Successful Flight Even When Compass Calibration Failed

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After a couple of months in hibernation, I finally flew my P3P yesterday. I launched from the top floor of a 3 story garage. Upon start up, right away I get the red GPS warning on the GO app. It went to the compass calibration page and suggested to calibrate. So I did, but it failed due to close by interference. I moved to the middle far away from any metal objects and was able to calibrate successfully. Just before starting the motors, it went red again and suggested to calibrate. I did the chicken dance several times but failed each time. I moved again to a spot where I get green GPS status with 18 satellites. So I took off about 5 ft and moved the AC left, right, up, down and everything was A ok. I went higher and no problems. When battery became low, I landed with no issues. I changed the battery and switched over to Litchi. Same thing happened, I get the red warning and suggested to calibrate. Again I moved to a spot where I get green Safe to Fly status and took off. I loaded my waypoint mission. After 12 minutes, another successful Litchi mission. Just sharing my experience that even though the app suggests to calibrate the compass, it is not necessary as long as you move away from the source of interference. I would suggest to test the AC in flight at low height before going higher.


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Was your previous flight/calibration in the general area?

I wonder what would have happened if you simply launched and ignored the warning. The warning likely came because of the close proximity of the steel reinforcement in the concrete, and once you cleared that, I would guess the AC would behave normally. OTOH, if you try to calibrate close to the steel, you'd likely get a bad calibration even if it was successful.

Thanks for sharing.
 
I moved to the middle far away from any metal objects and was able to calibrate successfully.
The floors/walls/ceilings of that parking garage are most likely chock-full of metal. It's not a safe place to calibrate your compass.
 
Yes you can have successful flights even if the compass calibration at local site fails. Aircraft will retain the old calibration and will use that to find its directions. But such messages/ warnings always scare us. Don't fly if you are not sure of last calibration.

Avoid calibrations near buildings and other structures that have steel and other magnetic materials.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots
 
Was your previous flight/calibration in the general area?

I wonder what would have happened if you simply launched and ignored the warning. The warning likely came because of the close proximity of the steel reinforcement in the concrete, and once you cleared that, I would guess the AC would behave normally. OTOH, if you try to calibrate close to the steel, you'd likely get a bad calibration even if it was successful.

Thanks for sharing.

Never flew from this area before. I did ignore the warning just to see what would happen. The motors wouldn't even start. I'm sure that is a safety measure.


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