What to do about compass calibration in a city when travelling? (No empty field available)

[niclariv]

I plan on doing a lot of travel with my drone, and won't always be in good areas to calibrate (for example try to find an empty field in Rome - not that I've checked the drone law there yet). I know you are supposed to calibrate every time you move over a certain distance - but the instructions aren't clear. For example, in the initial instructions it doesn't say that you need to calibrate the first time you use your drone - and it's travelled from China. When I first got my drone it didn't prompt me to calibrate, though I did anyway. The instructions also say to calibrate if you've travelled a long distance, but it doesn't specify what counts as a long distance.

So my questions are:
1) does anyone have an official answer on how far you need to travel to need to calibrate? (I've seen some answers online but nothing from an official source, and the answers are different.. and I think I've seen some people on this forum say they never calibrated out of the box.

2) if there's no open field (everything's paved or brick or something) and you want to get a shot after travelling a big distance, what do you do? Still try to calibrate, or just go for it if you don't get any compass errors before takeoff?

Basically what I'm trying to avoid is flying to Europe from Canada, launching in a location like a pedestrian plaza in a city, and experiencing TBE or other loss of control. Will the DJI Go app reliably warn me that I need to calibrate, or is there a chance that I travel that big distance, can't find a good empty space to calibrate in, DJI Go doesn't give a warning so I launch, and disaster?

Let's not get in to the legality of flying in a city here. This is all hypothetical based on the local laws being ok with me flying in whatever location I'm launching from. This thread is only about compass calibration in less than perfect areas after travel and preventing loss of control.

Thanks for your help! I know some of you have done a lot of travel with your Mavic's and I bet you've had to figure this one out.

Nick


iPhone 6S

 

[Logger]

What to do about compass calibration in a city when travelling? (No empty field available)

Nothing. Don't calibrate.
Turn on RC, Turn on Mavic. Start app. Wait. When everything comes online if there are no warnings go and fly. Simple.

OTOH if you do get a warning to re calibrate your compass, you may find you can clear it simply by moving the Mavic a few feet, or turning it 90 degrees to alter the compass orientation and the interference reading. Chances are this will fix it. Having done that and still getting a re calibrate compass message if it were me, I would probably try to find a clear area to calibrate or not fly at that location.

But that's just me. I cart my Mavic all around the place on transcontinental flights. I have only calibrated the compass once on day 1 in 330 flights and 3 months of flying.

 

[niclariv]

What to do about compass calibration in a city when travelling? (No empty field available)

Nothing. Don't calibrate.
Turn on RC, Turn on Mavic. Start app. Wait. When everything comes online if there are no warnings go and fly. Simple.

OTOH if you do get a warning to re calibrate your compass, you may find you can clear it simply by moving the Mavic a few feet, or turning it 90 degrees to alter the compass orientation and the interference reading. Chances are this will fix it. Having done that and still getting a re calibrate compass message if it were me, I would probably try to find a clear area to calibrate or not fly at that location.

But that's just me. I cart my Mavic all around the place on transcontinental flights. I have only calibrated the compass once on day 1 in 330 flights and 3 months of flying.

Awesome, thanks!! That's good news for making it easier to pick up and go when I arrive at a new location. I really appreciate the info!


iPhone 6S