I also have trouble with GPS and the Beacon. You can get a stronger GPS link if you connect the Beacon and Phone App. Go to wifi settings on phone and connect to Beacon wifi.
So I have been in dispute with Skydio support over this issue since I received the drone back in June 2022. The issue was that that the beacon can rarely ever get a GPS sync. Skydio told me to connect drone to beacon, then connect beacon to the my phone. When you do this you get a nearly instant GPS lock. However, my dispute with Skydio was that once I shut of my phone (meaning put my phone on the lock screen) the beacon loses the GPS sync. I made a video showing this happening. Skydio support assured me in the their response that:
Gavin (Skydio): “I want to reassure you that you are absolutely safe to close your phone after connecting with the Beacon and launching the drone - there is no risk in trying this.“
However, in my last round of issues with the drone after the Jan and Feb firmware updates, Skydio support is reporting to me that the reason my drone is "disappearing" after losing visual tracking with me is because when the drone was launched i had 11 satellites synced but after I put my phone on lock, it went back to 7 sats -
Ryan (Skydio): "I see that the highest satellite count during this flight was 11, but the average was closer to 7-8 for the majority of the flight. For flights in regions like this, you'll want to achieve
GPS Lock at the launch point..." and "...We always recommend flying with both phone and Beacon for the best connection capability...." "...If the drone loses visual tracking capabilities, it will switch to GPS tracking. Since the drone's GPS connection was poor, it had trouble positioning itself in regard to the Beacon's signal. "
Thus, the drone does not keep the sat lock after launch when the phone is put on lock screen. I fly with the beacon only so I'm not keeping my phone open while bombing down a 8,000 ft mountain on my mountain bike.
The bottom line here is that the beacon is not capable of getting and maintaining a GPS sync in 4 out 5 places that I fly. The beacon is the weak link here...