sharpy1071 Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 Went flying Tues 17th March in the afternoon at local Council flying field with a couple of friends. One flys a glider equipted with GPS tracking, camera etc. He switched everthing on and started his checks for operation of way points and other things. Nothing, just return to home worked on GPS but had full control of the gliders surfaces and motor. Sattelites were showing and a picture was being transmitted. We fiddled about and check range and decided to go for a manual operated flight without gps but it was still switched on. Flew very successfully but the GPS signal got worse, the picture was still transmitting beautifully. Went home and he has an App on the phone for solar activitey, he tried it and lo,and,behold high activity! That evening and next day checked out GPS everything back to normal. Did anyone else suffer this on Tuesday? I wonder what would have happened if I was flying my Quadcopter and this happened. Obviously to the Rivet Counters out there if I hadn't got full count of satellites i wouldn't have taken off anyway, but it could have happened whilst flying. Out of interest also my Futaba radio didn't work correctly for my motor glider, next day it all worked correctly. Some of the setting were as if they were switched off then came back on Wed morning. Edited By sharpy1071 on 19/03/2015 08:38:01 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 Ah - interesting! We were out yesterday (Wednesday) with the drones at work trying to do a precision survey job and had a lot of GPS drop-out incidents. Apparently on, I think, the 14th March there was a massive coronal flare from the sun and on Tuesday night the aurora borealis were visible as far south as us - see here. So yes - I guess the two events were linked. The GPS signal is a very weak one. Its unlikely to be noticeable with car GPS systems as a) they tend to gloss over any temporary signal loss and b) they only usually need 4-5 satellites to keep going anyway. But our systems are set at a minimum of 6 satellites and when you are 'station holding' using differential GPS its really noticeable when the signal goes down! The drone starts wandering off! BEB PS No radio problems though - just GPS Edited By Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator on 19/03/2015 10:05:26 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Hopkin Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 Cant find it now, but I am sure I saw an article on the BBC News Web Site predicting that the solar flare would cause disruption to GPS signals....... maybe I was dreaming I dont know!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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