do you have to go through the Compass dance every time you want to fly?
Not EVERY time... If you fly and then stop and then want to fly again in the same place, it will often let you fly again without doing the calibration. If you get the car and go somewhere else to fly, you will likely need to do it again before flying. You are never really sure though.
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DJI go often tells me that the compass is calibrated, but when I put it on the ground, it flashes that it is no longer calibrated. If I place the bird on a table, the calibration is back and I can take off with everything green. I am presuming that if it hovers OK, then the compass is calibrated OK. Is this correct?
Our general rule of thumb is that if you drove somewhere to fly, do it.
What are the symptoms of a badly calibrated compass?
Weird corrections are the main one. If you are trying to travel in a straight line under waypoint control and it is drifting off course. Trouble maintaining a static position in GPS mode when there are lots of satellites available.
If you fly near power lines it can become almost unresponsive since the IMU is off so badly. Even the failsafes won't work in this case.
Thanks. And how close is too close to power lines? I know that SDGE is flying drones to monitor their power transmission lines, so I'm wondering if they have specialized gear. What are the early warning symptoms of getting too close?
Too close is when you start to notice the effects. The distance will differ by the strength of the power being transmitted. SDGE has some specialized gear but actually has been using the Inspires for a lot of inspection work.
The early warning sign is the aircraft responsiveness becoming loosely coupled to the stick inputs.
