GPS Lock

[Sparky786]

A little confused as always,
Booted the spark,waited, on my phone it says GPS ready to fly, ok now does this mean the GPS is locked and safe to fly?
Middle of rhe flight i get ATTI or OPTI mode, is this safe? Should i bring the soark down.
Thank you

 

[DesertWindAero]

A little confused as always,
Booted the spark,waited, on my phone it says GPS ready to fly, ok now does this mean the GPS is locked and safe to fly?
Middle of rhe flight i get ATTI or OPTI mode, is this safe? Should i bring the soark down.
Thank you

GPS is never "locked"...

There are a variety of reasons why GPS signals may be degraded or stop altogether while in flight. Therefore, ATTI mode may be announced at any time by the flight control app. This is why you should be an experienced pilot and be able to fly in ATTI, just in case of GPS loss.

It's also a good reason to keep LOS of the aircraft at all times.

 

[Sparky786]

How do others fly really fa
r, once signal is weak it flys back home? Sure there was no gps that far out.

 

[DesertWindAero]

How do others fly really fa
r, once signal is weak it flys back home? Sure there was no gps that far out.

GPS and control signal strength are two different things.

From the manual, "...If the Home Point was successfully recorded, GPS signal is strong, and the compass is functioning normally, Failsafe RTH will be automatically activated if the wireless [i.e., control] signal is lost [for[ three seconds when using the remote controller and 20 seconds when [controlling via device]..."

"...The aircraft cannot return to the Home Point when the GPS signal is weak or unavailable."

With the Spark, there is no switch for ATTI and GPS, but if it loses GPS it will automatically go into ATTI and make an announcement. Pressing the RTH button will do nothing because there is no "remembered" Home Point.

ATTI will usually hold the current altitude pretty well, but the aircraft will drift with any wind and you will need to make course corrections. That's why you need to keep it in sight at all times.

 

[Sparky786]

Thank you for this info, was hoping to fly it far away thinking i wil b safe..but it doesnt seem so.