When to Calibrate Compass?

[hawkeye62]

I have read advice to calibrate the compass every tie you fly from a different location. And I have seen advice to avoid compass calibration once you have a "good" calibration. The argument for not calibrating is that you may mess up a "good" calibration. So, what should I believe? If I have a "good" calibration from a location with wide open spaces, no buildings, no cell towers, no masses of metal, no steel fences, etc. and I want to fly in a different location within a few miles of where my "good" calibration was done, should I calibrate or not?

Thanks for any advice.

Regards, Jim

 

[msinger]

Check out this thread.

 

[dirkclod]

When I do do one I do it like this .
Works great

 

[hawkeye62]

Check out this thread.

Great thread! If not already, should be a sticky somewhere!

Regards, Jim

 

[m0j0]

No you should not calibrate. My experience has been that once you have a good calibration leave it alone unless you travel 100+ miles away or significantly change the environment you are flying. Eg. Desert to mountainous etc.. Read the thread above for more details and learn how to monitor mod values.

 

[hawkeye62]

When I do do one I do it like this .
Works great
View attachment 49569

I didn't know selfies were allowed here.

Jim

 

[Tony Cowan]

I didn't know selfies were allowed here.

Jim

Lmao


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[alokbhargava]

Thumb rule: Calibrate compass if you are away from the last flying site but ensure there are no magnetic material around.

 

[dirkclod]

I didn't know selfies were allowed here.

Jim

Yep

 

[Auusie_P3S_pilot]

Ok So a confused guy question, scenario
I fly at home first time, I calibrate.
I fly at a different location say 50 miles away, (80kms for us metric users ) I calibrate
I fly at home again, do I calibrate?

 

[msinger]

I fly at home again, do I calibrate?

Yes.

 

[Meta4]

Ok So a confused guy question, scenario
I fly at home first time, I calibrate.
I fly at a different location say 50 miles away, (80kms for us metric users ) I calibrate
I fly at home again, do I calibrate?

Aussie ... you'll be fine for much greater distances up and down the east coast with just your calibration done near home.
80 km is nothing.
Get a good calibration and stick with it.

 

[NRJ]

When I do do one I do it like this .
Works great
View attachment 49569

Hey, that's the way I dance. I guess next time, I will just pick up my drone and calibrate it while I dance. Ahahaha! Thanks for the laugh.

 

[Auusie_P3S_pilot]

Aussie ... you'll be fine for much greater distances up and down the east coast with just your calibration done near home.
80 km is nothing.
Get a good calibration and stick with it.

Ok,
So no need to calibrate unless I'm in a location with different terrain or a few 100 Kms from home.

 

[Meta4]

Ok,
So no need to calibrate unless I'm in a location with different terrain or a few 100 Kms from home.

To illustrate for you .. I've calibrated not far from your location and flown +/- 200 km away with no issues.
I've also flown at Newcastle and Gladstone without recalibrating and with no issues.
I went 2000 km to southern Tasmania and recalibrated, flew a bit there and came home and forgot to recalibrate ... but had no problems.

But every week I see issues on the forum caused by people who feel they have to calibrate-every-time and do it in the wrong place making things a lot worse for them like this guy did:

Anywhere within half a day's drive you'll be fine.

 

[RedHotPoker]

I never calibrate the compass if moving from location to location.
Only after firmware and Go app updates. I have travelled close to 75miles out one way, of my home area, and never needed to calibrate the compass, nor upon my return back to the capital city. As part of my routine preflight check, I look at the numbers and want to see something between 1300~1500. Otherwise I might be sceptical, and want to recalibrate. So far, all has been great. No issues and nothing to report in the negatives column.

RedHotPoker

 

[m0j0]

Ok So a confused guy question, scenario
I fly at home first time, I calibrate.
I fly at a different location say 50 miles away, (80kms for us metric users ) I calibrate
I fly at home again, do I calibrate?

You don't need to. I do that almost every day. I have a solid calibration I don't fuss with the calibration for 50 miles. I drive 80 miles away and don't even think about a calibration. Check your mod values and leave it alone.


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[Auusie_P3S_pilot]

To illustrate for you .. I've calibrated not far from your location and flown +/- 200 km away with no issues.
I've also flown at Newcastle and Gladstone without recalibrating and with no issues.
I went to southern Tasmania and recalibrated, flew a bit there and came home and forgot to recalibrate ... but had no problems.

But every week I see issues on the forum caused by people who feel they have to calibrate-every-time and do it in the wrong place making things a lot worse for them like this guy did:

Anywhere within half a day's drive you'll be fine.

Awesome thanks for the info, certainly cleared my greyed out head a bit
Awesome pic of the William St + Alice St construction site BTW. I drive past it every day and think it would make a great drone pic.

 

[m0j0]

Ok,
So no need to calibrate unless I'm in a location with different terrain or a few 100 Kms from home.

Correct


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[Meta4]

Awesome thanks for the info, certainly cleared my greyed out head a bit
Awesome pic of the William St + Alice St construction site BTW. I drive past it every day and think it would make a great drone pic.

Yes ... I looked at 1 William St for 6 months thinking it would be a good subject but wondered where to launch from.
Try the tiny park beside the Maritime Museum.