UAV Forecast and your Drone

[wings]

Took the H to a new location next to a large lake. Flew there before with the Q with no problem. I let the bird sit for quite a while but it seemed to have difficulty obtaining more than about 11 Sats on the bird and 9 or 10 on the Transmitter. Moved around in a different location about 50 ft away but never got more than about 12 on the bird and 10 or 11 on controller. Something told me not to fly. Another thing was that when we picked the bird up to move it I would get the warning GPS Lost. Would quickly go away. Another sign to me that maybe I should not fly.
Took the H up to my house and found that I could get 16 Sats on bird and 12 on Trans. Flew it around but felt it was a little herky jerky especially during the landing. So I checked the UAV forecast which I attached and noticed that it did NOT recommend flying. Low Sat reception. How good is the UAV forecast? For tomorrow it has a lot of No FLy in it which looks to be primarily due to cloud cover. How can cloud cover be a problem for Sats. Something was going on today. KP index was less than 5. What do you think.

 

[DoomMeister]

You can change the setting for cloud cover in the settings of UAV Forecast. It really has little to do with GPS reception unless it is active cloud cover (rain, lightning, etc). The Kp index has a lot more to do with GPS reception and the 5’s are bordering on a no go situation.

 

[Dustoff]

what does the kip stand for

 

[DoomMeister]

Kp has to do with the solar flare activity that plays havoc in the Earth’s magnetosphere. The higher the Kp, the more likely to have problems with maintaining good GPS lock.

 

[FlushVision]

Took the H to a new location next to a large lake. Flew there before with the Q with no problem. I let the bird sit for quite a while but it seemed to have difficulty obtaining more than about 11 S.
ats on the bird and 9 or 10 on the Transmitter. Moved around in a different location about 50 ft away but never got more than about 12 on the bird and 10 or 11 on controller. Something told me not to fly. Another thing was that when we picked the bird up to move it I would get the warning GPS Lost. Would quickly go away. Another sign to me that maybe I should not fly.
Took the H up to my house and found that I could get 16 Sats on bird and 12 on Trans. Flew it around but felt it was a little herky jerky especially during the landing. So I checked the UAV forecast which I attached and noticed that it did NOT recommend flying. Low Sat reception. How good is the UAV forecast? For tomorrow it has a lot of No FLy in it which looks to be primarily due to cloud cover. How can cloud cover be a problem for Sats. Something was going on today. KP index was less than 5. What do you think.

Just a thought. The place where you had some difficulty obtaining a good number of satellites seen...was it anywhere near any hills or structures. Taking off near to a hill or building can cause what is known as a 'GPS Mask'. For example, at the place you were at you may only get 10 satellites, say, but 100 yards down the road that could turn into 18.

Since you were next to a lake that suggests that you wasn't suffering from the mask in the direction of the lake...but was there a hill next to it?

I was flying yesterday near to high ground on Norden Moor...essentially at the foot of a low cliff. For my neck of the woods I can normally expect to get 18+ satellites seen but yesterday it struggled to see 16. Obviously that high ground nearby was stopping the aircraft seeing a couple of satellites.

 

[wings]

Just a thought. The place where you had some difficulty obtaining a good number of satellites seen...was it anywhere near any hills or structures. Taking off near to a hill or building can cause what is known as a 'GPS Mask'. For example, at the place you were at you may only get 10 satellites, say, but 100 yards down the road that could turn into 18.

Since you were next to a lake that suggests that you wasn't suffering from the mask in the direction of the lake...but was there a hill next to it?

I was flying yesterday near to high ground on Norden Moor...essentially at the foot of a low cliff. For my neck of the woods I can normally expect to get 18+ satellites seen but yesterday it struggled to see 16. Obviously that high ground nearby was stopping the aircraft seeing a couple of satellites.

There was a hill next to me and tree canopy. That might have been responsible.

 

[Steve Carr]

Hills, trees, building, clouds with high moisture content and solar activity can affect the signal from Satellites. If I don't see at least 15 on the H then I am reluctant to fly. This is the recommendation from Yuneec:

 

[FlushVision]

There was a hill next to me and tree canopy. That might have been responsible.

That hill and trees would certainly have had an impact.

 

[wings]

Hills, trees, building, clouds with high moisture content and solar activity can affect the signal from Satellites. If I don't see at least 15 on the H then I am reluctant to fly. This is the recommendation from Yuneec:

View attachment 10101

Steve; Is that 15 0n both the Controller and drone?

 

[Steve Carr]

Steve; Is that 15 0n both the Controller and drone?

15 sats on the H. 7 or more on the ST16. That's just my preference and not a requirement.

 

[wings]

Thanks Steve!

 

[FlushVision]

15 sats on the H. 7 or more on the ST16. That's just my preference and not a requirement.

My preference is 15 on the aircraft and at least 10 on the ST16. In practice I seldom get less than 16 on the aircraft and 14 on the ST16. I won't take off at less than 15 on the aircraft and, to date, I've never had to abort a take off with the H because of a satellite count.

Incidentally, I was flying my P2V+ yesterday doing a shoot of an ancient pack horse bridge whose location was in a valley a few hundred yards North of a major motorway (the M62) which runs along the southern ridge of the valley. Two flights and the first one I was getting a steady 9 satellites. But on the second flight my satellite count fluctuated between 3 and 9 although at the time of take off I had the 9. With this aircraft you essentially lose satellite aid once the count falls below 6 and the aircraft enters ATTI mode. So for much of the flight I was flying in manual mode. Not a problem to me since I'm experienced enough not to have to rely on satellites, but if I would have seen less than 6 satellites at the moment of take off I would have either moved to another location a few yards away, or not taken off. It's one thing to be able to fly without enough satellites but with an aircraft as old as the P2V+ the failsafe RTH won't work should something go wrong with the control signal.

 

[Emisis]

First post, have been lurking until I purchased the H.
I use UAV Forecast along with the Polar Pro app on my phone. If you haven't used it- Has sunrise and sunset times (time until either and duration) Local temperature, Wind speed and direction, KP risk in addition to camera filter recommended for your camera. Pretty useful to me.

 

[wings]

First post, have been lurking until I purchased the H.
I use UAV Forecast along with the Polar Pro app on my phone. If you haven't used it- Has sunrise and sunset times (time until either and duration) Local temperature, Wind speed and direction, KP risk in addition to camera filter recommended for your camera. Pretty useful to me.

Thank you.

 

[rdonson]

@Emisis UAV Forecast is quite good. You might also want to add B4UFLY to you phone if you're in the US.

 

[Emisis]

@rdonson I had B4UFLY, didn't care for it actually. I use Kittyhawk along with Polar Pro. I check UAV Forecast before I leave home and update as needed from an iPad. (I have DJI drones too) I have one local airfield I keep in contact with and let them know when I'm flying. I even give them my longitude and latitude reminding them I will be no higher than 400' and VLOS when flying. Even gave them my phone # in the case they need me to stop flying if I am in or close to an area where they are crop dusting.