Compass Care

[pault]

There have recently been several threads where the finger of blame is being pointed at the compass for causing erratic flying behaviour such as toilet bowling (our new P2V phenomenon) and drifting in flight. Infighting between the gps and compass seems to be a real issue.

A couple of questions:
Is it acceptable to store a battery near to the compass in your flight case ?
Is it recommended to degauss the compass at regular intervals ?

Any other ideas for keeping your compass in tip-top condition gratefully received

Edit: another point - it may now be time for forum elders to consider altering their advice to newbies which at the moment is not to switch into NAZAM until they have some experience under their belt. As long as newbies are told not to switch into other modes until they understand what they do, there is some logic in all having ATTI available as this seems to be the best first course of action should your P2V start to misbehave in flight.

 

[themosttoys]

Edit: another point - it may now be time for forum elders to consider altering their advice to newbies which at the moment is not to switch into NAZAM until they have some experience under their belt. As long as newbies are told not to switch into other modes until they understand what they do, there is some logic in all having ATTI available as this seems to be the best first course of action should your P2V start to misbehave in flight.

With regard to compass care, I have no value to add other than leave it alone (physically), aka, unless absolutely necessary (like you broke your landing gear and need to replace it) don't loosen / move it.

To your "Edit" point, I completely disagree (sorry). In the case of newbies (people inexperienced with NAZA flight modes and multiple switch configurations) It is infinity more likely for the capabilities made available in NAZA-M mode to cause a problem than it is that they help. The chance of an inexperienced person staying calm and taking the right course of action in a panic situation is not very likely. The chance of an inexperienced person accidentally flipping a switch (or someone near them reaching over to touch their phone) or losing track of switch settings (or forgetting the position meaning) is much more likely.

But as I always say, to each their own. Happy flying.

 

[Pull_Up]

For what it's worth I agree with themosttoys. Once actually flying the thing and making it go where you want, when you want is getting second nature then it's probably a better time to think about adding complicating factors into the mix.

People see Home Lock as something that should be there out of the box, for example, in case you lose orientation. Home Lock can be extremely useful and get you out of the poop big time, but they don't teach airline pilots how to fly by sticking them straight into a 777 with the autopilot on and hoping they'll pick up the nitty gritty as they go on. If for some reason you drop sats until you have fewer than 6 locked then it's goodbye home lock, hello atti mode. I would argue you shouldn't be flying so far away that you risk orientation loss until you have enough experience to both minimise the risk of losing orientation and maximising your chances of using the tools that NAZA mode brings successfully.

But yes, unless and until there's a UAV Licence required we'll all have to be arbiters of our own competence.