best practice for lost GPS signal

[Ideaman2]

If you have been flying for awhile like me you most likely have gotten the dreaded "GPS signal lost" screen on your transmitter. My question to the seasoned pilots is
what is the best practice to do when this happens after the heart skips a beat or two and possible foul language come out. I have either let go of the sticks, prayed and waited to regain the signal, climbed ASAP to by some time or tried to land if the area was clear, which of course most of the time it was not...
All tips and experiences appreciated!

 

[AH-1G]

This happens to me very little, but when it does I drink ES EQUIS. Just kidding.
Usually it goes away, but I just hit the home tab on the monitor or return tab.
Not the return to home toggle switch.

 

[AeroJ]

No, don't take your hands off the sticks ! Now is the time to leave them right where they are and control the drift with the right stick until GPS returns. You could also drop throttle a little to try and get out of the wind, or alternatively raise it to get more height and maybe GPS back. The error message will disappear on its own when GPS returns, no pilot interaction required ! Hopefully it won't be long.

 

[PatR]

AeroJ nailed it! When GPS takes a hike is when you absolutely must be on the sticks to maintain directional control. She will start drifting with the wind if you don’t and you will be amazed at how much faster the wind will be blowing high off the ground. When an aircraft can no longer depend on the auto pilot to maintain position is not the time you want it to fly itself. Fundamental rule of aviation; (1) aviate, (2) navigate, (3) communicate. Second tenant of aviation; when things go really bad, always control the aircraft as far through a crash as possible. Doing those assures the pilot is always the one in control.

 

[Eagle's Eye Video]

Certainly if you are in the vicinity of obstructions, gain altitude to not drift into those obstructions... then as @AeroJ and @PatR have eloquently suggested...

 

[BigAl07]

If you have been flying for awhile like me

then you say

I have either let go of the sticks, prayed and waited to regain the signal

With all due respect that's the last thing a "seasoned" sUAS operator would do and also the last thing a rookie should do.

When you lose GPS signal you lose the aircraft's "holding ability" and it starts to drift with the wind (and quickly usually). The higher you are the higher the likelihood is for significant winds. A randomly drifting sUAS is the LAST thing you want and if not corrected it could drift into trouble or out of Tx/Rx range. Remember you have no GPS signal so the ability for the aircraft to find it's way home is also eliminated.

You want to have full control of the aircraft and maintain position or at the very least avoid obstacles and make your way home. Stay in control until you either land the aircraft of the GPS signal is restored.

EDIT: I see I should have read the WHOLE thread as my post is now painfully redundant to the posts above LOL

 

[BigAl07]

Fundamental rule of aviation; (1) aviate, (2) navigate, (3) communicate. Second tenant of aviation; when things go really bad, always control the aircraft as far through a crash as possible. Doing those assures the pilot is always the one in control.

Spoken like a true seasoned aviator!!

Fly the thing until she will no longer fly.....

 

[DCH]

This is all great advice.

For me GPS control is a blessing and a curse. I'm an old-school UAV pilot and honestly I haven't gotten over my distrust for GPS control yet, so when it drops out I breathe a sigh of relief!!

I am building my GPS trust so I can also manage camera functions, but it's a slow process. I have high functioning autism and I literally can't do more than 2 things at once, controlling the sticks is a full time job, forget about the camera.

Like PatR says

(1) aviate, (2) navigate, (3) communicate.

But my creed is 1) Aviate, 2)Aviate, 3)Navigate, I can't communicate and aviate at the same time!

 

[PatR]

Depending on the severity of the situation, communication should always be the first to go[emoji106]. Most will manage to mutter a few expletives though.

 

[record.play.rewind]

What has been noted. Do not keep your fingers off the sticks. Don’t panic, and guide the drone back.

 

[record.play.rewind]

REST IN PEACE
REST IN PEACE

 

[NorWiscPilot]

Another "pilot" tenant, as @PatR has started the list... Be Prepared!

If you are still panicking about the chance of GPS failing, or are panicking WHEN it fails, then you are not prepared to handle the situation.

The remedy? Practice!

Keep monitoring your local weather forecast. When you see a wind prediction being "light and variable," take advantage. Find yourself that wide open field, send up your UAV, and turn off the GPS. Learn how to fly it without GPS and see how she behaves. The key is "start your flight with GPS enabled". This should allow you to turn GPS back on if you feel you need to.

Build up your confidence a flight at a time. Before you know it, you can fly these training missions in increasingly more windy conditions. Then, if the unplanned GPS failure occurs, you will calmly fly your craft, perhaps not even thinking about terminating your flight, but rather enjoying it even more!

Good luck!

Jeff

 

[Ren57]

Learn how to fly it without GPS and see how she behaves.

Absolutely! Learn how to fly with the GPS off. It's fun, trust me...... You should learn how to fly with the GPS off as a matter of course. Then, when it drops out whilst you're flying, it's no biggie and you're right on it straight away.

 

[Dru Watters]

Another "pilot" tenant, as @PatR has started the list... Be Prepared!

If you are still panicking about the chance of GPS failing, or are panicking WHEN it fails, then you are not prepared to handle the situation.

The remedy? Practice!

Keep monitoring your local weather forecast. When you see a wind prediction being "light and variable," take advantage. Find yourself that wide open field, send up your UAV, and turn off the GPS. Learn how to fly it without GPS and see how she behaves. The key is "start your flight with GPS enabled". This should allow you to turn GPS back on if you feel you need to.

Build up your confidence a flight at a time. Before you know it, you can fly these training missions in increasingly more windy conditions. Then, if the unplanned GPS failure occurs, you will calmly fly your craft, perhaps not even thinking about terminating your flight, but rather enjoying it even more!

Good luck!

Jeff

That is exactly what I'm teaching myself. learning to fly with no electronic stabilization. (like in my ole heli days). Not panicking is the most important step.

 

[Ideaman2]

Thanks for all the great advice Pilots, much appreciated!

 

[Ideaman2]

Absolutely! Learn how to fly with the GPS off. It's fun, trust me...... You should learn how to fly with the GPS off as a matter of course. Then, when it drops out whilst you're flying, it's no biggie and you're right on it straight away.

Totally agree.. have you seen and "good" training / how to videos for sale or online on flying w/o GPS ? Have found a few but not very good..

 

[HJL]

From what I see no one really stated what happens to the drone when GPS is lost. When GPS is lost the drone if it is going right will continue going right and you need to apply opposite control, this happens with all controls so your hands are on the sticks always. It's not terribly difficult but different from flying with GPS and all you do is let the sticks go back to the middle and it just stops. I would recommend all drone flyers turn off their GPS in a safe area and experience what I have said before they learn the hard way.

 

[Eagle's Eye Video]

Totally agree.. have you seen and "good" training / how to videos for sale or online on flying w/o GPS ? Have found a few but not very good..

The best training is a combination of:

A) A simple micro quad, such as

Blade Nano QX

which inherently has, both the combination of low cost and no GPS and

B) practicing the techniques demonstrated in @Ty Pilot's thread on

Visual Flight Training

 

[PatR]

From what I see no one really stated what happens to the drone when GPS is lost.

Short version is the way it flies changes very little unless it was in a stationary hover or flying a programmed mission. The controls all function the same.

If in a hover when GPS fails it will not remain over a selected location, it will continue to hover at that altitude but drift in the direction and at the speed the wind is blowing. If flying a CCC mission it will not turn at a waypoint. We don’t really know what direction it will go when achieving a CCC waypoint so we must assume manual directional control. For all intents and purposes a CCC mission is terminated when GPS fails.

Never flip into Home mode during a GPS failure. When GPS fails the aircraft no longer knows where it is, or where it’s going. Like a rolling car with nobody at the wheel it goes where the road (wind) takes it.

Manually turning off GPS increases the max speed of an H quite a bit. Be prepared to fly a lot faster during those times.

The H is both stable and easy to fly when GPS fails or is turned off, but you do have to be telling it where to go and guide it accordingly.

 

[NorWiscPilot]

From what I see no one really stated what happens to the drone when GPS is lost. When GPS is lost the drone if it is going right will continue going right and you need to apply opposite control, this happens with all controls so your hands are on the sticks always. It's not terribly difficult but different from flying with GPS and all you do is let the sticks go back to the middle and it just stops. I would recommend all drone flyers turn off their GPS in a safe area and experience what I have said before they learn the hard way.

Pretty much stated in post #12... “turn off GPS and learn how she behaves.”

[emoji41]