This article is an overview of all the Flight Plan settings on both the Web app (Computer) and the Mobile Flight app for a standard Map Plan.
- See Desktop Flight Planning and Mobile App Flight Planning if you are accessing the project's FLY tab for the first time.
- Other flight plan types (Corridor, Panorama, Photo, and Video) will have similar settings with a few differences depending on the plan. If you have any questions, please connect with Support@dronedeploy.com.
Capture Plan drop-down & Details:
Capture Plan: Select your flight plan with the drop-down option
Details menu (3 vertical dots): Rename, duplicate, or delete* your flight plan.
+ button: Add another flight plan to your project
*Support@dronedeploy.com can restore a deleted flight plan!
Flight Minutes, Acres, Images, & Battery:
- Minutes: the # of minutes your flight plan is projected to take
- Acres: the # of acres the flight plan is projected to cover
- Images: the # of images the flight plan is projected to capture
- Battery: the # of batteries needed for the flight plan
Note: the set Planning Camera (details below) will change these metrics!
Flight Altitude & Terrain Awareness:
Flight Altitude: set the distance above the takeoff point at which the drone captures photos. Flying higher makes the images easier to stitch at the expense of resolution. If you're mapping a complex subject, such as vegetation, a desert, or water, flying higher increases the chance of a successful map. If you have to fly lower, raise your overlap to make the photos easier to stitch.
- Resolution: the projected resolution of your processed map
Terrain Awareness:
The Terrain Awareness (TA) button will be highlighted blue when turned on for the flight plan.
- Read more about Terrain Awareness
Enhanced 3D:
Enhanced 3D: When toggled ON Enhanced 3D combines Perimeter 3D mode with Crosshatch mode to capture angled shots from the perimeter of your mission plan (Perimeter 3D) and oblique imagery above your subject in a crosshatch formation to create higher-quality 3D models.
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Enhanced 3D maps are best kept under 1,000 images.
- Read more about Enhanced 3D
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Live Map HD:
Live Map: a real-time mapping product for DroneDeploy's mobile iOS app. With it, you can produce a low-resolution 2D map on your iOS device as the drone is flying, even without a cellular or data connection!
Live Map has device requirements. Read more about Live Map
Live Map Only (No Photos): When toggled ON, this will only capture your Live Map data. No images of the flight will be saved on the drone's SD card for a manual upload.
Advanced Settings:
Advanced Settings opens to the flight plan settings:
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Automatic Settings: When toggled ON, the Advanced settings menu will minimize, and the flight will run with our Automatic setting applied. Travel Altitude: Exclusive to DroneDeploy, the Travel Altitude feature improves flight safety and reliability by automatically adjusting altitude during transit to and from your mapping area. Avoid buildings, cranes, and steep terrain by flying at a higher, user-defined travel altitude.
Front Overlap & Side Overlap*: the percentage of overlap (connecting points) between the top/bottom and sides of the images.
Flight Direction: change the direction of your flight legs. This can help resolve some flight error messages (ex: Plan Start Failed). Mapping Flight Speed: Changes the maximum allowed flight speed at which the drone can fly. The drone will not necessarily reach this speed, but it will be capped at this speed. Starting Waypoint: The first waypoint that will be flown during your flight. All previous waypoints before the starting waypoint will be skipped (represented by a dashed line on your flight plan) Gimbal Angle: controls the drone camera's angle during the flight. At -90°, your camera will point straight down. At Capture Oblique: (limited beta) Takes additional oblique images on the intro and RTH legs to improve accuracy. Perimeter 3D: adds a perimeter flight path that captures oblique imagery (65° angle) facing toward the inside of your subject. Crosshatch 3D: captrues oblique imagery directly above your subject with a 65° angle. Instead of a single pass, crosshatch doubles your plan lines and flies the drone in both directions.
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Obstacle Avoidance: enabled by default to use the built-in obstacle avoidance sensors that your drone may have to help avoid a collision.
Make Available Offline: (mobile app ONLY) when toggled ON the flight plan will save to your device allowing you to fly offline. Show Existing Map: Most recent uploaded map will show on the FLY tab when toggled ON. Record Live Map Data: Create a recording of in-flight video Live Map No-Turn: when toggled ON the drone headings will not change during flight Low Light: toggle ON when capturing in low light areas. Manual Exposure in DJI app: we will apply the manual exposure set in the DJI app during flight. Manual Focus in DJI app: we will apply the manual focus set in the DJI app during flight. Planning Camera: drop-down selector to set your planning camera. Will default to M3E.
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*Increasing overlap (side lap + front lap) generally makes stitching a more complex subject much easier. More images are captured of each feature at different view-points. The default 75/65 overlap setting will work for most maps, but if you are flying low or your subject is very homogenous (everything looks the same, like a field or a treeline), increase the overlap between 5%-15%. Increasing overlap has two main adverse effects. First, image count and time are increased. Second, if your subject has a lot of movement (people + cars), more movement will be captured, which can cause additional stitching issues.
Airspace & LAANC:
Here is where you can check your airspace and request LAANC approval. Read morea about Airspace & LAANC with DroneDeploy below:
RTK Coverage:
Check your RTK coverage! Good RTK coverage is expected if your flight is within automatic RTK network coverage. Available for RTK-compatible drones. Learn more about RTK with DroneDeploy:
Data on Demand:
Looking for a pilot to fly your missions? Check out our Data on Demand service linked above!
- Connect with Support@dronedeploy.com if you'd like to learm more about this feature
Import Flight Path:
Upload a KML or JSON file for flight planning!
Help
Have questions about your flight plan? Connect with our Support team. We'd love to hear from you!
- Email: Support@dronedeploy.com
- Live Chat: available for Individual plans and above
- Callback Requests: available for Enterprise plans