To all GPS-Enabled Phantom Pilots: Geomagnetic Storm.

[FreeFlyer]

Hi guys... i'm a newbie phantompilot and i'm searching the internet for all the info that i can get. Through my searches, i found an info that i whish to share with all of you: http://origin-www.swpc.noaa.gov/impacts ... ps-systems

Be aware of the geomagnetic storm that can shuffle your's phantoms gps module!!! Expecially if you are flying a Phantom 2 Vision Plus in Phantom mode wich doesn't allow you to disengage the GPS module at all....

I think this was the cause of many flyaways that i have read about...

NOTE: On the homepage of the site that i have linked are also realtime info and forecast of the geomagnetic storms classified in a human-friendly way...

Hope that will help! Bye!

 

[IrishSights]

This is well known and there are frequent threads on on it here. Most serious pilots us an app to show the current K index. Currently its 3

 

[FreeFlyer]

Ooops... sorry for the new topic.

 

[Meta4]

I'm wondering how much this really matters.
I've been using GPS for work ever since it became affordable and never experienced an issue and I've never heard of anyone having GPS problems due to solar flare activity etc. I know it affects a lot of radio transmissions.
But for GPS is it just of academic interest or does it really affect GPS and how?

 

[HarryT]

I'm wondering how much this really matters.
I've been using GPS for work ever since it became affordable and never experienced an issue and I've never heard of anyone having GPS problems due to solar flare activity etc. I know it affects a lot of radio transmissions.
But for GPS is it just of academic interest or does it really affect GPS and how?

It could conceivably affect you if you rely on GPS to get you home. There's an increased chance of losing GPS lock, or (more likely) having reduced GPS accuracy. But for most purposes, having GPS accuracy degraded from, say, 2m to 5m is unlikely to cause problems.

 

[FreeFlyer]

Just yesterday i have read (on another forum) of a flyaway and... yesterday there was a Geomagnetic Storm. I think that this happen only in particular cases. Keep in mind that these values and forecasts are on a global scale. They can't tell you exactly what is happening above your head...

(The flyaway happened as soon as the phantom take off)

 

[HarryT]

(The flyaway happened as soon as the phantom take off)

That generally indicates a compass calibration issue.

If it was a GPS issue, control could be regained simply flipping the S1 switch to ATTI mode.

 

[FreeFlyer]

The user is a very noob and flying a Phantom 2 Vision Plus wich, out of the box, flyes in a simplified mode called Phantom Mode. In this mode you can't regain control because the S1 and S2 switch are disabled (can't switch to ATTI or Manual mode)...

(he did the compass calibration)

 

[ianwood]

Even a severe G3 or higher will not cause a fly away. It causes a degradation of GPS precision. You may notice increased drifting. That is not a flyaway.

 

[cdusher]

Wonder if this could be added to this forum page.
"http://www.n3kl.org/sun/noaa.html"