So, we were supposed to have our maiden flight of the Phantom this past weekend but we did not do it due primarily to the weather and geomagnetic storm interference. The heat here was pretty brutal hitting 106 at my house and 109 at the beach.
Another consideration was geomagnetic interference caused by geomagnetic storms. The definition of this from Science Daily is this:
A geomagnetic storm is a temporary disturbance of the Earth's magnetosphere.
Associated with solar coronal mass ejections, coronal holes, or solar flares, a geomagnetic storm is caused by a solar wind shock wave which typically strikes the Earth's magnetic field 24 to 36 hours after the event.
The Kp-index
The Kp-index is the global geomagnetic storm index and is based on 3 hour measurements of the K-indices, for a given value, for each of the past days. The K-index itself is a three hour long quasi-logarithmic local index of the geomagnetic activity, relative to a calm day curve for the given location. The Kp-index measures the deviation of the most disturbed horizontal component of the magnetic field on fixed stations worldwide with their own local K-index. The global Kp-index is then determined with an algorithm that puts the averages of every station together. The result is the global Kp-index. The Kp-index ranges from 0 to 9 where a value of 0 means that there is very little geomagnetic activity and a value of 9 means extreme geomagnetic storming.
A value of 3 or less is considered safe by the more psychotic pilots while it is generally considered safe to fly the Phantom with a KP value of 6 or less. How do you find out what the KP value is for a given day? There is a nice website and some apps:
http://uavforecast.com
http://www.hoverapp.io/
We use both the web site and the free hover app (available on iOS and Android platforms). So a combination of both high KP index and raging heat has kept us from flying. This week it is much cooler but we are booked to shoot a bunch of interviews this week for a documentary.
In Other News
I thought I would go over what we ended up buying for the Phantom. The initial purchase consisted of:
- Phantom 3 Professional
- DJI Backpack case
- 2 extra props
- 1 extra battery
- 1 extra charger
- DJI brand prop guards
Following that, we purchased a nice gimbal clamp, a gimbal protector and the Strong Arms product from UAV Bits. I highly recommend these guys. They are super responsive, the product is excellent and reasonably priced.
We also purchased a soft case for the Phantom that allows storage / transport with the prop guards attached. And, finally, an iPad Air II to use as the main mobile device for the Phantom. My wife will also use the Air II until the iPad Pro comes out as she has targeted that as her next mobile device.
Kodo News
The old Kodo's main board seems to have bitten the dust. The symptoms that the Kodo is exhibiting is that after I get it up in the air and trimmed and stable, it will fly to the left as though the roll control was pegged to the left.
I looked up the price of a new main board for the Kodo and it's $18. To install it would require a complete disassembly of the Kodo, un soldering the motors and camera assembly and then re-installing all of that onto the new board. A new Kodo is $60.
I bought a new one...
I have to say, the new one rocks. It's much more stable than the old one. One of the things I practice is nose in hover and reverse return to me exercises and I was able to have much greater success with those using this new Kodo.
The New Plan, Stan
The current plan is to fly on Saturday. So, barring any unforeseen interference, I should have footage to post to the blog here come Sunday. So keep an eye out for that!
Until next time, fly safe!
