The number might often be 9 or 10, but it won't always and you can't count on it
In the 10 months that I've been flying...all from the same location...it has always been 9 or 10.
Every time.
I don't "count on it" in the sense of making any decisions based on the count. Waiting to get enough signal to fly is like watching paint dry, and the sat count gives me a very reliable indication of how quickly that's progressing. I don't take off until the Fly Lady says Go...which has,
in every case, been with 9 or 10 sats.
I'm not saying that the sat count
determines when that happens, but in my actual conditions, it's an entirely reliable indicator of
when that's going to happen.
And sometimes that will take more than 10 sats, because the number of sats is irrelevant (as long as there are >6).
You're talking about theory, and I'm talking about observation. In theory, you are correct. In my actual flight conditions it's a very reliable
indicator. Which, NB, is very different from saying it's the
cause.
Watch the GPS icon on screen .. when it changes colour to white, then you have good GPS and a homepoint.
I always do. And, as a matter of
observation, I get 9 or 10 sats, and it turns from red to white, and the Fly Lady says Go, all happens at the same time.
Observations can't falsify the real explanation, and the real explanation can't falsify observations.
TCS