Military Interference

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Hi everyone! First post here. I have had my P3P for about 2 weeks now, made about a dozen flights on it.

I had a weird thing happen to me yesterday that I wanted to share and get people's opinion on. I was flying from on top of a tall building at my work taking aerial shots of the surrounding area. I consistently had connection to 15+ GPS satellites the entire time. It was a little windy up there so I landed the P3P to let the winds calm down a bit. Luckily I did that because not long after I landed, i spotted a large military cargo aircraft heading my direction. I was operating within 5 miles of a small airport & there is a large military base not far away ( more than 10-15 miles). I called ahead to let the control tower know like i have every time before.

As the military plane got closer, i suddenly lost all GPS connections. From 16 GPS connections to 0. As the plane flew over and traveled further away from me, my signal seemed to suddenly get restored. I am not sure if that was just an odd coincidence or something else. I am just happy my bird was safely landed and not 400' in the air when it happened.

Anyone else had something like this happen?
 
As the military plane got closer, i suddenly lost all GPS connections. From 16 GPS connections to 0. As the plane flew over and traveled further away from me, my signal seemed to suddenly get restored. I am not sure if that was just an odd coincidence or something else.
Unless the plane flew above you at about 100 feet and blanked out your Phantom's view of the sky, that sounds like an odd coincidence.
 
Interruptions of civilian GPS are usually announced via posting on gps.gov.
There was 2-3 days in California with a range of 253NM centered at China Lake.

there are 3 today N.M., CA, and S.C
Navcen.uscg.gov/pdf/gps/gpsnotices/GPS_Interference.pdf
 
You can fly without a gps lock, it is not like you would have immediatley dropped from the sky had you not landed when you did. You should practice flying in Atti mode just to get the feel for how it handles just in case you ever lose GPS again.
 
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You can fly without a gps lock, it is not like you would have immediatley dropped from the sky had you not landed when you did. You should practice flying in Atti mode just to get the feel for how it handles just in case you ever lose GPS again.

Very true. I only have about 30 flights under my belt so far. But the other day I took up my P3P to run down a battery. At about 100' in my backyard I suddenly lost all GPS signal. Luckily the winds were very minor, but my yard is tight. It was a battle to keep it away from my house and trees and I had to hand catch it on the fly. Really made me realize I need to start practicing in ATTI mode all the time. You never know when you are going to need that skill.
 
How do u put it in atti mode? I flew over siesta key beach in florida all this week. I turned VPS off . No issues , flew high over water and partial land . Atti mode kept popping up near condo while warming up. Is it full operator control on atti mode? Sorry if I'm stealing your post . I'm kinda new to this site. I'm having a hard time finding where I can make my own post.
 
How do u put it in atti mode? I flew over siesta key beach in florida all this week. I turned VPS off . No issues , flew high over water and partial land . Atti mode kept popping up near condo while warming up. Is it full operator control on atti mode? Sorry if I'm stealing your post . I'm kinda new to this site. I'm having a hard time finding where I can make my own post.

If you lose GPS you will automatically be in Atti mode. To manually get there you just toggle the switch on the upper left of the controller. GPS is on the right, Atti in center, and the left is the different flight modes you can choose.

In my limited experience I'll have Atti mode at first while warming up before GPS comes on.
 
Thanks for the responses! It was a very weird situation since it went out right as the plane approached and magically reappeared after it had passed overhead a ways. I will chalk it up as a weird coincidence. I am definitely going to start practicing in ATTI mode today actually. That situation got me a little spooked so i figured I would begin to learn in case it happened again.
 
Hi everyone! First post here.

Welcome :)

.... there is a large military base not far away ( more than 10-15 miles).
As the military plane got closer, i suddenly lost all GPS connections. From 16 GPS connections to 0. As the plane flew over and traveled further away from me, my signal seemed to suddenly get restored. I am not sure if that was just an odd coincidence or something else. I am just happy my bird was safely landed and not 400' in the air when it happened.

Keep in mind that Military Operations can and do happen in areas spontaneously even more so knowing you're less than 20 miles from a military base. Be very careful with your aerial endeavors.

Also it's important to note that military operations are notorious to "interfering" with civilian GPS signals. Most of the time you can see them by reviewing the NOTAMS in your area. It's VERY important to know what NOTAMS are, how to find them and more importantly how to read/interpret them.
 
Thank u for the quick response. The only issue I keep having all day is weak transmission signal after only 8000 ft out . 300 ft high, no obstruction. Over the Gulf of Mexico. Making me really nervous so I stayed close. I recently got my p3p back from DJI for warranty camera replacement. Right about the time the new update came out. I'm unsure if they installed new update for me and I haven't checked. I got down here to florida on vacation and it keeps telling me RC controller needs update. I'm assuming I don't have new updates installed .
 
i suddenly lost all GPS connections. From 16 GPS connections to 0.

With 16 satellites you were receiving both GPS and GLONASS (Russian) positioning information.

Coincidence on the fly-by.
.

Sagebrush
 
It is possible for military missions to interfere with commercial GPS.
I was involved working in Virginia after hurricane Isabel. We were working in an area very near an Air-Force and a Navy base. Many things we were doing involved the use of handheld GPS units. EVERY TIME we saw military planes in the air, the handheld units stopped working.
This happened many many times over a couple week period.
 
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You can fly without a gps lock, it is not like you would have immediatley dropped from the sky had you not landed when you did. You should practice flying in Atti mode just to get the feel for how it handles just in case you ever lose GPS again.
I started flying drones stick only. No GPS. No VPS. Just a 6-axis Gyro and some skill.
 
Interesting, the military aircraft may be using electronic equipment onboard that renders GPS in the citizen band inoperable for X distance around them. Would make them safer from persons using GPS as a weapon. A good rule of warfare, don't give the enemy any items to attack you with.

I will have to test this next time I am near an AFB.




Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app
 
If the military is jamming GPS you'll be notified like they did in June. In that case they were more likely testing their ability to overcome the jamming.

They do not jam GPS willy-nilly as they fly around their bases and such.

It would seem they'd be more likely to jam the enemy's nav system rather than their own.
 

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