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Type of satellites needed for flight

AndrewS

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I was going to head-out for a flight with my EP2 today however UAV Forecast is registering "not good to fly." One of the factors indicating poor conditions is number of satellites locked. With the GLONASS satellites setting dialed in, I'm only getting 9.6 locked satellites at my desired location. Evidently this is inadequate. But if I turn on Galileo satellites in settings, the number of locked satellites jumps to 14.6 and I'm good to go. So, I guess I'm not clear which type of satellite is relevant for flight conditions for the EP2. Does the EP2 rely on both types or just one?
 
I was going to head-out for a flight with my EP2 today however UAV Forecast is registering "not good to fly." One of the factors indicating poor conditions is number of satellites locked. With the GLONASS satellites setting dialed in, I'm only getting 9.6 locked satellites at my desired location. Evidently this is inadequate. But if I turn on Galileo satellites in settings, the number of locked satellites jumps to 14.6 and I'm good to go. So, I guess I'm not clear which type of satellite is relevant for flight conditions for the EP2. Does the EP2 rely on both types or just one?

It uses whatever it can find. I'd delete that app and just fly. In over 7yrs of flying I've never had an issue getting enough satellites to fly and I've flown all over the world. Now I have had a few locations where there were too many buildings, for those scenarios a few hundred feet in any direction usually fixed the issue.
 
I was going to head-out for a flight with my EP2 today however UAV Forecast is registering "not good to fly." One of the factors indicating poor conditions is number of satellites locked. With the GLONASS satellites setting dialed in, I'm only getting 9.6 locked satellites at my desired location. Evidently this is inadequate. But if I turn on Galileo satellites in settings, the number of locked satellites jumps to 14.6 and I'm good to go. So, I guess I'm not clear which type of satellite is relevant for flight conditions for the EP2. Does the EP2 rely on both types or just one?

I really don’t understand why that is even a feature of that app! It’s 100% useless! Unless you are in a location where you have an obstructed view to the sky, you will have enough satellites!

Also, if you wanted to fly, why didn’t you just take your drone outside and turn it on to see what it says?
 
I really don’t understand why that is even a feature of that app! It’s 100% useless! Unless you are in a location where you have an obstructed view to the sky, you will have enough satellites!

Also, if you wanted to fly, why didn’t you just take your drone outside and turn it on to see what it says?

A lot of phone apps are some form of spyware, so when you look at it from that angle......the app might be very useful to the developers of the app; but for all other purposes it does sound absolutely useless.
 
Bear in mind that UAV Forecast also lists Kp which can ruin your flying day. Here's what NOAA says Kp is for:
"The K-index, and by extension the Planetary K-index, are used to characterize the magnitude of geomagnetic storms. Kp is an excellent indicator of disturbances in the Earth's magnetic field and is used by SWPC to decide whether geomagnetic alerts and warnings need to be issued for users who are affected by these disturbances." It's my understanding that our drone compass is effected by disturbances in the earth's magnetic field.
 
drone compass is effected by disturbances in the earth's magnetic field.
Only been at this a year so;
the only problem the compass has is ferrous material messing with the fux lines, IF the RC says "good to fly", fly. Trying to calculate a micro-burst from 92 million miles away will yield about the same odds as a random bird on a random day deciding to attack orange bird. Buy a lottery ticket when that happens :cool:
 
Correction: solar flares can mess with your GPS, not your compass (as I indicated above). Electromagnetic radiation reaching earth from solar flares is real. We've all seen those graphics of solar flare radiation been directed towards the poles by the earth's magnetic field. That's why you see more aurora borealis in the far north and more aurora australis in the far south. For drone pilots, it primarily effects GPS positioning accuracy in high-latitude areas (northern and southern). While not usually much of a problem, we should be cautious when the Kp index gets unusually high. We may end up flying without GPS. And, no, I don't think it has happened to me in the 5 years I've been flying drones. Or, maybe that explains the peculiar behavior I saw back in.....;)
 
Correction: solar flares can mess with your GPS, not your compass (as I indicated above). Electromagnetic radiation reaching earth from solar flares is real. We've all seen those graphics of solar flare radiation been directed towards the poles by the earth's magnetic field. That's why you see more aurora borealis in the far north and more aurora australis in the far south. For drone pilots, it primarily effects GPS positioning accuracy in high-latitude areas (northern and southern). While not usually much of a problem, we should be cautious when the Kp index gets unusually high. We may end up flying without GPS. And, no, I don't think it has happened to me in the 5 years I've been flying drones. Or, maybe that explains the peculiar behavior I saw back in.....;)

I've never encountered GPS interference in the 3-4 years I've been flying drones but I have seen EM events play havoc on GPS at my job. I work with mobile auto-pointing satellite antennas and have seen a handful of units go bonkers because interference to the GPS. Mostly it's solar but there is a spot somewhere around the Wilks Barre/Scranton, PA area where there is some sort of localized issue.
 

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