Flight Planning: Minimum Altitude for Imagery

[OliverDrool]

I thought I would share something I put together to help me plan my flights: I kept wondering what altitude (AGL) to set my waypoints in order to get the shots I wanted, so I went out and based on my surrounding conditions (relatively flat topography, gimbal at -90 degrees) I set forth on taking a photograph with the Mavic 2 at: 75', 100', 125', 150', 200', 250', 300', and 350' ft.

Below is a single area broken down by each altitude level. I then decided to plot both the area (acres) and length of photograph. Yes, it's probably a bit overthinking. But I'm a data person, I need to view things either excel sheets or specification drawings.

 

[Meta4]

Or ... you could just raise the drone up until the screen shows the picture you want?

 

[OliverDrool]

Or ... you could just raise the drone up until the screen shows the picture you want?

I like how you've decided to ignore the "flight planning" part this.

For those of us who are active commercial flyers, pre-planning is an important step. You don't just go there and fly, especially if your flight requires a waiver or airspace authorization.

 

[Sullyspurs]

I thought I would share something I put together to help me plan my flights: I kept wondering what altitude (AGL) to set my waypoints in order to get the shots I wanted, so I went out and based on my surrounding conditions (relatively flat topography, gimbal at -90 degrees) I set forth on taking a photograph with the Mavic 2 at: 75', 100', 125', 150', 200', 250', 300', and 350' ft.

Below is a single area broken down by each altitude level. I then decided to plot both the area (acres) and length of photograph. Yes, it's probably a bit overthinking. But I'm a data person, I need to view things either excel sheets or specification drawings.

View attachment 104172

That is really helpful and a great idea. A fantastic thing to show to clients to give them an idea of what you can provide as well. I may well ‘borrow’ your idea if you don’t mind?

 

[Meta4]

I like how you've decided to ignore the "flight planning" part this.

For those of us who are active commercial flyers, pre-planning is an important step. You don't just go there and fly, especially if your flight requires a waiver or airspace authorization.

Shooting a single frame is not the only way to show a site.
Some of us understand how to produce orthophoto composites of large areas from many individual images.
I once shot a 120 acre site and created an orthophoto from ~400 overlapping images.
Here's a smaller example:

 

[OliverDrool]

Shooting a single frame is not the only way to show a site.
Some of us understand how to produce orthophoto composites of large areas from many individual images.
I once shot a 120 acre site and created an orthophoto from ~400 overlapping images.

Absolutely, and it's even easier with automated services like DroneDeploy or 4DPix, etc. But sometimes that's not what the customer wants or its not an option. On top of that, this quick illustration (which takes in a LOT of assumptions / fixed variables like image ratio, etc.) could be good for those wanting to maximize battery life while maintaining enough integrity/overlap to stitch photos together.

I read your original reply with snark, so I thought I'd counter with the same.

This is just something I plan on using for myself, so I thought there might be like minded folks who could use the same.

 

[OliverDrool]

That is really helpful and a great idea. A fantastic thing to show to clients to give them an idea of what you can provide as well. I may well ‘borrow’ your idea if you don’t mind?

Heck yeah, go for it that's why I shared it! In my experience half the job is managing a customers expectations and this kind of thing can help people better understand why we can/can't provide exactly what they might want.

I'm new here, but I'll probably be posting more things like this. I tend to over analyze and develop processes, and my wife is sick of hearing about it.