Don's Home Recreation Drones DJI Spark Flying Beginners Checklist

• Unpack everything that came with the spark and take all factory stickers off

• Charge all your batteries, phone & controller

• Insert Micro SD card into Spark and format

• Turn on your spark at home and make sure every battery works and connects to the controller or phone

• Follow along with the video and adjust all your settings in every menu

• Do a test and record some footage and take some photos (don’t need to take off for this)

• Check all the media is okay.

• Reformat the card and recharge everything

• Check where you’re going to fly to see if there are any restrictions

Outside and Ready To Fly

• Find a flat surface to take off from

• Make sure there is no trees or power lines that will get in the way of your flight

• Turn on your Spark and controller

• Start your test flight.

  • Make sure everything is connected and talking to each other

  • Take off

  • Hover for 20 seconds

  • Take a test picture and video

  • Land

• If everything is working take off and start your first flight

For New Flyers.  In this section you need to try out every function of the the Spark and learn how each mode works.  Take your time with this.  It may take a few batteries to get through all of this.

1. Flying: Try all the directions of flight. Use both joysticks together to make more complex shots

2. Gimbal: Fly with the gimbal straight up and straight down. See what types of shots you can get with each

3. Patterns: Now try some patterns

   1. Fly forwards and backwards both high and skimming right over the ground

   2. Point straight down and move in multiple directions

   3. Raise up & down a tall object

   4. Fly up and in a direction

   5. Try moving left or right while panning. Lightly use the pan joystick.

   6. Try to keep an object in the center of frame and circle them

   7. Reveal a landscape from coming out behind an object

   8. Follow a subject forwards and backwards.

   9. Follow a subject from the side

4. Photography: Now that you’ve played around with a ton of ways to fly lets go through the photography settings and try each

   1. Normal Photo

   2. Multiple Shots

   3. AEB (shoots multiple exposures to process later)

   4. Timed Shot

   5. Shallow Focus

   6. Panoramic both Vertical and Horizontal

5. Video: Now that you’ve tried every feature with the photography lets get into the video features of the Spark

   1. Do a video and try some flying patterns

   2. Turn on your histogram.

   3. Try to adjust the exposure compensation for your auto settings both brighter and darker

   4. Switch to manual. Adjust ISO & Shutter to get a good exposure

   5. Play with your manual white balance. Try all the options

6. Automation: The last section for any beginner flyer is to play with all the automation features. I put this at the end because you need to learn how to fly using the joysticks before moving on to this section

   1. Quickshot: Try each of these.

   2. Active Track: Try tracking a person and an object like a car.

   3. Tap Fly: Just use this for an entire battery and see what kind of shots you can get.

   4. Tripod: Fly in small spaces. Between trees or out a door. Make sure your sensors are on so you don’t crash.

   5. Gesture: Take some pictures of you and your friends with this

You are ready to start getting creative with your flying.  After going through this entire checklist you should know your Spark inside and out.  This is an awesome tool to get some epic shots and will take your videos to the next level.  Make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel for more advanced flying video and more videos to improve your technique.