The short version: Could my mavic have caused another companies quadcopter to malfunction?

Long version: At a local beach I often encounter magnetic interference and get told to move the mavic, I take off and hover a few feet off the ground and the error goes away.
Question: Is this safe? Or should I move before take off?

I recently had someone else turn up with another make of quadcopter, looked like a phantom but I think it was an american company. I went over to discuss flights as I didn't want to get in his way or visa versa. When he came to take off again he commented that he now had mag interfence and it had only begun since I'd moved closer to him.

Unfortunatly on hearing a crash behind me it turned out he had collided with the floor quite hard. He went and collected his copter and walked off so I didn't get to see or ask what happened.

Questions: Is it a really bad idea to fly with others? Should I have stopped when he turned up to save my Mavic from problems?
Question: Could I have been/am I the cause of his and my own magnetic interfence? And indirectly caused his crash?

Question time over. Any advice would be great. I looked in the instruction booklet but couldn't see (or missed) any information covering this.

Thanks in advance.

Question: Is it safe to take off safe? Or should I move before take off?

This is the message that reads something like, "Compass error; move aircraft or recalibrate compass", correct? If so, I'd strongly recommend that you do try to find another spot where you don't get that message and that you don't recalibrate your compass there, at least assuming that it previously was properly calibrated.

Regarding the rest, this is mostly conjecture on my part, but I'd think you probably couldn't cause the kind of magnetic interference that would result in a crash. I'd be a little more likely to believe that your controller might have interfered with his, but again that's strictly guesswork. In any case, from what you described it doesn't sound to me like you did anything wrong. I always hate to see someone's hard-earned property damaged or destroyed, but sometimes it just happens. As far as the Mavic instruction manual goes, this is the only thing I can recall that's somewhat relevant:

"To prevent transmission interference, do not operate more than three aircrafts [sic] in the same area."

I wouldnt worry too much about it messing with the other pilot, sure it may cause reduced range, but it wont cause him to crash or make unwanted movements... that said, i'd rather stay out of the way of someone i didnt know, as i wouldnt know where they were flying.
I often fly with a mate on normal 2.4ghz control and 5ghz video feeds, he also uses TBS crossfire UHF  radio, none of which cause any issues.

I've had the magnetic interference warning once before i was going to take off, so i moved the Mavic and rebooted everything, which cleared the message, i guess there was something in the ground throwing the error up ... but if you want to take off from metal for example, that message will display, then go away as soon as you take off.

DroneFlying Posted at 2017-2-7 14:05
Question: Is it safe to take off safe? Or should I move before take off?

This is the message that reads something like, "Compass error; move aircraft or recalibrate compass", correct? If so, I'd strongly recommend that you do try to find another spot where you don't get that message and that you don't recalibrate your compass there, at least assuming that it previously was properly calibrated.

Thanks, that eases my conscience a good amount. I didn't think it would be that easy to cause problems, otherwise we'd have far more accidents in the news!

I think the whole concrete area has something in the ground but I'll try different points of it incase I can find a problem free area.

Danny-B- Posted at 2017-2-7 14:28
I wouldnt worry too much about it messing with the other pilot, sure it may cause reduced range, but it wont cause him to crash or make unwanted movements... that said, i'd rather stay out of the way of someone i didnt know, as i wouldnt know where they were flying.
I often fly with a mate on normal 2.4ghz control and 5ghz video feeds, he also uses TBS crossfire UHF  radio, none of which cause any issues.

Thanks, I find if I take off it disappears as you said, so I let it hover at a few feet before I move away and start flying around.

If you're flying from a  concrete pad the magnetic interference is probably due to the steel re-enforcement that is often embedded in the concrete.