Drone

Radio links: path loss, fade margin, and the EIRP limit.

• Radio link budget

  Free-space path loss, received signal, and fade margin for a control or video link, with the transmitter's EIRP checked against the dated 2.4 GHz limit where you fly.

Flight patterns for mapping and inspection.

• Corridor mapping lines

  Parallel flight lines that follow a centerline (a pipeline, road, or river) across a corridor width, with the line count from your spacing, flown back and forth.

• Export a mission (KML, GeoJSON, CSV)

  Waypoints written as a KML file with the right altitude mode, GeoJSON with each waypoint's details, or CSV, labeled with the height reference and a not-for-navigation notice.

• Facade scan

  Waypoints for photographing a building face: level passes at a fixed standoff, stacked up the wall with the overlap you set, and the GSD on the facade.

• Geofence around an area

  A fence a set distance around a point, route, or area, with an optional inner warning fence, its area and perimeter, and any waypoint that falls outside.

• Orbit around a point of interest

  Waypoints on a geodesic circle around a point, each with the heading toward the center and the gimbal pitch that keeps a target height centered, like the top of a tower.

• Survey grid (lawnmower pattern)

  A serpentine mapping pattern over an area, with no-fly holes routed around, the fewest lines by default, overshoot, and an optional crosshatch: waypoints, line count, path length, turns, photo count, and flight time.

Rules checks for Part 107 and the EASA open category.

• EASA open subcategory

  Which EU open-category subcategories (A1, A2, A3) your drone may fly in, from its class mark and mass, with each subcategory's distance rule.

• Drone impact kinetic energy

  Kinetic energy ½mv² in joules and foot-pounds, compared with the EASA C1 80 J threshold and the FAA category 2 operations-over-people 11 ft-lb threshold, each cited.

• Part 107 maximum altitude

  Your maximum altitude under 14 CFR 107.51: 400 ft above ground, or up to 400 ft above a structure when you stay within 400 ft of it, shown above ground, above sea level, and above the ellipsoid.

• Part 107 groundspeed check

  Checks your groundspeed, including the wind, against the Part 107 limit of 87 kt (100 mph). A tailwind can push a legal airspeed over the limit.

Ground sampling distance, overlap, image count, blur, and accuracy.

• Height for a target GSD

  The height above ground that gives a target ground sampling distance with your camera, checked against your altitude ceiling.

• ASPRS accuracy (Edition 2)

  Horizontal and vertical accuracy by the ASPRS Positional Accuracy Standards, Edition 2, including the checkpoint survey's own error and the 30-checkpoint minimum.

• Ground sampling distance (GSD)

  How much ground each pixel covers, and the image footprint, from the camera and height above ground; catches 35 mm-equivalent focal lengths entered by mistake.

• Image count and survey size

  How many photos, flight lines, and kilometers a mapping survey of an area takes at your line and photo spacing, counted the way published flight planning counts them and from the same sweep the survey-grid tool flies.

• Motion blur and slowest shutter

  How many pixels the image smears at your speed and shutter, and the slowest shutter that keeps blur under a limit.

• Oblique GSD and footprint

  For a camera tilted off straight down, the ground each pixel covers at the image center and its near and far edges, the trapezoid the image covers, and a warning when the view reaches the horizon.

• Overlap over high terrain

  A mission flown at one height above takeoff is closer to the ground over hills, so photos cover less and overlap drops. The lowest overlap and the height left over the highest ground.

• Overlap, trigger interval, and line spacing

  Photo spacing, trigger interval, and flight-line spacing for your front and side overlap, with a check that the camera can keep up.

Battery energy, hover power, flight time, and reserves.

• Battery energy (mAh to Wh)

  Battery energy in watt-hours from capacity and voltage (or cell count), usable energy after a discharge limit and landing reserve, and the current and C-rate for a power draw.

• Calibrate hover power from a test flight

  Back-solve a multirotor's real figure of merit × efficiency from a measured hover: the energy it drew and for how long, so the hover-power and flight-time tools match your aircraft.

• Drone flight time

  Hover and cruise flight time from usable battery energy and power draw, with the landing reserve and cold-battery derating shown, and range at a groundspeed.

• Multirotor hover power

  Electrical hover power for a multirotor from its mass, rotors, and air density, by momentum theory with a figure of merit and motor efficiency, never the ideal power alone.

• Maximum payload for a flight time

  The most payload a multirotor can carry and still hover for a target time, from its mass, rotors, battery energy, and air density by momentum theory.

• What a payload costs in flight time

  The extra hover power and the flight time lost when a multirotor carries a payload, from its mass and any electrical draw, by momentum theory.

• Return-to-home energy budget

  Whether the battery can bring the drone home against the wind: return groundspeed, time, energy, the margin left, and the farthest round trip that keeps the reserve.

How far away a drone stays visible.

• Dataset size estimate

  An estimate of how much storage a mapping job needs: the raw images, the orthomosaic (uncompressed and over a compression range), and a lidar point cloud as LAS and LAZ.

• Lidar mission planning

  Swath, line spacing, and pulse density for a lidar flight, with the aggregate density over overlapping lines checked against the USGS 3DEP quality levels.

• Thermal pixel footprint

  How much ground or surface one thermal pixel covers at a distance, the smallest target you can measure reliably, and how far away you can be for a target size.

• Visual line of sight distance

  How far you can keep a drone in visual line of sight by EASA guidance: attitude line of sight from its size, detection line of sight from visibility, and the smaller of the two, checked against your farthest point.