Let me respectfully put it this way: If one wants a good shot for maximum range and performance, better to follow a best practice than find out in the middle of a flight you don't get tracking information.
Sure you might get some acceptable results with a ground test, I sure did at 500' but not at altitude.
If one feels it's good, fly it and if it works with a compromised situation great.
I do think it's a bit unusal that a 900Mhz BLGPS in the fliers situation doesn't start to get positions out until 1000 to 2000' altitude. I believe the performance of the device is better than that and the installation should be questioned.
I would expect to see positions starting just before or after apogee and on the way down.
(Sure might be a problem at 80,000' but might be prudent to use a different tracking solution.
Perhaps a 1 watt APRS tracker like an AP510 or a higher powered Beeline on 2 meters.)
A missed position could occur with a tumbling low powered tracker if the polarity of the signal doesn't match the receiver antenna position. I believe I've seen that several times. One gets a nice apogee reading and a few readings are missed on the way down. The bottom line is getting a position under the main chute to guide one in. Once one gets into the ground foot print of the GPS tracker, a final packet will lock it in to with in 20 or 30 feet (or better)
Kurt
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