I live in the US and will be traveling to Greenland for a trip on a schooner in August. There wil be no Internet access/WIFI once we arrive in the country. I will be bringing my P4P, which I got last week and immediately activcated (flying fine now), and need to know what, if anything, I need to do to be sure I will be able to fly in the new country. Is there any reason I would need to log in in the new country - I am flying in from Iceland the night before the ship leaves, where I should have WIFI, but there wil be none in Greenland once I land there.Please let me know if there is anythng I might need to do to be able to fly in the new country.
Thanks for any tips,

dm

Open this link in Chrome (to be able to translate it to english)

https://www.trafikstyrelsen.dk/DA/Luftfart/Flyveoperationer/Luftfartserhverv/Droneflyvning-i-Groenland.aspx

then click on "BL9-4 - English" and download the pdf file by clicking "Save page as" in the FILE menu of the browser.
Basically the rules (for  AMATEUR FLIGHTS) are:


For flights with unmanned aircraft the following
shall apply:
a. The flight must be performed in a way
that no other persons or property are
endangered and so that the surroundings
are inconvenienced as little
as possible.
b. The distance to the runway/runways
of a public aerodrome as stated in the
Kort- og Matrikelstyrelsen's (Map and
Land Register Administration's) map
(map 25 or 1:50,000) must be at least
5 km.
c. The distance to the runway/runways
of a military airbase as stated in the
Kort- og Matrikelstyrelsen's (Map and
Land Register Administration's) map
(map 25 or 1:50,000) must be at least
5 km.
d. The distance to built-up areas and
major public road shall be at least
150 m.
e. The flight level must not exceed 100
m above terrain.
f. Densely built-up areas, including areas
with weekend cottages and inhabited
camping sites, and areas with
large open-air assemblies of persons
must not be overflown.
g. The particularly sensitive areas mentioned
in BL 7-16 must not be overflown.

Open, translate and READ these links!

[url=http://sermitsiaq.ag/derfor-maa-ikke-bruge-legetoejsdroner]http://sermitsiaq.ag/derfor-maa-ikke-bruge-legetoejsdroner[/url]
http://www.mynewsdesk.com/dk/politimesteren-i-groenland/pressreleases/begraensede-muligheder-for-droneflyvning-i-groenland-1634653

PS You might be able to use your phone as a hotspot, just in case something happens needing login or you need to have maps...

Be prepared to fly in atti mode only.  
In northern parts of Greenland you are too close to the magnetic north pole to be able to fly in GPS mode without going in uncontrollable curves, RTH will not work.
In southern parts you still may not be able to fly with GPS depending on the weather and space weather.
GPS will be inaccurate anyway since the satellites do not go that far north.
Do not attempt to fly from your ship or beyond visual range and keep it high enough not to be able to hit anything, if it goes out of control switch to atti mode.
Get plenty of practice with atti mode before you go, normally if you get into trouble you can hit RTH or flick back to GPS mode, that may not work in Greenland.

Also, for the sake of completeness, make sure you understand the airline's rules about having your drone and batteries on board. I think official rules are that the batteries you must always carry-on, and the drone you can check it in the baggage compartment if you like.  It's also a good idea to carry your batteries in LiPo bags in your on-board luggage.

Both airport security and the airline might give you trouble about transporting drones, so just be ready for both.

Nigel_ Posted at 2017-7-4 03:17
Be prepared to fly in atti mode only.  
In northern parts of Greenland you are too close to the magnetic north pole to be able to fly in GPS mode without going in uncontrollable curves, RTH will not work.
In southern parts you still may not be able to fly with GPS depending on the weather and space weather.

My guide in Kangerlussuaq (Greenland) said some Chinese tourists couldn't get GPS lock with their Phantom, had to use atti mode.

dancopter Posted at 2017-7-4 07:31
My guide in Kangerlussuaq (Greenland) said some Chinese tourists couldn't get GPS lock with their Phantom, had to use atti mode.

And kangerlussuaq is quite south, isn't it? There was a thread not that long ago about a guy flying in Greenland having big problems with GPS too...

dancopter Posted at 2017-7-4 07:31
My guide in Kangerlussuaq (Greenland) said some Chinese tourists couldn't get GPS lock with their Phantom, had to use atti mode.

All the satellites will be low down in the southern sky so if you are on the north side of a hill then there will not be enough visible, should be OK on the south side of a hill but they still wont be very accurate since it will have to triangulate the position with all the satellites in a similar direction and with the signal coming through a lot of atmosphere.

Nigel_ Posted at 2017-7-4 03:17
Be prepared to fly in atti mode only.  
In northern parts of Greenland you are too close to the magnetic north pole to be able to fly in GPS mode without going in uncontrollable curves, RTH will not work.
In southern parts you still may not be able to fly with GPS depending on the weather and space weather.

Man, I just read the exact opposite on Phantom Pilots:
I think it's more risky to fly out to sea in ATTI mode, then in GPS mode. In ATTI mode, a problem will cause the craft to try to land on the spot. In GPS mode, it will try to fly home and then land.

No clue which will work better and no way I can practice on this ship before we head out for the week. Guess I will see what happens when I get there - if I see a lot of satellites when we are out in the bay, is that a good sign that I could work in GPS mode? Just getting the hang of the signs and symbols..

fans20b4b055 Posted at 2017-7-4 12:30
Man, I just read the exact opposite on Phantom Pilots:
I think it's more risky to fly out to sea in ATTI mode, then in GPS mode. In ATTI mode, a problem will cause the craft to try to land on the spot. In GPS mode, it will try to fly home and then land.

If there is a problem then it will try to enter RTH mode and return, doesn't matter if it is in GPS, Atti, POI or any other mode.  However...

If there are not enough satellites then it will enter Atti mode and start drifting, doesn't matter what mode it was in before.  

You will not have a lot of satellites up there, very easy to loose a few and not have enough left so keep it in sight and before you go make sure that you have the skill required to bring it back and land in Atti mode.

The reason I suggested that you don't fly from the ship is that up around Greenland the strength of the horizontal component of the Earths magnetic field is very week, depending on solar activity it can be extremely week.  Because of this there is a good chance that the metalwork in the ship will seriously affect the aircraft's compass resulting in a crash even if it would have no effect further south.  Even if your ship has a wooden deck I wouldn't fly from it around Greenland.   Iceland is a lot better, few people have issues there, northern Greenland is almost certain to have a problem.

Nigel_ Posted at 2017-7-4 12:55
If there is a problem then it will try to enter RTH mode and return, doesn't matter if it is in GPS, Atti, POI or any other mode.  However...

If there are not enough satellites then it will enter Atti mode and start drifting, doesn't matter what mode it was in before.  

Well that is a bummer since I bought the drone specifically for this trip. We will be going onto land at times so I can definitely fly/shoot from there. I've read elsewhere that relying on RTH while on the water with the ship moving is a problem in and of itself  (I usually had catch for what it's worth.)
I hope I will be able to keep LOS but if I want to circle around some of the huge ice formations - also a high priority - that might not be possible.
Haven't found any insurance that will cover a lost drone, so betting the farm on being able to control it. Not sure I will have enough flight hours, but hoping for the best. And we will be in a bay in the southeast coast of Greenland, so that might give me a little better odds  (heading to Iceland after the trip but doing mostly actual aerial photo there in a Cessna 210.)
Thanks for the help and let me know if anything else occurs to you for me to practice or to be aware of.

fans20b4b055 Posted at 2017-7-4 15:41
Well that is a bummer since I bought the drone specifically for this trip. We will be going onto land at times so I can definitely fly/shoot from there. I've read elsewhere that relying on RTH while on the water with the ship moving is a problem in and of itself  (I usually had catch for what it's worth.)
I hope I will be able to keep LOS but if I want to circle around some of the huge ice formations - also a high priority - that might not be possible.
Haven't found any insurance that will cover a lost drone, so betting the farm on being able to control it. Not sure I will have enough flight hours, but hoping for the best. And we will be in a bay in the southeast coast of Greenland, so that might give me a little better odds  (heading to Iceland after the trip but doing mostly actual aerial photo there in a Cessna 210.)

RTH works fine over water if there is GPS, the only problem is that the ship may have moved.  Even if the ship is at anchor the tides can move it around to the other side of the anchor which can be far enough that you don't see the aircraft when it returns - you need to be able to use the map display, practice using the map to land away from the launch point before going.

If you are circling around icebergs, make sure that you stay high enough that the aircrafts view of the southern horizon is not blocked, if you loose GPS behind an iceberg/hill/ship you will be in trouble with no RTH - gain height to try and get the GPS back, if you also have control signal blocked then you need to move the ship and the battery will be flat before you succeed!

You may be OK in the south east, the north west is the worst, big difference.   If you are going to take the risk of flying from the ship, power the drone up and take off from a point as far away from metal as possible, even if you have a wooden deck it will have metal below, taking off from on top of a plastic bucket can easily make the difference between crash or success.

Avoid calibrating the compass while you are that far north, set the maximum height to maximum so that if you need to climb to get GPS back you wont get stuck while still too low.

Good tips yet again (like the bucket idea).  Again, so different options on calibration - read elsewhere to recalibrate the compass every time you move a significant distance from previous location. Guess we'll see what happens..

Antonio76 Posted at 2017-7-4 02:26
Open this link in Chrome (to be able to translate it to english)

https://www.trafikstyrelsen.dk/DA/Luftfart/Flyveoperationer/Luftfartserhverv/Droneflyvning-i-Groenland.aspx

Thanks for this info - I looked it over and think I meet the qualifications for flying pretty clearly.

Antonio76 Posted at 2017-7-4 02:34
PS You might be able to use your phone as a hotspot, just in case something happens needing login or you need to have maps...

That's a good idea, if we have service.. not too sure about that.

gabriel.magana Posted at 2017-7-4 06:58
Also, for the sake of completeness, make sure you understand the airline's rules about having your drone and batteries on board. I think official rules are that the batteries you must always carry-on, and the drone you can check it in the baggage compartment if you like.  It's also a good idea to carry your batteries in LiPo bags in your on-board luggage.

Both airport security and the airline might give you trouble about transporting drones, so just be ready for both.

Thanks. Battery restrictions are the same for my DSLR - familiar with those- and got carrying bags for all the batteries.

dancopter Posted at 2017-7-4 07:31
My guide in Kangerlussuaq (Greenland) said some Chinese tourists couldn't get GPS lock with their Phantom, had to use atti mode.

Hope I can take off in P mode, but will practice ATTI for sure.

fans20b4b055 Posted at 2017-7-5 06:13
That's a good idea, if we have service.. not too sure about that.

Well, I wish you a very nice time on the schooner and a wonderful time with your drone in Greenland !

fans20b4b055 Posted at 2017-7-5 06:10
Good tips yet again (like the bucket idea).  Again, so different options on calibration - read elsewhere to recalibrate the compass every time you move a significant distance from previous location. Guess we'll see what happens..

You should never calibrate the compass on a ship, wherever you are in the world.

Calibrating it in Northern Greenland where the Earths magnetic field is very poor would also be a big mistake.

For the P4 it does not appear to be necessary to do it at all unless you make a change to the aircraft such as replacing a motor or adding extra equipment such as a GPS tracker.  Doing it unnecessarily can lead to a bad calibration and a crash, especially in unfamiliar surroundings or if doing it in a rush.

If you have magnetic problems which aren't resolved by moving to another location, and then trying yet another location then you can think about doing it, but never on a ship or with metal or concrete nearby.