diff --git a/EKF/ekf.h b/EKF/ekf.h
index f5304deba6..b3856546de 100644
--- a/EKF/ekf.h
+++ b/EKF/ekf.h
@@ -269,7 +269,7 @@ private:
 	float _posInnovGateNE{0.0f};		///< Number of standard deviations used for the NE position fusion innovation consistency check
 
 	Vector2f _velObsVarNE;		///< 1-STD observation noise variance used for the fusion of NE velocity data (m/sec)**2
-	float _hvelInnovGate;		///< Number of standard deviations used for the horizontal velocity fusion innovation consistency check
+	float _hvelInnovGate{0.0f};		///< Number of standard deviations used for the horizontal velocity fusion innovation consistency check
 
 	// variables used when position data is being fused using a relative position odometry model
 	bool _fuse_hpos_as_odom{false};		///< true when the NE position data is being fused using an odometry assumption