Planner · Aerial survey
Plan a mapping flight: passes, photos, time and batteries — before you take off
Enter your area, altitude, camera and overlaps and see the ground sampling distance, lawnmower passes, trigger spacing, total distance, flight time and how many batteries to pack. All geometry, no guesswork.
Flight inputs
liveCamera
presets + customCustom camera
Picking a preset fills these fields. Editing any field switches to custom. Sensor and focal figures are typical values — check your lens card.
Quick actions
Flight plan
lawnmowerMission detail
per-pass| Metric | Value | Note |
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What to do next
How the numbers are worked out
Every figure below is arithmetic you can check by hand. Nothing is fetched from a server.
GSD and footprint
GSD = sensor-width × altitude ÷ (focal-length × image-width). Result in m/px; ×100 gives cm/px. Footprint width = GSD × image-width, height = GSD × image-height. The smaller the GSD, the finer the detail and the narrower each photo.
Line and trigger spacing
Flight-line spacing = footprint-width × (1 − side-overlap). Trigger spacing = footprint-height × (1 − front-overlap). Side overlap controls lanes; front overlap controls how often the shutter fires along each lane.
Passes, distance and photos
Passes = ceil(area-width ÷ line-spacing). Total distance = passes × area-length + (passes−1) × line-spacing for the turns. Photos = passes × ceil(area-length ÷ trigger-spacing). Cross-hatch doubles all three.
Time and batteries
Flight time = total-distance ÷ speed. Usable time per battery = rated-min × (1 − reserve). Batteries = ceil(flight-time ÷ usable-min × 1.15). The 15% is an in-flight safety margin on top of the landing reserve.
What this is not: a geometry-based flight plan; wind, terrain, obstacle clearance, local regulations and actual battery health all change the result. Preset sensor and focal figures are typical values rounded for planning — always check your own camera.
Target-GSD solver: required altitude = target-GSD × focal-length × image-width ÷ sensor-width. Use it to hit a specific ground resolution, then re-check overlaps and batteries.
Questions
What is GSD and how is it calculated?
GSD (ground sampling distance) is how much ground each pixel covers. It is sensor width × altitude ÷ (focal length × image width). A smaller GSD means finer detail but a smaller footprint per photo, so you fly lower or use a longer focal length.
What overlap should I use for photogrammetry?
Most mapping jobs need at least 70–75% front overlap and 65–70% side overlap. Below 65% on either axis the reconstruction can fail. Higher overlap gives better stitching but more photos and longer flight time.
How many batteries will I need?
Flight time is total distance ÷ speed. Usable time per battery is rated minutes × (1 − reserve). Battery count is ceiling(flight time ÷ usable time × 1.15) to leave a safety margin, and cross-hatch simply doubles it.
When is a cross-hatch (double grid) worth it?
Cross-hatch flies the same area twice, perpendicular. It helps with vertical structures, roofs and 3D models but doubles photos, distance and batteries. Skip it for flat orthomosaics where a single lawnmower grid already meets your GSD.
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