UAV Forcast for today Thursday October 8, 2015

[JKDSensei]

Not sure how many of you guys follow (or heed the advice of) the UAV forcast but for Florida at least it's higher today that usual.

UAV Weather Forecast

Sitting around 6 or 7 for most of the day.
Figures, finally clear, sunny and little wind....but higher than normal EMF activity <sighs>

 

[JKDSensei]

I just checked my android GPS app called "GPS Test"

It is showing the lowest GPS count I have seen in quite a while. At least here where I am.
Only 1 or 2 green bars. I usually get 4 or 5.

Coincidence? Maybe.

It's a great day to fly drones ....at least my Syma X5C that is. No compass....no GPS.

 

[Meta4]

Not sure how many of you guys follow (or heed the advice of) the UAV forcast but for Florida at least it's higher today that usual.
UAV Weather Forecast
Sitting around 6 or 7 for most of the day.
Figures, finally clear, sunny and little wind....but higher than normal EMF activity <sighs>

And it will have no impact at all on flying your Phantom.
The sky is not falling.

 

[JKDSensei]

And it will have no impact at all on flying your Phantom.
The sky is not falling.

Can you list your credentials that support your assessment?
You may be right. But many say it can.
Maybe you work for NASA or teach astrophysics?

Or is it just your "opinion"?

I've read probably every post here related and the answer is clearly not here. There are other "opinions" however. One or two are pretty good.

 

[dirkclod]

Have been flying over a year and has never slowed me down . I just don't fly in the yard but go out for long runs . Have
done it on days where folks here say Don't fly !!!!!! I do it just to see if it matter's and never has me . Maybe it's because of where I'm at but just saying it has never been an issue for me .
The only credentials I have is from flying .

 

[JKDSensei]

You sir a king of silly

I read somewhere that it's a hit or miss thing. Kinda like the magnetic waves are a big broiling pot and so you could have no issues on one side of town and everyone flying RC aircraft on the other side of town could get knocked down.

Forgot exactly where I read that but it's great that you've never had a problem and that will hopefully continue. I did read of a few Phantoms down in the last two days. Just wondering if it could be related. Probably hard to tell. Personally, I'm not gonna go grey(er) worrying about it but it is interesting.

Oh...another thing...the P1 and P2 I believe do not use Glonass sats so GPS interference might not affect the P3 or updated GPS Phantoms as much.

 

[dirkclod]

Well thank ya sir Da king....I like that
I really have never had any issue's with it and might be just like you say. I dono .

I've been seeing them going down also but have been since I've been here . Mostly from PE .
Think I will go burn a battery and check it out .
Need to check out the new update anyway .
Scuse me while I kiss da sky.........

 

[JKDSensei]

I think there were some DJI folks over at the DJI Phantom official forum today who were saying it probably wasn't a good idea to fly when the Kp is 7 or above. Lots of conflicting info out but at the end of the day.....to each his own. No evidence either way. But we do know for a fact that geomagnetic activity can in fact affect GPS and compass. There can be no argument there.

Probably a small risk.

I probably won't fly when the Kp in my area is over 6 Just erring on the side of caution.

 

[Meta4]

Can you list your credentials that support your assessment?
You may be right. But many say it can.
Maybe you work for NASA or teach astrophysics?

Or is it just your "opinion"?

I've read probably every post here related and the answer is clearly not here. There are other "opinions" however. One or two are pretty good.

A science degree and an inquiring mind, plus two years flying and reading thousands of posts in which there was no identifiable impact of solar flares on flying. I have also used GPS for work for ~20 years and closely observed its accuracy in all conditions.
The potential issues are hyped and not borne out by reality.
Likely effects of severe solar storms are a small degradation of GPS accuracy that would make little difference to your flying.

 

[JKDSensei]

ok. thanks for your input.
So you would ignore even 8 or 9 Kp ?

 

[LuvMyTJ]

ok. thanks for your input.
So you would ignore even 8 or 9 Kp ?

There was a 8 or 9 last year, no problems. I have never heard of a single issue flying a Phantom is any level of kp index. My opinion is until it effects large groups of devices of all types I am not going to worry about it. It's a non-issue. So go fly a quad!

 

[JKDSensei]

Hard to argue with a PhantomPilot moderator. You guys do know a heck of a lot
And that's not what I'm doing. Just confused at all the different info out there.

Believe me, I didn't pull this out of my arse. Maybe I read and research too much.
Pinning a crash or fly away to a solar event might be difficult. True.
The more you research, the less clarity....

DJI Phantom GPS - Check the Kp-index - Drone UAV

If it's that rare...then it's probably a negligible concern as you say.

 

[dirkclod]

 

[JKDSensei]

View attachment 33089

Excellent movie. Loved it.
Wasn't that from an O2 tank exploding after being "stirred" and not a solar related event?

 

[dirkclod]

Don't know but will ask !

 

[JKDSensei]

For your viewing pleasure

 

[dirkclod]

Whoops ....

 

[ianwood]

So much bad information on K index. As has been said, it really is not a big deal. And there are exactly zero crashes that I've heard of that can be positively attributed to it. There are several reasons why:

- Absolute vs. relative positioning
- Low rate of change in ionospheric drift
- D-GPS drift correction
- Enhanced accuracy of multi-constellation receivers (P3 only)

And if ever in the unlikely event you saw a significant GPS jump, you simply switch to ATTI.