Major polar flutter is not limited to paths passing close to a magnetic pole. Werner, HB9JAP in Switzerland has quite a case of polar ( or, better, Auroral ) flutter on the path to Maine (max latitude abt 55 degrees). The propagation indices were 135,7,1 at the time (8 April '98, 1900 hrs). As sunspots go up, the auroral region expands and many more paths are affected that were not at the bottom of the cycle .. So all is not for the better as the cycle increases.