Rebar in concrete

[Sea Pilot]

Just wondering, if you try to calibrate your compass in an area that has rebar in concrete under foot, if you launch anyway and get high enough where there isn’t any interference, will you still have problems? I calibrated in another area about a mile away and wanted to fly in this different area. I haven’t seen anything like this in any posts and was curious to see if anyone has tried this.

 

[With The Birds]

No. If you calibrate in an are where ferrous metal is influencing the magnetic environment you will have problems when you fly away from the disturbance.

If you have a good calibration leave the compass alone. Calibrating unnecessarily before every flight is a great way to have problems.

 

[Sea Pilot]

No. If you calibrate in an are where ferrous metal is influencing the magnetic environment you will have problems when you fly away from the disturbance.

If you have a good calibration leave the compass alone. Calibrating unnecessarily before every flight is a great way to have problems.

So what you are saying is go ahead in that area where the rebar is without calibrating if I had already calibrated in a good area?

 

[With The Birds]

No. What I am saying is calibrating your compass before every flight is unnecessary and that calibrating in an area with magnetic interference will likely provide for abnrmal flight when you have flown out into clear air.

Launching from reinforced concrete isn’t advised although I do it frequently, hand launching is helpful here and yes things go well once you are clear if the slab.

 

[Sea Pilot]

No. What I am saying is calibrating your compass before every flight is unnecessary and that calibrating in an area with magnetic interference will likely provide for abnrmal flight when you have flown out into clear air.

Launching from reinforced concrete isn’t advised although I do it frequently, hand launching is helpful here and yes things go well once you are clear if the slab.

Thank you so much for your answer. I wasn't clear if once I was up and away from the slab I would be in clean air. Makes sense, thanks again. As far as distance goes, what would you recommend as far as distance goes, to calibrate in another area? I live on an island in southeast Alaska and have only about 16 miles of road.

 

[KongWerks]

Realistically... Calibrate from as far away as you want to fly.
I have flown in Vancouver Canada (west coast) then flown the next day in New York (east coast) and then back in Vancouver a couple of weeks later. No compass re-calibration done. No problems at all.

 

[Meta4]

Just wondering, if you try to calibrate your compass in an area that has rebar in concrete under foot, if you launch anyway and get high enough where there isn’t any interference, will you still have problems? I calibrated in another area about a mile away and wanted to fly in this different area. I haven’t seen anything like this in any posts and was curious to see if anyone has tried this.

NEVER calibrate your compass anywhere near a lot of steel, like a car or reinforced concrete.
Here's what you risk:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

There's no need to mess with your compass anyway.
Just leave it alone like the manual says.

And on the subject of reinforced concrete, NEVER attempt to launch from or land on a steel or reinforced concrete surface.
We've seen too many times what can happen.
Here's a report of one such incident: Looking for Trouble ??

 

[With The Birds]

NEVER calibrate your compass anywhere near a lot of steel, like a car or reinforced concrete.
Here's what you risk:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

There's no need to mess with your compass anyway.
Just leave it alone like the manual says.

And on the subject of reinforced concrete, NEVER attempt to launch from or land on a steel or reinforced concrete surface.
We've seen too many times what can happen.
Here's a report of one such incident: Looking for Trouble ??

Thank you Meta- that’s the video I looked for, very relavent to the OP question. What is interesting is that he calibrated on the pier prior to launch. Things may have been a lot different (likely normal when in the air we’ll clear of the pier) had he launched with a good calibration from another location. That has been my experience. When back in close to the source of magnetic interference you can still maintain control in atti however it is tricky as the lateral movements sometimes don’t correspond to the control inputs. In this instance, because of the bad calibration, the opposite applies, the AC behaves normally only while close to the magnetic disturbance (seemingly normal environment due to calibration there).

 

[WV. Rootman]

People have gotten away with it ok, but it is best to stay away from metal . I thought I would inspect my roof. I flew over it with in 15 ft. Well, it was a metal roof and my phantom went spinning. I crashed it in a hay field luckily. Why take the chance with your expensive drone. The manual says to stay away from metal. You crash and it will show up in your drone's records.

 

[epicdoom]

I put rebar in my front walk I didn't bother to make it all perfectly level just eyeballed it when I tied it to the steaks in the ground one corner of the walk it must be higher then anyplace else because if I sit my AC there I get the compass error, but nowhere else on the walk. Just to be safe I no longer launch from the concrete walk I took a 2'X2' paver from the yard and placed it in the ground on my lawn and that's my new launch pad