DJISpark, Portable Mini Drone, Alpine White

The media could not be loaded. Remember when you saw your first iPhone and were blown away, well the DJI Spark is that level of mind blowing product.I have had my DJI Spark almost a month and have flown it an hour or two every day (I have lots of batteries). Everyday I discover new and amazing things this drone can do. It reminds me of when I bought my first iPhone back in 2007. It is truly a mind blowing product!Here Are the Top 5 Reasons Why:1 - Easy to fly!DJI uses technology magic to make the Spark so easy to fly, prepare to be absolutely amazed. One thing I just love about the Spark is you can have it out and fly in under a minute. Talk to anyone who has a drone and they will tell you it takes them a few minutes or more before they can get their drone out, put together, linked and flying. There is nothing to assemble to get the Spark flying. The compact body size (it is the size of your hand) makes it so easy to take with you anywhere you go.2 - Tough as nails, you are NOT going to break this drone learning to fly it.If you suffer from "Drone Crash Anxiety Syndrome" this drone will cure you!! (see my details on crashes at the bottom of the review)3 - Amazing technology to keep you from losing or damaging your drone.Features like automatic GPS based RTH (Return to Home) brings your drone home safe due to signal loss or low battery, obstacle avoidance and automatic take off and land just to name a few. Even a "Find My Drone" if for some reason your drone crashes and you have to go find it. I absolutely rely on the RTH to get my Spark safely home after almost every flight.4 - Great photos and video right out of the box.The automated cinematic video shots and image tracking make your videos look like a pro. See the attached video l made the day after I got my drone, announcing my daughter was pregnant. Remember the basic DJI Spark package does not come with a Micro SD card, you will need to get you one.5 - Mastering the DJI Spark and it Smartphone app is easy, with a “learn as you go” approach.The "DJI GO 4" app is easy to use, allowing you to go from "Beginner" mode all the way to "Sport". For first timers it will by default keep you safe and in control. As you lean more and your flying skills improve you can unlock more advanced features making this a great drone for beginners and experts. The DJI GO 4 helps you log all your flights, hours, distance, and height. It even maps your flights, all the while storing them in the cloud and providing you with a user’s rating.You are going to want to purchase some of the add-ons or get the "Fly More Combo" to get the full value of the DJI Spark. Just the Spark with one battery is going to make you frustrated for three key reasons:1 - Charging the battery via the drone takes approx. 90 min. - too much wait time between flights.2 - Without the add-on remote controller you are VERY limited as to how far, how high and how fast you can fly.3 - Can't take any pictures or video without a Micro SD card.Here are my recommendations on things you should think about adding to the basic drone:1 - More Batteries - this is a MUST or you will be frustrated - I have a total of 5 and it is great. With 5 I am flying for more than hour.2 - Speed Charger - charges 3 at a time, you will get frustrated without this and extra batteries3 - Spare Blades - you will need to replace - get a 4 pair at a minimum. These are made to break to protect the motors when you crash.4 - Remote Controller - this unlocks the full potential5 - A Good Case - One that will organize and safely hold everything** Tons of options to expand this drone **Both DJI and other vendors have and will continue to create add-ons and options to make the DJI Spark the most versatile drone. Just to name a few, remote controller, extra batteries, speed charger, cases, landing gear, blade protectors, colorful skins, etc. Since this is a DJI product and is the leader in this type of drone, the number of 3rd party add-ons is huge and growing.The question we all ask ourselves, “How tough is this drone?”It does not matter if you are an experienced flier or brand new to drones, one thing is for sure, you will crash your drone.Understand DJI has done a lot to make it really easy to fly the Spark, and has various flying modes from beginner to sport. It is almost impossible to really crash your Spark in beginner mode. But if you are like me, you will start try all the modes as your abilities improve, which takes us to crashing.You WILL crash your drone, so get over it! But the thing I LOVE about my DJI Spark is how well it is designed to withstand crashes. I have stopped counting how many times I have crashed my Spark. Understand I live is a densely wooded area, trees are everywhere and very tall, but I have crashed into other things like basketball standards, walls, ceilings, cement pavement, and the ground. When I fly indoors or around lots of people I fly with the propeller guards on, but I find that it adds some extra weight and wind drag so for the most part I don’t use them.You might ask “How hard have you crashed it?” Yesterday evening I think what the most violent crash so far. I was about 100 feet up flying in sport mode at full speed 25 mph and struck the very tip of a very tall old dead tree. It flipped it end over end into the branches of the tree next to it. Amazing it tried to automatic right itself, but the propellers got caught in the leaves and then proceeded to fall all the way down the tree hitting limb after limb. I was sure I had finally killed it. I stopped into the forest expecting to see it all in pieces. Amazingly it was standing on its edge in the brush at the base of the tree. It had snapped or bent 3 of the 4 propellers, but that was it. I put in a fresh battery and new propellers and it took off without any issues. By the way I buy the propellers in bulk on Amazon see link below. I can’t say enough about how well designed this drone is to withstand crash after crash and continue flying.If you are suffering from “Drone Crash Anxiety Syndrome” this drone will cure you.For propellers in bulk I like these found on amazon. They are $11.39 for Prime customers - Just search the name below:RCstyle 4730F Props Propellers For DJI Spark Drone Folding Blade-4Pair

I fly Inspires, Phantoms and recently a Mavik 2 Pro at work, but I always thought it would be nice to have my own machine. Wasn't willing to cough up a thousand dollars and up for one. "Ah, I probably wouldn't use it much anyway." Sound familiar? When I saw the spark I thought it would be worth a shot even though it probably wasn't "as good" as the big ones so I got myself one for Christmas. I am very happy I did. I am thrilled by the fact that a $450 (fly more bundle at Amazon's holiday price) had a lot of the same features as the big boys. It may not shoot in 4k or have a three axis camera gimbal or have the same flight time, but I don't need it to. I just wanted to have a drone for fun, and fun it is!!!So far, I have flown this sUAS 81,029 feet (a little over 15 miles) and have never had any issues with it, I would fly more but the temps have been arctic up here. The app did crash once on me while linked to the controller by wifi and when I restarted the app my phone would not reconnect to the controller. The spark was over a thousand feet out and while I had line of sight, that's a pretty tiny thing to be able to tell where it's facing at that kind of range. With no telemetry at all available I just pushed return to home on the controller and it came straight back and landed itself. Phew. Yesterday the temp hit 41 so I played hookie and went flying. I got in 7 flights with my 4 batteries, recharging with the 3 bay DJI charger hooked to a Bioenno BPP120 power pack. I used an OTG cable (has prevented any more disconnects between my phone and the controller) a landing pad, folding signal boosters on the controller antennas and a Nanuk 915 hard case. It was a great day to fly. Over a frozen lake, I easily flew to a horizontal distance of 6,754 feet at an altitude of 35 feet. Never had any signal breakup. A clear day over a frozen lake with perfect line of sight is certainly ideal conditions, but I do believe that the signal boosters helped. I have never gotten that far out with no signal loss without them. There is a lot of heated debate about whether or not these signal boosters work, but for $9, what do you have to lose. I think they help. By the way, if you fly in the cold like I have been doing, keep the spare batteries in your coat until you are ready to use them or better yet, I have a pair of heated Milwaukee Tools gloves. These make great Spark battery warmers.Here are my suggestions for what you should get for a complete drone package:Spark fly more combo. (Yellow of course, who could want any other color?)2 extra batteries (for a total of 4).Nanuk 915 hard case (Yellow of course, who could want any other color?)Landing pad (you can see mine in the photo, there are tons of them on the market).Camera gimbal protector (I got the FS Labs one)Landing gear (FS labs again. Haven't used them yet because I use a landing pad).Folding parabolic range extenders (I got the Amazon's Choice marked ones.)Micro USB to Lightning OTG cable. (I got one from RCstyle and like it. Some say it extends range, don't know how it could do that but it provides a rock solid connection to the controller).Micro USB to female USB so you can use an Android phone with the controller.Get the DJI refresh insurance for $60 bucks or so. They will replace up to two wrecked Sparks for a year for, I think, about $60 per occurrence. If you are new to flying or like to push your luck, you will probably need this.A couple of over the top items if you really get into it:Bioenno BPP120 power pack to recharge in the field. I've heard the Smatree one is good too, but not as versatile.A phone/tablet holder by MavMount (Mavmount 3.0) This is more pricey than most because it is extremely well made professional hardware made in the US. It's worth it!!!There you have it. I really like this little drone. It has surprising range and capabilities, is surprisingly tough and is a ton of fun. Its the toy that didn't exist when we were kids, indulge yourself now! Happy flying.