Hi guys
I'm planning on heading to a latitude of about 80° and would like to have some idea of the compass issues that might be encountered with a Phantom 4. In particular I would like to use the Phantom 4 RTK, however experience with any P4 would be useful.
I don't want to be stuck out there with a drone that will not take off due to compass issues.
What issues am I likely going to have and is there any way around them?

Cheers

Hello and good day grey_phantom. Thank you for reaching out and for the inquiry. I hope that you will get the best information and recommendations from our valued DJI Co pilots who had flew and operated there DJI drones in the polar regions. Just friendly reminder that the DJI Phantom 4 Pro's operating temperature range is at 32° to 104°F ( 0° to 40°C ). Have a safe and happy flying always.

Depending on your longitude, you can get some pretty healthy compass variation from true north as the lines of declination start to converge.  Here in Minnesota we also have iron ore deposits that screw with your compass as well.  Check the nav maps for variation.  80 degrees north is well above the arctic circle.  Thats getting up there.

Anokadrone Posted at 6-18 13:19
Depending on your longitude, you can get some pretty healthy compass variation from true north as the lines of declination start to converge.  Here in Minnesota we also have iron ore deposits that screw with your compass as well.  Check the nav maps for variation.  80 degrees north is well above the arctic circle.  Thats getting up there.

??

As you get further north - the Magnetic North increases its difference to True North as Magnetic NP is in Alaska and moving slowly westward.

But anyway .. I think you may be approaching operational limit - but would expect it to still work.

With regard to temperature - I regularly fly my P3P and before that P3S in Baltic Winters where we go down to -25C or lower. I have many videos at -10 ... -15C ...
Its not the drone that has trouble - its you the pilot being out there in the cold !!
Plus - don't forget that 99% of touch screens do not appreciate the cold and many fail to respond reliably to touch input. LEARN your controller buttons / controls !!  

Forgot to add ... Battery temperature ...........

Suggest you get one of these :

https://hobbyking.com/en_us/turn ... &___store=en_us



Runs of car ciggy socket or any 12v source such as a 3S LiPo etc.

solentlife Posted at 6-19 02:57
??

As you get further north - the Magnetic North increases its difference to True North as Magnetic NP is in Alaska and moving slowly westward.

Magnetic NP is in Alaska and moving slowly westward.
In Alaska ??
Do you want to have a second guess at that?

Labroides Posted at 6-19 03:48
Magnetic NP is in Alaska and moving slowly westward.
In Alaska ??
Do you want to have a second guess at that?

Apologies ... I typed quickly while sorting other biz .. I tend to forget the boundaries of Alaska

Its in Arctic North Canada .. moving towards Arctic Russia.

It now has a northerly component to its movement as well as westward. Previously it was slower and less northerly.

solentlife Posted at 6-19 04:09
Apologies ... I typed quickly while sorting other biz .. I tend to forget the boundaries of Alaska

Its in Arctic North Canada .. moving towards Arctic Russia.

The South Pole just went past my front door, or perhaps it just felt like that?

Hi there! I've flown a P4 successfully, a P4P not so successfully and had an M210 RTK that wouldn't take off due to compass calibration failures at 80 deg. North in Canada. Mind you, we are very close to the Magnetic pole around those parts. I have a buddy that has issues in some areas in Svalbard (80 deg North- Norway), but those seem to be more localized.
Unfortunately- you should be prepared to  be stuck up there with a drone that won't fly due to compass issues...

Geebax Posted at 6-19 14:25
The South Pole just went past my front door, or perhaps it just felt like that?

Should have had your camera ready

solentlife Posted at 6-30 23:25
Should have had your camera ready

I did run inside and grab the crappiest camera that I have in my collection, along with the camera wobble attachment, that I use for capturing special events, but when I came out it had gone past.

Geebax Posted at 7-1 14:19
I did run inside and grab the crappiest camera that I have in my collection, along with the camera wobble attachment, that I use for capturing special events, but when I came out it had gone past.

Take it all good with the Gate ... moved yet ?

solentlife Posted at 7-2 02:34
Take it all good with the Gate ... moved yet ?

We have moved, lovely new place and enjoying it very much. The new owner took away the gate and replaced it with an ugly metal thing because the original did not have enough security of access.

Fanam Posted at 2019-6-30 12:49
Hi there! I've flown a P4 successfully, a P4P not so successfully and had an M210 RTK that wouldn't take off due to compass calibration failures at 80 deg. North in Canada. Mind you, we are very close to the Magnetic pole around those parts. I have a buddy that has issues in some areas in Svalbard (80 deg North- Norway), but those seem to be more localized.
Unfortunately- you should be prepared to  be stuck up there with a drone that won't fly due to compass issues...

Hi guys. Sorry about the late reply. I did successfully fly the P4 Pro in Antarctica. Issues I had was the P4 Pro started each flight with the old toilet bowl effect for the first 10 seconds. It was probably confused as at Scott Base you are south of the magnetic south pole, so the compass says one direction for north and the GPS says the opposite direction.
As you mentioned Fanam, the M210 RTK was not as useful as I first thought. I thought that the two RTK antennas would override the compass, instead it would not take off when they were enabled. However it flew like the P4 Pro with them disabled, and I had a third party PPK system installed for photo positioning.

I'm now going down again this summer and would like to know if any mission planning apps work in polar regions, last time I had to free fly the missions. I will be taking a P4 Pro again, also likely a P4 RTK or maybe the M300 with P1 and L1 sensors.
I see the P4 RTK will plan missions there, but the manual says that GNSS does not work in polar regions, but I don't know if that is just to limit their liability and it will actually do it or not. Any P4 RTK experience with mapping missions in polar regions?
Cheers