyond 300m, just meandering around learning how to fly. The batteries seem to last around 13 -15 mins but the total distance covered is no more than 600 to 800m.
I’ve made 4 individual trips for one charge and the distance travelled ranges from 15m to 500m per trip.
Can anyone explain what’s going on? Is this normal?

 

[Poletramp]

By what i read if you want distance Sport mode is a must and you can only get into Sport mode with your controller.You will get way more distance flying at 50 kph than 12kph.

 

[homeyjay]

No, I don’t want maximumlinear distance, just want longest battery life!
I don’t get how people seem to be doing several thousand meters on a single charge and I can only do a fraction of that! Doesn’t going faster just use more energy and therefore depletes the battery faster?

 

[Poletramp]

Its with speed if you could still have control in 10 minutes you could take it out 10 km look at the distance videos on youtube for the Spark and all their flight times are bellow 14 minutes unless they hacked a second battery onto the Spark . Your not going to get 1km out of a battery just going back and forth in your yard an d a field.

 

[homeyjay]

So, is what you’re saying that the Spark has a certain overhead power requirement per minute and speed is the only thing that gives you greater distance?
If you go slow, you’ll just use nearly the same power because of the overhead.

 

[RaWine]

I just happened to test my Spark the other day just to see how long and how far it would fly in Tripod mode, and flight ended at almost exactly 700 meters with 13% battery. It was going into forced landing at that point.

I flew in a big circle keeping a strong connection.

 

[Poletramp]

And pray for a good tailwind coming back lol. These guys bring their Spark home and land with less than 10% battery left at times , saw one video were the guy had 0 % battery left for the last 60 seconds of flight.

 

[lmel2005]

Assume, that with a battery charge, you can fly for 15 minutes about, running or hovering is the same.

Not accurate, but real enough.

 

[Tafische]

I just did a flight and went a total of 13,733ft or 4,186M. I was really pushing it and had to override the auto land...so wont likely do that again, but it was a pretty darn good flight.

 

[homeyjay]

And pray for a good tailwind coming back lol. These guys bring their Spark home and land with less than 10% battery left at times , saw one video were the guy had 0 % battery left for the last 60 seconds of flight.

Yeah, I saw that one too. Balls of steel, those guys!

 

[maumau]

If you read your flight manual maximum endurance (flight time) is obtained at the speed of 25kmh.
Maximum range can be obtained only in sport mode.
If you fly in beginner mode, as you should for your first flights,
you will neither fly a long distance nor avoid battery drain.

 

[czechmark]

Here’s a shot of my longest flight. . . ,

 

[SPARKLT]

As everybody else said, you only have 10-12-15 or whatever minutes of battery life. Different modes and speeds don't seem to affect the battery that much so if you're flying at a slower speed inevitably you are goign to ''fly less''.
At this particular flight the battery was at 97% when i took off. I pushed it 7557 feet out and came back with 53% left. I kept fooling/flying around to swallow the remaining 3290 feet and landed with 9% in the tank

IMG_7465-min.PNG

• msinger
• Jul 24, 2019

 

[ZPFunk]

Its about following the air currents, i still had plenty of battery left on this flight.

 

[ZPFunk]

Landed with 22% battery

 

[Iowa Drone Pilot]

Backing up a bit, hovering takes the most power. Flying at speed, while it seems counter-intuitive, takes less power than hovering. Also consider flying into the wind versus down wind. Best performance is with no wind.

 

[Haggi]

My stats..

 

[Eljay]

Early on I did a flight just kind of aimlessly zipping around the area, 18,624 feet, 10:01 flight time, had 27% battery at landing. Sports mode obviously.

If I was going to do it again I'd change a few things - at one point I was bored and kind of running out 30 seconds then back - and literally running in reverse, not turning the drone around - and I probably wasted a lot of energy reversing direction versus just flying around in circles but I wouldn't have been a confident flyer at that point. I should probably try it again but really I found out what I wanted to fly out (how long can you fly around like a nut in sports mode - about 10 minutes).

 

[wsalopek]

Max endurance (the most TIME flying of course), like someone said above, is a "medium" AIR* speed...the Spark is just like any rotary wing aircraft (like helicopters)...movement thru the air, as opposed to hovering, creates a kind of "free" lift as additional air is moving over the blades because of the movement.

* However...

Max endurance speed COULD be hovering...if you are hovering in a certain amount of wind. I have noticed a few times...just hovering above my house in a 10-15 knot wind, that the battery percentage stays higher longer...this hovering in a 10-15 knot wind, is of course the same as flying forward (or sideways/backward) at 10-15 knots on a day with zero wind.

Anyway...

Curve "D" on this web page (below) show the idea of max endurance speed...note that very low speeds and very high speeds both reduce endurance.

Helicopter Aviation

 

[Djr01974]

Yesterday I was able to fly 7070 feet in sport mode. iOS iPhone 8plus and otg. I also did the New firmware the other day. It was the furthest to date I’ve taken the spark out and I was super impressed. Very stable and no problems