Before inhad a post regardin compass callibration and it was mentionned i think it was by hallmark that compass only needs to be callibrated when prompted to. Also stated in manual dji .
Now on the spark forum the magnetic declination w came forward due to a spark crash( compass and atti issues) in iceland. Mag.declination is -13.85.
Now i am going also to iceland and i have been googling around and only found that there used to be problems with phantom 2 , back in 2014. Does anybody knows if with the many fw updates afterwards this issue was solved? And will i have a problem in iceland if not callibrate the compass?

Hi 75, indeed it could well have been me, however Iceland because of magnetic declination you might be better advised to calibrate, I have heard some issues flying in Iceland with older inspire 1 , but not everyone will calibrate. If you choose to do it , just once when you arrive make sure to calibrate in proper conditions and follow correct procedure , check it before you fly by hovering for a minute at 2 metres,

Good luck and have a great trip, Iceland seems to be a bit of a Mecca for drone flying.

hallmark007 Posted at 2017-9-21 08:05
Hi 75, indeed it could well have been me, however Iceland because of magnetic declination you might be better advised to calibrate, I have heard some issues flying in Iceland with older inspire 1 , but not everyone will calibrate. If you choose to do it , just once when you arrive make sure to calibrate in proper conditions and follow correct procedure , check it before you fly by hovering for a minute at 2 metres,

Good luck and have a great trip, Iceland seems to be a bit of a Mecca for drone flying.

I think its the abundance of Landscape and how beautiful it is there, also the drone laws are pretty lax.

Thanks hallmark, yes you have posted before the exact procedure , just test the drone 2 or 3 minutes and move it to all sides etc. I always stick to this before i shoot of to further locations. Yes the mecca of droning but they start putting up drone restrictions and signs everywhere, so i better go quick to iceland

Do not take off when the compass error appeared. Move to another place or calibrate the compass until you get rid of the message. Take care when you met the error in the air, please try to keep away the interference source.

It greatly depends on where your UAV was calibrated for and how much the magnetic field has changed compared to how it was calibrated before.  
I can only speak for P4P, where the manual states you only need to perform a calibration if the system warrants it, I know nothing about the Spark.
The amount of declination is not what is relevant, whether it is zero or 20 degrees, again it is the change in the earth's magnetic field from where you were as to where you are at in flying at a new place that will mostly determine if you need to do one.
With respect to Iceland, the difficulty for there is its northern latitudes and its relation to where magnetic north is located i.e. not at the North Pole.  You may also run in to GPS issues in that region due to the orbital coverage of the northern regions and magnetic/EMP interference.  You should be alert and fly cautiously.

For the Phantom 4, Iceland is normally not an issue, best not to calibrate unless you get a warning or have difficulties flying, but try a couple of other locations first before you overwrite your current known good calibration.

I don't know about the Spark, possibly it has a different compass system but more likely it works the same.

You will always have problems if you take off from near a lump of iron wherever you are in the world.

The reason you don't need to re-calibrate when you move to Iceland is that the aircraft has 2 calibrations, the manual one that takes care of the aircraft's magnetic field caused by the motors and other steel parts and a 2nd automatic one that it does every time you turn it on and that takes care of changes in the Earth's magnetic field caused by moving location.  It is getting the 2nd one wrong by taking off from near iron that causes the crashes.

Greenland is a different issue, you can have big problems there and normally have to fly in atti mode only.

BagoDJIoperator Posted at 2017-9-21 08:30
I think its the abundance of Landscape and how beautiful it is there, also the drone laws are pretty lax.

Human  sense is the best rule to follow. Don't fly over populated area and don't fly close to houses.
And don't let your drone chase the horses or any other animal, that will get you in trouble.

Thank you for aak the answers , but i am still doubting noe what to do. Just first have it lifted up and check all the movements , hover , left/right forward/backward like hallway has mentionned before , then check how drone behaves? If normal , no calibration . If prompted or crooked , then calibrate ? Is this the best thing to do?

fans61699a75 Posted at 2017-9-22 06:58
Thank you for aak the answers , but i am still doubting noe what to do. Just first have it lifted up and check all the movements , hover , left/right forward/backward like hallway has mentionned before , then check how drone behaves? If normal , no calibration . If prompted or crooked , then calibrate ? Is this the best thing to do?

Yes, and I expect it will fly normally, there is more risk in north west Iceland but most people have no problems.

If it does go out of control because of compass problems then it will probably start flying in circles, it will not crash unless it hits something tall, so:
1. you should increase height far enough that it can't hit anything.
2. switch to atti mode and fly it back manually - do not use RTH because this will not fly straight.

Practice using atti mode to fly back home manually before you travel, it can be difficult if there is wind.

G_Sig Posted at 2017-9-22 06:41
Human  sense is the best rule to follow. Don't fly over populated area and don't fly close to houses.
And don't let your drone chase the horses or any other animal, that will get you in trouble.

Is not flying over animals an Iceland thing? I fly over cows a lot, and they don't ever pay any attention to it.

Yes cows in the netherlands foe example dont care either, but i think the icelandic horses are a bit more sensitive for drones and not used to noise. So better to avoid them. Maybe the farmers should put speakers near them and play music of bjork, then they get use to noise

FatherXmas Posted at 2017-9-22 07:41
Is not flying over animals an Iceland thing? I fly over cows a lot, and they don't ever pay any attention to it.

Cows don't  but horses and most young animals do. IF animals start to run don't follow it.
If you stay over 50m attitude you should bee safe.

fans61699a75 Posted at 2017-9-22 06:58
Thank you for aak the answers , but i am still doubting noe what to do. Just first have it lifted up and check all the movements , hover , left/right forward/backward like hallway has mentionned before , then check how drone behaves? If normal , no calibration . If prompted or crooked , then calibrate ? Is this the best thing to do?

Yes as simple as possible
Don't do a compass Calibration unless system says to do one.
Nigel's guidance is good.

G_Sig Posted at 2017-9-22 08:07
Cows don't  but horses and most young animals do. IF animals start to run don't follow it.
If you stay over 50m attitude you should bee safe.

I never fly below 100 feet (about 30 meters), too many very tall trees to smack into around here.

FatherXmas Posted at 2017-9-22 13:34
I never fly below 100 feet (about 30 meters), too many very tall trees to smack into around here.

The tallest tree here is less than 10 m and just close to my house. You have to source for days to find
trees more than 25 m in Iceland. The power lines an birds is the only thing to worry about here.

G_Sig Posted at 2017-9-22 14:21
The tallest tree here is less than 10 m and just close to my house. You have to source for days to find
trees more than 25 m in Iceland. The power lines an birds is the only thing to worry about here.

G_Sig,thats all we have here in north louisianna is big trees.would be nice to fly in iceland ,good luck.

Hi g sig
And the weather yoy have to worry about in iceland. Doesnt look good now