Plain GPS drifts 1–3 m; RTK corrections pull that to roughly 1–2 cm. On a 20-ft swath, meter-level error means overlapping one pass and skipping the next — visible as stripes at harvest.
How RTK works
A base station at a known fixed point measures satellite error in real time and broadcasts the correction to your aircraft (the "rover"), which cancels it out. Two ways to get corrections:
- Your own base: a tripod unit you set at the field. Works with no cell signal — critical in rural Ohio dead zones.
- Network/NTRIP: corrections streamed over cellular from a CORS network. No hardware to haul, but you need signal.
What it actually buys you
- Repeatable swath spacing — no skips/overlaps, so your rate is real.
- Terrain following that holds true height over rolling ground (height error = drift and rate error).
- Return-to-point accuracy after a refill — resume exactly where you stopped.
- Credible as-applied maps for customers and records (reporting guide).
When standard GPS is fine
Big square fields, wide effective swath, generous planned overlap, and a forgiving systemic product — you'll survive. For contact products, tight buffers next to sensitive crops, or any job you want to prove later, RTK earns its cost the first season.
Field gotchas
- Set the base in the same spot each visit (or record its coordinates) so repeat jobs line up.
- Wait for "RTK Fixed" — not "Float" — before starting the pass.
- Tree lines and grain bins block sky view; move the base to open ground.
- Losing correction mid-flight silently degrades accuracy — watch the status, not just the map.
General GNSS/RTK principles; setup specifics vary by platform.
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