Geomagnetic Storm

[HAPPYDAN]

Reference article:

http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/2016/0 ... -progress/

Just curious if anyone flying between May 6-10 experienced any problems or interference with radios or GPS or mag compass irregularities. According to this article, there should have been a strong possibility. I don't recall ground school weather covering anything like this. It seems like it could be a problem, especially with the increasing use of GPS and ADS-B. Or am I just shouting "The Sky is Falling"?

[hirschr]

A pilot friend of mine who was getting checked out in my Ercoupe had radio issues on the afternoon of May 9, she reported poor reception, a lot of static interference and thought the CTAF was unable to hear her. I flew later that evening and had similiar issues that seemed to resolve late in the flight. She flew again on a short XC yesterday and did not have any issues.

[MrMorden]

I did notice having to turn up the squelch on my intercom to prevent radio noise. Not sure if that was related, but it's a possibility.

[Flocker]

I flew on the 7th with no issues.

[drseti]

Flying home from FL last week, I used flight following. In several different sectors, I was receiving Center or Tracon so weakly that their calls wouldn't break squelch. I had to disable the squelch and tolerate the background noise in my headset, so as not to miss any traffic calls or handoffs. Never thought about solar activity, but I suppose that could have been related.

[MrMorden]

Oh, and the broccoli in my garden grew to ten times its normal size!

[drseti]

Send me some Andy. I love broccoli!

[MackAttack]

There is good info on these events at swpc.noaa.gov. Space weather prediction center... I must say that our tax dollars do a good job with the weather folks at NOAA! They reported a major G3-class event on May 8, from 0559 Zulu to 0900 Zulu ... Which is a pretty short window. Their report didn't cover a wide time frame but it's possible there were lesser events in the days leading up to and after this event. It's all very interesting!

A pilot on the Cirrus forums reported a full GPS outage on the 7th near El Paso, but most of the posters on that forum attributed that to military jamming at White Sands Missile Range or some other location

I think it is interesting to be aware of circumstances in which ALL our GPS devices could be affected... Especially as we phase out VORs and many LSAs don't have NAV capabilities. Presently I'm not planning to pay for it on my panel (although I plan to have a hand-held NAV/COM for emergencies). We do rely on that GPS a lot ...

Cheers!

[SportPilot]

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[MackAttack]

All LSA's have navigation capability. It's called pilotage and dead reckoning. Since we fly daytime VFR using Sport Pilot priviledges, we should be able to navigate from point A to point B with nothing more than a sectional.

Could not agree with you more; I just think that a lot of folks put a lot of faith in that magenta "direct to" line ... This kind of thing (GPS outages) are good reminders that pilotage and dead reckoning are essential skills and we should be able to do exactly what you say... It's a good reminder for me as I am plane shopping that the glass panels are cool but the two panels above my nose are the two most important ones in the cockpit ...

Cheers

[SportPilot]

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