Is the Drone Industry Actually Oversaturated?

Have you ever wondered what it's like to be a drone service provider that makes over six figures a year in an industry that everyone thinks is oversaturated? Well, you're in store, and I'm sure you can see the length of this video. And there's a good reason for it. I filmed every single project that I did last year, or at least the ones that I was allowed to, to really show you how this actually works. You're not just going out taking photos and selling it to real estate brokers for, you know, new commercial listings. No, we're actually going out and providing real deliverables, solving real-world problems for people that really need this. Individuals, companies, corporations that are looking for drone service providers to come in and help solve their problems. And that's what I did for you guys in this 12-plus hour-long video. It's multiple different projects between drone mapping, doing inspection, LiDAR, thermal, and even big agricultural drones. There's a need for drone service providers to go out there and solve problems. And so in this video, I'm going to actually show you everything that it takes to be a drone service provider in terms of how to get the project set up, how to even communicate with the clients, how to collect the data, how to process it, and how to send it off as a deliverable to whatever client it may be. Whether it's for a Fly Guys, whether it's for an individual client, or whether it's for an engineering firm looking to build their own program, I'm taking you along for the entire ride. And I'm doing this all for free. There is literally no catch to this video at all. And with that being said, let's go ahead and just jump straight into this video. I'll see you guys along the way. And if this is something that interests you, be sure to subscribe because I got a lot more of this planned.

Hey guys, Dylan Gorman here. Welcome back to another video. This is, as you can see, it's going to be a completely different kind of video series, video structure than what I typically post on my YouTube channel. A lot of the stuff that I do is very curated, very highly edited. There's a lot of annotations. There's a lot of motion graphics. There's a lot of stuff that is going on within the videos themselves just to get you the information as quickly as possible without creating a lot of filler content that a lot of other people tend to do in videos. I like to just get straight to the point. But what I'm going to be doing in these series, I guess you can kind of call it a behind-the-scenes vlog of a day in the life of projects. I've already filmed several other projects just fully through. So, the idea is this video here, I'm just going to make it fully public to my entire audience. But if you want to see more videos like what you're about to see in this one of everything that I do on project sites, like I'm pulling the entire curtain back. I'm going through every little detail, showing you how I do my mapping, my modeling, whether it's LiDAR projects, setting down control points. I'm going to be screen recording both my controller screens, my computer screens, showing you how I upload data, how I process, who I'm even doing the projects for, and most importantly, what I'm getting paid for them. I like to be as transparent as possible when it comes to these things because there's a lot of people that don't really know either what to charge or what a job is actually worth. And as someone who has been in this industry for almost well well over a decade now, but doing it professionally for over six years, I obviously have a lot of experience and there is so much work that exists in this space but not a lot of people that know how to properly provide the service but again, like I said, how to offer it and and and get paid for it properly.

So in this video today, we're going to be flying for Fly Guys. Uh, they've gone through a huge transition and honestly, I really like the team that they've put together. I'm not being biased. I'm being honest here. And like I said, we're about to go out on two sites today. They actually sent me two projects. So they're relatively straightforward. The flights themselves are not that complicated, but there is some tedious factors that are involved in actually doing these projects themselves. So just like I said, I'm going to take you guys through the entire process. It's 10:08 in the morning right now. I had a little bit of a later start to the day today, but I also wanted the sun to come up a little bit more so that I can capture these properties properly. So, this first one here, I am going to switch onto my phone here. And as you can see, this is the pilot app for uh Fly Guys. So, these are the two projects that I am going to be doing today. So, this first one, um, and what I'm actually going to do is later on when we get back to my office, I'm going to walk you through what exactly it is that I'm looking at. But this simple project here, I'm getting paid $240 for, um, and today is the actual date that I'll be capturing it. So, February 6th. And on the computer, you can actually see a whole lot more. So, like I said, later on today, later on in this video, I'm actually going to show you what that looks like. But as for the notes, well, there's no notes here, but I'll I'll bring up my computer uh for it. But for the mission summary, it gives us everything in detail. We'll be going through exactly what all this is when we're actually out in the field. But the first thing that I want to do is actually navigate. So, I am going to copy this address here. So, it's uh 8205 East Adomo Drive. So, we are going to go over to our Google Maps here, and we'll type in 8205 East Adomo Drive. There we go. So, it's a 15-minute drive from where I'm at. I'm uh from my house. And then the second project is going to be about 30 minutes away from this address right here. So, it's actually pretty easy to get between both of them. So, we will go ahead and drive and uh we'll start our drive right now. And once I get to the site, I'm going to exactly walk you through exactly step by step. This is not going to be a very edited series at all. I want this to be as raw, as organic as possible to show you exactly step by step what I'm doing on these project sites because I have several different clients and you'll see in some of the other videos I'm going to be posting on this series. Make sure to become a member. Uh, so join if you want to see those. Uh, really want to make this exclusive for people that are actually serious and interested and you know, want to support me a little bit uh along the way. So let's go ahead and head straight to this first project site.

All right. So, as we get here on site, there's a big sign. I said private property. So, uh, they do know that I'm coming. Uh, I already hit the checked in or I'm about to hit the check-in button um on my app for the uh, the pilot app from Fly Guys. So, one of the first things obviously getting here on site, uh, I'm going to put my high-viz vest on. One, so that they know that I'm actually here for business and not to just uh walk around and look sketchy. But two, I always like to do a due diligence of actually walking around the site itself because we are doing some low-altitude flying and you'll see that when I pull up the actual mission spec of what we're supposed to be doing here today. Um, like two-thirds of the flights are fully automated, so I won't really have to worry about that. It's just the really the last flight that I'm doing, they want me to do a bunch of facade captures, which again, you're about to see that here very shortly. So, and there's a lot of vegetation here. Um, I'm just going to switch my camera around so that you can see. We've got a lot of very low trees, really all over the place. So, I'm going to do just a quick walk around to inspect the side and then see where my low points are, where I'm going to have to do a little bit more technical flying. Uh, that is part of the spec. So, let's uh, let's get our high-viz vest on. Let's do our walk around and then uh, we'll make our full assessment from there and then we're going to pick an area to actually take off from for our drone so that we can maintain the full visual line of sight of it. Um, I will be actually flying with RTK today just to help with enhancing the actual flight pattern that I'm doing. So, uh, let's go ahead and do our first uh, due diligence around the site.

All right. So, you can see here, I'm going to just click on check in and I'm just going to hit the check mark. We're just going to wait for it to load. Cool. So we have checked in now. Let me get my H high-viz vest on. And as for the drone that we're going to be flying today, we'll be using the Mavic 3 Enterprise. My Mavic 4 Enterprise at the time of filming this, or Matrice, I should say, comes tomorrow. So I'm really excited for that. I'll get to start using it for new future projects. But that's a total side note. So, let's uh, let's go and walk around the site here. What I just did is I did an entire site walk with the uh, site manager. Um, reason being is well, one, this is a pretty complicated site here. Um, I'm actually just going to show you this other side here of uh, what I'm dealing with. So, we have all this stuff and I've got to do an entire facade capture of the building here. So, I've got all these trees I got to deal with. I've got all of this material that's just hanging out over here. So, my manual flight is going to be pretty technical compared to just the automated flights of uh, the three missions that I'll be flying here. Yeah, you can see there's a lot of stuff going on over here. Very tight quarters and it's uh, it's also a little loud out here, too. So, I'm going to go back to my truck. But, like I said, the first two flights are going to be fully automated. I'm going to show you what those flights are. I've already done the mission planning at my office. But again, as part of the due diligence, you don't just get to the site and throw your drone up and fly. You you walk the site, you talk to the project manager, depending on what the site is. Obviously, this is just an inspection for a property. Now, if this was a Now, if this was a construction site, this would be a little bit of a different process. Um, which you will see those in some future videos, but again, for this site, just do the site walk, understand where your obstacles are going to be, which let's just go ahead and walk to this other side. And, uh, yeah, it's a live site. I mean, look, you can see we've got trucks coming in right now with material. This actual left side that I'm about to go over to is where I will be flying. So, I do have to be cautious and make sure that I don't get into the way. But, yeah, we have all of these trees that I have to deal with for my manual flight. So, that's going to be fun. I will be taking you guys along for that entire process just to show you, you know, how you actually do this. You can uh, actually see this tree right here is been blown over. This was from the hurricanes that happened back in September, October uh, here in Florida. We had Helen and Milton. That was a pain. But here we go. So, we have this entire side right here that we'll be capturing. Again, we have to do an entire manual facade capture of this side right here. So, it's um, it's I've got my work cut out for me, but it again, it's really not going to be that bad once you're comfortable with manual flight. Again, I've been doing this for over a decade, so video games have helped a lot with uh, getting good at technical flying. Um, it's not that big of a deal. You got to deal with stuff like this. So, facade capture will be interesting here. And then again, we also have all these really tall trees right here coming around. Yeah, we've got we've got this entire active site back here. So, this will be probably my most challenging area dealing with the inflow of semi-trucks, the forklifts that are moving around, and uh, again, so yeah, we'll have this entire side that I have to do a manual capture on.

So, now that I've uh, I've done that entire process, let's go and get the drone up in the air. Let's get connected to RTK cuz I do want that enhanced accuracy. Uh, not just for the photos, but for the drone actually flying. And we're going to set a timer. So, I got here around 10:30. I checked in. I did a site walk. It's about 10:45 right now. So, we're about 15 minutes into our actual project site. Um, outside of the 15 minutes that it took for me to drive here. Yeah, we'll see how quickly we can do this, but also how safely we can do this as well, cuz that's that's a very important factor. It's not just about getting it done quick, but it's also about getting it done safely and properly, too. So, let's go to the truck and let's take a look one more time at what exactly it is that I'm flying for Fly Guys for this site and make sure that all of those settings for our automated mission is properly programmed into the drone. And then they also have a spec sheet on how they want us to do the facade capture.

All right. So, I got my laptop out here and I'm just going to use my phone as a hot spot for internet, which I'm also going to be using that for my drone, too. So, let me get my drone out. Again, we're going to be flying with the Mavic 3 Enterprise. That is what is required from Fly Guys to complete this site. We do have an SD card in here. I wanted to make sure that I have that. Let's get our gimbal off here. And we'll put in our first battery. Cool. Make sure that our RTK hat is on here properly. So, I'm just going to put this guy up top and my controller. So, now let me just log on to my computer here. Logging into my portal here from Fly Guys. All right. So, here is my project. Let's go to the read more for the mission details. And we can see they want a full site 3D orthomosaic in a cross-hatch pattern at 115 ft. They want a 75% front and a 65% side overlap. Uh, rather than it being nadir, they want us to put the gimbal at a 75° and they want de-warping on. So for the cross-hatch pattern, they want parallel and perpendicular to the building length. Uh, so we'll make sure that we do that on the controller. They also want us to do a roof or mosaic. So they want us to be 25 ft above the roof level. What I did is I actually used Google Earth Pro to measure the height of the building as just a reference to figure out how high I need to make that orthomosaic that they want us to capture. But because we're here on site, I'll actually be able to verify that and then adjust the settings. So let's say that the roof is 50 ft, then we'll fly it at 75 ft. But and if that's what it said on Google Earth, then that's what it said on Google Earth. And actually, why don't I just quickly show you what that process looks like here. So, I'm gonna open up Google Earth Pro and I'm going to type in 8205 East Adomo Drive. Or maybe it was 8203. I might have been might have been wrong here, but this this should put us pretty close. Oh, I was right. Okay. So, using this tool right here, what we're going to do is we're going to go to this side over here that I can see best. And if you aren't seeing the 3D model here on the left-hand side, you have the the layers. So if I turn that 3D model off or 3D building layer off, you won't get that. I'm going to turn that 3D on. And then the last thing I'm going to use is this um uh ruler here. And I'm going to use the 3D path. And I'm going to have the length in feet. So we'll click the bottom of the building and we'll click somewhere at the top. So this says it's 29 ft. I'm just going to call it 30 ft. And then I'll add another 25 feet to my mission plan uh to get that spec for our um for our roof orthomosaic. Again, they also want a 75% frontal overlap and a 65% side overlap. Also a 75° gimbal angle, de-warping on. And they want us to just do do a regular lawn mower pattern. So no cross-hatch after we do our automated flight, which this really shouldn't take too long. This site isn't really that big. In total, I think it's going to take us about 10 minutes to get all three of those flights done. Uh, the reason why I say three flights rather than two, uh, for the full site 3D ortho, if you're flying with DJI Pilot 2, it only lets you do one lawn mower pattern. They don't have any cross-hatch built into it, unless I do, uh, an oblique, but the oblique is not going to get what I want. Um, so I the way that I do that is actually create one ortho first uh with all the parameters and then I'll copy it, duplicate it, and then I'll shift the course angle, basically the direction of what the drone flies. And I'm going to change it by 90° so that I have parallel and perpendicular to the actual length of the building. So once we've done all of our automated flights, we're going to do building facade obliques. So we'll do the upper level um and then they want us to do lower level. Uh, and it gives us some specifications here on exactly how they want us to do that. So if I click on the uh site technologies guideline PDF and it's going to save and I'm going to open it up. If we scroll on here, it gives us exactly how they want us to do it. So for the facade capture, they tell us exactly how they want us to gather it. So, they want about 5% of uh the roof to be above it. Uh, in terms of like let's say what you're looking at right now, see how I have this headspace in the video? They want roughly about I mean that's a little bit more than 5%. So maybe that's about 5% of the roof line in it. But again, if you remember, we have all these trees in here. So we're going to have to do the best that we can in gathering all that data. They also give us an example of how that's going to look um in gathering those photos. Now, one thing that I like to do is I actually like to use a timed interval capture rather than manually doing the trigger here. I actually might have to do some manual trigger and timed interval because of how many trees we have on this site. So, that is something that we're going to have to work around. But again, this is all part of the spec. So, going back to the actual flight itself, we'll also do a lower level uh facade, meaning we're just going to be pretty much about halfway above uh, yeah, it says half the roof height. So, we'll be about 15 ft above. Um, actually, if you can see behind me here, there's like right below this yellow line, there's this textured part of the building. That's what we're going to use as our reference point. Again, we have to be far far enough back to be able to get the entire building in the frame of each photo. So, again, this is going to be a pretty technical capture, which is why I like using the Mavic 3 Enterprise. Even though that is a required drone for this, we do have some obstacle avoidance that we'll be leveraging. In some cases, you're going to have to turn it off because of where you're going to have to position your drone. For example, this tree that I have literally right here, right? It sits pretty low. It It's about like 15 ft of right where I'm pointing in this area. So again, you're going to have to play around with turning off the obstacle avoidance, turning it on, using RTK, using all these different technologies to help really gather the data properly for this spec. So yes, it's $280. This maybe should be about a $350, maybe $400 job, but also at the end of the day, I'm not doing any of the data processing. I'm just doing the data gathering. And me sitting here talking to you and explaining it is obviously eating into that time. But again, I just want to take you through the step by step of how I go about gathering data for different clients. Right? If this is a completely different client, let's say SiteView or TraceAir or one of these other clients that I have, they may not have these specs because this is not what they're looking for. But for Fly Guys, for their client, this is exactly what they want and they've built out a very beautiful way of understanding exactly how to do all these captures.

The next thing I'm going to do is actually get our drone up in the air. I want to do some height checks. So, let's just find an open spot to take off from. What I'll do, I'm actually just going to go out of frame here. I went uh just to the side of my truck where there's an open spot cuz right here, obviously there's a lot of vehicles that drive by here. But two, there's also a tree right above me. So, I don't want to hit that. So, the first thing we're going to do is we're going to take our drone up to 115 ft. Make sure that there's no obstacles because that's the first two flights for our cross-hatch. So, first let's go ahead and go into our Wi-Fi here and let's make sure that my phone's Wi-Fi is on so that I can connect my controller to it. All right, this is on. There it is connected. Okay, we're going to go back into our controller. Let's just go into our camera view and I want to go into our RTK mode. Um, and I want to use our FOT configuration or the Florida GPS one. And I'm going to change instead of a virtual reference system, I'm going to use IMAX because this is going to connect us to the closest one, which it should actually be very close to us. Well, while we wait for that, let's make sure that we have enough storage on here. Um, I'm going to just go ahead and reformat my camera here. So, we're going to format our memory card. Cool. So now we have enough space for the data that we're going to be capturing today. Go back to our RTK. There we go. We're almost uh almost at a fix here. Cool. So we're already on a float. We went from a single to a float. We'll give this another 60 seconds or so to get us to a fix. These are just part of the things you got to wait for. Um, but it's also, this is one of the reasons why I want to do a very uncut, unfiltered version of my typical YouTube videos because I think it is important to see realistically like how all this stuff works. And it's not it's not as quick as it may seem in video. Uh, where I'm bouncing around within 10, 15 minutes in a video of doing all these different things of capturing data, getting to the site and, you know, processing and doing all these different things. It's uh situations like this where you got to be patient or you got to be able to figure out how to overcome, you know, potential problems, right? If this RTK doesn't work, then I'm probably going to turn it off and not fly with RTK. But me personally, I like using RTK just for the enhanced uh trajectory, the enhanced quality that I'm getting from all the photos. And I truly believe in, you know, underpromise, overdeliver to your clients. If they ask you to do one thing, you know, give them that service, but go just a little bit above and beyond than what you're actually delivering, right? Fly Guys doesn't ask me to use RTK, but I'm going to use it just to make them look better for their clients so that they can keep hiring me for future projects that come this way. You know, for right now, I'm just going to turn it off because what I want to do is I want to get my heights in here. So, right now, we're just going to look on the bottom right of our screen for our altitude. And I'm just going to go straight up. And I'm going to use the middle cursor to figure out the true altitude. So Google Earth said that it's 29 ft tall. And it's pretty damn close. So we're actually at 32 ft for our altitude of the rooftop. And again, I also want to go all the way up to 115 ft. So the tallest tree here looks like it's about 62, 63 feet. Turning around. We do have those towers, but those towers aren't going to be in our way. So, let's keep going up. And that is 115 right there. So, we look we look good. There's nothing that's going to be in the way. And I actually do want to turn my collision avoidance systems back on. Okay, great. Okay, so I am comfortable with the flight altitudes here. Now that we know that this is 32 ft and not 30 ft, let me bring our drone down. Okay. And now we're going to go into our mission plans here. So let's see. Here's my Adomo. So my 3D1 and 3D2. So, my 3D1 goes perpendicular to the building and my 3D2 goes parallel. Let's just make sure that the flight altitudes are proper here. So, yep, 115 ft. And let's just double check my gimbal angle. So, they wanted a 75% frontal, 65% side. And my custom gimbal pitch is going to be 75°. Let's just check that on 3D1 and it should be the same. Um, let's see here. Yep. 75, 65, and 75%. Cool. And then the last thing is our rooftop. So, actually, if we do remember, we do have that tree that, let me go back into this. So, we do have that tree that's at 65 or 62 ft. So, if we add uh 25 ft to our 32, that's going to put us at 57 ft. And I believe so, let me get up to 57 ft. Yeah. So, and if we get close to this tree here. Yeah, that's not going to be that's not going to be good cuz the tree does overhang a bit. Just like that. So, 57 ft is not going to be what we need. Um, we're actually going to need to fly at, honestly, I'm going to put it at 75 ft. I know that's a little bit higher than the spec that they gave us, but I'm going to put into the notes that there was a tree that overhangs um onto the building that was much lower or it's much higher than our lowest altitude that we're flying. So, uh, 75 ft it will be. So, let's go ahead and bring our drone back over here. So, let's go back into our mission plan here and let's go into our edit. And yeah, our route altitude is actually set to 55. So, I believe we said we're going to do 75. And we we can slow the speed down. Uh, let's just do like 7 miles an hour. I'll make sure we have a 75, 65, and 75° camera angle. Perfect. So, that should help eliminate that issue on the roof there. Okay. Now, let's go back. I'm going to go back into our camera view to see if we can turn on our RTK mode, which it looks like we can. So, we'll turn it back on. Scroll to the bottom. And there we go. We can now fly in RTK mode. So, we got 40 satellites that we are connected to. So, let's go ahead and for this 3D1, where's it going to finish at? Okay, it's going to finish just to the left over or it's going to start over there. So, it's going to finish at the back end. So, what I'm actually going to do is go into this edit and I'm going to go to the advanced settings and I'm going to change my start point to be the opposite end. So, we'll hit okay, hit save, and I'm going to go to my 3D2, and we'll change that setting as well so that it finishes uh behind me. So, back into the advanced, we'll go to the start point and we'll start it at the other end like so. And then the last thing that I want to change is the actual roof mission plan to start on the opposite end. So, we go again, advanced settings, start point, and we'll start on this side here. Excellent. Okay. So, what I'm going to do now is we're going to go into our 3D1 and I'm going to put the phone in my pocket. We're going to hit play. Um, RTK is fine. Avoid is fine. We'll hit next. Now they want us to turn de-warping on and then when the flight route is completed, I want it to actually just exit the route mode so that I can just switch it over to the next mission plan. That way I don't have to land the drone and then start the new one. For our camera mode, I'm going to put it into auto or aperture. I'm going to put it at a 5.6 aperture. And we'll hit upload flight mission here. and we'll hit uh, well, first of all, I want to put my computer and stuff away. So, let's go ahead and hit start. Excellent. So, I'm actually going to bring you along with me here. So, we're going to maintain visual line of sight. And because it's going to be starting at the other end, I'm just going to walk across so that I can watch the drone. So, there it goes. Let's go into our camera view mode here. So, we're at 115 ft. Going to its first waypoint. And then we'll see it's going to get into position. And then it's going to switch that camera gimbal to that 75° angle just like so. And we are on its way. Cool. So, it's automatically flying. And here it comes. And what we can actually use is these um, the vision sensors on here just to maintain uh, spatial awareness of where the drone is at to make sure it doesn't fly anything. But we already did our flight check so it's not going to be any issues here. Go back into the camera here. Excellent. So I'm just going to go off to the side here just so I can be in a good spot to watch the drone. Which there it is. And I am actually going to use Oh, there used to be a sidewalk here. This whole thing is ripped up. But yeah, we're just going to stand right here and watch the drone do its thing. And it's really not that long of a flight. We've already been flying for about a minute. It's a two, two and a half or three and a half minute flight. So again, the automated mission on these sites, you know, for the $280 that I'm getting paid, it's totally fine. Really, the tedious part is the actual manual capture. And you'll see when we go to the next site that it's going to be way easier. And we're actually going to be joined by Julia, who actually works at Fly Guys. She's based here in St. Petersburg, uh, Florida. Uh, Fly Guys's headquarters is in Lafayette, Louisiana. And I'm actually hoping to get a chance to go and hang out with the rest of the team there. I've already met a lot of the executive board. They're great people. Uh, but believe it or not, this is actually one of the very first projects that I am doing for them. And these are these are real prices. This isn't anything inflated. They're not changing the prices, you know, to make it look better for for me. Uh, this is actually what they are paying pilots uh for projects like this, which is way better than what SiteView is paying to be to be honest. Keep you right there for a second. So this is about to finish its mission plan here. Excellent. So now it's going to exit out. And then what we can do here is that was just 3D1. So now we can open up 3D2. and we will start this guy. Make sure every all the settings are the same. We'll turn de-warping on. And when the flight route is completed, we will exit the route mode again. Keep it the aperture mode. We'll hit upload and start. So now this is going to go across the property here. There it goes across. And we'll go back into our uh vision sensor mode just to make sure it's going to fly safely here. Cool. So we'll go back into our camera mode. We're at that 75 camera degree angle. Cool. And we are back to mapping. So, this is going to take This one's about 4 minutes long. I won't bore you with this one. So, I'm just going to stop the recording and we'll check back in. We'll check back in once we're ready to do the uh rooftop flight.

All right, this is finishing up its flight here now. There's the drone. Let's flight path. Then the last one that we have to do is the rooftop. Um, and this is one that I think I'm actually going to change a few settings on. All right, cool. So, this is good here. So, it's going to just exit out. Okay. Now, we'll go into our roof flight mode here. It's going to start at uh this end where I'm at and then it's going to finish by the truck. So, let's go into the edit mode just real quick just to verify a few settings. Uh, it's going to take 2 minutes and 20 seconds to fly. Looks good to me. And everything else looks good here. Okay, I'm going to just drop our takeoff speed just a little bit because we're flying a little bit lower, so I don't want the drone to crash into anything. So, I'm going to hit save. I'm going to hit the play button. Um, everything else looks good on here. Again, we want to make sure that de-warping is turned off. Safe takeoff altitude. I'm just going to put it at 115. Um, actually, hold on. One other thing that I want to do specifically for the rooftop on our capture mode, I want it to do a distance interval shot. Cool. Just so that it's equal distances of data gathering. De-warping on. We'll increase our safe takeoff altitude. Camera mode. I want it 5.6 aperture. Everything else good. Um, oh, and return, I want just want it to exit out. Would start. So now the drone should be heading to the first waypoint. There she is. Okay. And then it should be dropping down to about 75 ft here. Perfect. It's going to shift around. We'll have that 75 camera degree angle. And there we go. Okay. So, now we'll just uh I just want to take a look at the vision sensors here, especially when it gets close to that other tree. I do have it set to avoid, but we'll see. We'll see what happens here um on this actual flight path because I am genuinely curious at how it's going to handle that tree. By the way, I do just want to take a note that we've done all of this on just one single battery. We still have 50% left and still 20 minutes of flight time, which is incredible. The longest flight here will have been that last flight that we did, which was about 4 minutes. The first one was about 3 and a half, and this one is 2 minutes and 20 seconds. So really gathering this data is just cake work. Okay, so we are in the path of the tree here. So let's see what it does. Hopefully it doesn't give me any errors here. Okay. Okay. Okay. We are good. We are directly over the tree. Okay, perfect. So exactly what I did. exactly what I thought it was going to do. That's exactly why I added a few more feet to the actual tree itself. It was 62, like 63 ft. Us adding about another 10 ft above the tree. That's what I typically do if there are going to be any obstacles that the drone has to fly towards or into. Just add that extra 10 ft. And this is exactly why you do the due diligence before you throw your drone up in the air. Yes, you can do all the mission planning at the office before you actually get out into the field, but if you aren't actually checking the altitudes and checking if anything is different, because what you see in Google Earth Pro or on the satellite view compared to what you see when you're actually at the project site can be completely different. Like this tree that I have the camera set up on right now, this is not down in any aerial image view that we have. So, this just finished up. Let's go ahead and walk back over to the truck. and bring it back down. I'm going to do a battery swap. Um, so that we have enough battery for do I feel like even at 45% battery life, I have more than enough to do all my data gathering for the manual flight here, but I just I just want to make sure uh that I have enough. So, I'm just going to put a fresh battery in real quick. So, what I'm going to do is actually I'm going to keep my drone controller on so that I still have my connection to my phone. Drone just landed here. So, let's get a fresh battery. Turn it back on. Now, for this manual data capture that we're doing, because there's two different altitudes, they want us to be one slightly above the roof line and then the second one pretty much right in line at an altitude like straight on with a 0° uh gimbal angle. I'm going to pick one side of the building to start on and then kind of do a loop back because one, I can't actually access the entire building going all the way around. So, I'm actually only going to show you one part of this data capture. I'm just going to do this left side for the side that we started the video on. Uh, one because I do want to just focus, but what I will do is I will screen record and then just do a bit of a time lapse so you can see um exactly how that entire process goes through. So, now that I've got a fresh battery in, looks like we got to wait for RTK once again here to kick back in. And uh, what I'll do just to help it out because it is at a low spot. I'm just going to throw the drone up just for a second. This is a cheater way of doing it, but hey. So, let's make sure I get my phone with me. And cool. So, RTK should work now. Let me just bring it back down. Okay. So, now we can turn RTK back on. It's going to update its position and we are good to go. Okay, so let's turn it back on and I'm just going to get the drone up in the air here and I'll reposition it once we get to our spot. So, this is the pain in the ass side of the building I have to deal with here. So, you actually get to see probably the hardest part of this entire capture. I'm just going to bring the drone over to me here. And what I'm actually going to do is switch into this F mode. Okay, clicking back into this F mode. It should put me into the tripod mode. It It slows the speed of the drone in terms of how you move, which is really critical in situations like this. So, let's go ahead and bring the drone down at the desired height that they want. They want a 30°, 35° camera gimbal angle, which we can see um on this bottom left. Right. Come on. There we go. So, we're at 35° right there. Let's bring the drone down. That's about the height. Let me go a little bit more. All right. So, I'm just going to go into the settings here. We'll keep the image format to 4x3. And I want to make sure that I have de-warping. So, there we go. De-warping turned on. I like having a grid when I capture so that I can properly see what is going on. Okay. And then shooting at a 5.6 aperture, especially when we're close to the building, is going to give enough of a sharp enough image where there's not a there's not a depth of field that's happening, right? We don't want a focus distance. We want the focus to be the whole shot. So, what I like to do is I'm going to just shimmy over. Let's make sure that we have obstacle avoidance mode on. So, cool. Let's set on avoid. Okay, we're at that 35 camera degree angle. I'm going to just punch down a little bit. And I can punch in a little bit more. That looks good. And I'm going to switch this over to timed. And we'll do every two seconds. And then we'll hit start. And I'm just going to slowly pan across the building here. Even though we have this massive pine tree that I'm about to go in front of, there's nothing that I can really do other than capture this exactly how I'm capturing it right now. And we are getting pretty close to a tree here. Let's just go slightly up. It looks like my drone is helping me go up and over. And then we're going to slowly I'm just going to do this so I can see down. Still maintaining visual line of sight of it. Okay, cool. So, now that that's done, I'm going to bring you with me. I'm going to just keep the drone hovering for a second. We now need to do the basically having the camera gimbal point straight at the building. So, let me just come over here. Just put you down. So, I'm just going to flip the gimbal. We're going to come down. Now, we do have this massive oak tree right here that's going to make it a real pain. And I think we were going to pick a spot. So, I'm just just bear with me. I'm going to walk out of frame here for a second. Okay. And we're going to start our timed interval here. Now, as we get close to this oak tree, it's already starting to move my drone. So, I'm just going to stop it. I'm going to turn off my obstacle avoidance and I'm going to switch into a single mode and I'm just going to pan the camera around just to kind of show the spot that I'm at. Now I'm going to move my drone around and we may actually lose a little bit of RTK signal here because of how we are flying near these trees. Now mind you, I'm still in that tripod mode which is is significantly slowing the speed of the drone down and this is good in in situations like this. So cool. Now that we're back down again, I'm going to get as close as I can and then do some manual triggers here of the building. And I am out of frame here. So, let me just move myself so you can see what is going on. Now, I do have this massive metal pile here that I do have to watch out for. So, let me see if I can actually pull the drone back a bit. Okay. And I'm going to go back into the timed interval mode and we'll turn it back on and just start slowly panning across the building here. We will go right in front of those metal boxes, but that there's nothing I can really do about that. Mind you, I still have my obstacle avoidance off, so I do need to be cautious. But great, we are almost done with this first side of the building. Okay, I know I significantly walked out of frame there, but you saw what my controller screen was doing, but as you can see, it's uh this is not an easier building to do. I've had plenty of much simpler project sites to do. Granted, this should only take me about 30 minutes, so I should only

be able to use just one battery. Add that with, we'll call it, the 10 to 15 minutes of flight that I did with, um, the automated, you know, 45 minutes on site is really not bad for $200, $280. So, I I can't really complain there.

But what I will do now, um, I'll set you up just so you can kind of see this last little portion here of, uh, data gathering because this is a bit of a tricky side. Um, I will be wrapping up the filming portion of this. But you've you've been able to honestly see quite a bit of this entire process.

Let me just turn my avoid back on. We're going to send the drone up here cuz I'm going to come to this side of the building that I'm on. All right. Well, that should be pretty good. So, we'll do this and we'll slowly pan across. So, I do have this oak tree that is about to come into my drone's path. So, I'm just going to punch the drone a little forward here. But then I also have the oak tree at the end. Look like I got to go up just a tad. And I'm just going to go and, uh, assist the drone here for this last little portion. And that might be as far as I can go. So from there, I'm just going to go into a single mode and then just take a few photos like so. Just so that the client can see that I can't fly in there because there is a tree.

Okay. So, now that that is done, we can now bring the drone down. So, that's pretty much it for that. I'm going to finish wrapping up the rest of this actual shoot itself. So, that's probably going to take me another 10 minutes at most. I mean, it really didn't take me that long to do this side, but I do want to be able to focus, and I do want to just use this last battery on the last two sides of the building. Once that is complete, we'll do a wrap-up debrief of everything that we just shot. And I'll actually show you what it looks like to go through and just verify some photos cuz I don't want to come back out here and I want to make sure that Fly Guys are getting all the photos that they need properly. So, we'll do that debrief here in a second.

Okay, so just finished up with the entire flight. Had about 20% battery life remaining, um, on the drone. The last thing that I'm going to do here, just again as part of that due diligence, and it's really important, especially after you gather your data, is to check the images that you just captured. So, here I'm just going to go to my album and I'm on the Mavic 3 Enterprise here and we can see the photos that I'm looking at here. So, I'm just going to make sure that just scrolling through I've got I've got the photos that I need. I feel really good about all of these photos here, especially these manually captured ones, right? I just showed, "Hey, there's a lot of stuff in the way." Um, so, yeah, I, uh, I feel really good about all these photos. Yep. Here's some more of the tree. And I'm just showing, "Hey, there is a tree in the way. I can't fly that close to where they want me to fly." So, I feel good about this. We can go ahead and just save all that data.

Um, I'm going to go for a lunch break and I believe, what time is it right now? It's 12:00. So, I'm supposed to be meeting up with Julia in about an hour or so. Um, so, yeah, I think with doing a lunch and then I'm going to shoot her a call on the way. It will be, uh, it'll be good. So, we'll, uh, we'll see you out there with Julie at the next site. But, we are fully completed here. This took about about an hour. I got started around 10:45 with my site walk. Um, it is 12:00 right now, but also did a few extra things as well, just take some documented photos. But, we'll call it about an hour and a half total of being at the site. So, really not that bad. Um, granted I still have to drive to the next site, but it's really not that much further away. Not a bad day to make, uh, you know, about $600. So, we'll, uh, we'll see you out in St. Pete now.

Okay, I'm just jumping in here real quick. Don't worry, we'll get back into what you guys were just watching. There is plenty to watch. Don't worry. But, I wanted to make a note here. If you like what you're seeing and you actually want to learn how to provide this as a professional service, whether it was with drone mapping or with aerial LiDAR data collection, and I'm not just talking about the collection side, I'm talking about literally everything. Understanding how these systems and softwares work and actually how to provide this as real-world deliverables and services to your clients. Well, this is the biggest discount I'm ever going to offer. 35% off of either my drone mapping mastery online course or my aerial LiDAR fundamentals. And if you bundle them together, it's going to be an even nicer discount. And I'm going to take it one step further. Again, an offer that I've never provided before. $300 off of our in-person either drone mapping mastery workshop or our aerial LiDAR mastery workshop. I've never done that before. So, if this is something that you guys want to take advantage of specifically for the in-person, I'm only going to allow this for the first four people that take advantage of this offer. $300 off for the in-person training. And then for the online course, it's going to be for the first 25 people that use the link down below. So, if you want to get 35% off and lifetime access to the online course or get access to our in-person training for the biggest discount that we've ever provided, check the links down below.

With that being said, go ahead and get back to watching this, uh, really long video that we have here.

Just arrived to the next location here in St. Petersburg. This one happens to be, let me just throw my key in here. We got batteries charging. This one's a little bit of an easier site, but there are also some other complications that exist here. So, I'm just going to switch the camera around. We have this warehouse, uh, distribution center that we are going to be capturing. And actually, let me get my, uh, high-vis vest on so that I don't just look like a stranger walking around the site. Here I am right next to the interstate, so it will be a little bit loud. Honestly, it's kind of amazing how people will just kind of ignore you wearing a high-vis vest. Makes my job a little bit easier so I don't have to deal with people coming up to me saying, "Hey, what are you doing? Not supposed to be here." Blah, blah, blah. But anyways, so I'm just going to flip this around.

So, one of the things in doing my due diligence, uh, especially looking at Google Earth, is I noticed that there's these massive transmission lines here. Granted, these are the ones that go across 275 here, but my mission plan also buds right up to where these transmission lines are. So, as part of doing my due diligence here, again, just like the other site, I'm going to take the drone up and fly it all the way up to really the height of these power lines here. Now, we have these small ones that go right up against, they're actually, they're going straight through this, uh, the parking lot back here. So, as we can see this one that's right here, this little tiny pole, these are only about 60 ft tall. So, I'm not too concerned about these power lines here. So, obviously I have these small ones here and then I've got these really tall ones to the left. So, what I might have to do is honestly just shift my entire mission plan cuz it is actually like out on this side where this big pole is. I'm going to just shift it into the parking lot a bit. This is something that I have communicated with the project manager on site. So, I do just have to make sure that, well, one, that they know that I am adjusting the mission plan cuz they did give me a KML of where they wanted me to fly. This flight is just like the other site. So, I have to do the crosshatch. I'm not going to go through that process again, uh, cuz you've already seen how I've done that. But I will do the entire flight. And I also have to fly 25 ft above the actual roof line here cuz they wanted an ortho of up above there.

While I wait for Julia to get here, you guys will meet her and she's going to give a little bit of an introduction of herself and kind of tell you what her role is over at Fly Guys. Uh, I'm going to throw the drone up just to get my initial assessment, but I also want to check the height of the building here so that I can put those specifications directly into my roof, my, uh, roof ortho. So, let's, uh, let's get the drone up in the air. I will be flying RTK again. One thing I forgot to mention that the other site I did lose RTK connectivity towards the end, but that mainly had to do with me flying underneath a lot of the trees. So that, some, that is going to happen. Um, that's just more of GPS tech. The GNSS receiver itself, um, on the drone for the RTK hat. If I had something like an AMOLED or a DRTK2 or DUTK3, the same thing would happen underneath trees. Really, any GPS device, you're going to get that same kind of issue underneath trees. So anyways, enough about the trees. Let me get this drone up in the air. Let's do our initial assessment. Make sure that we have, uh, proper flight altitudes. Um, as well as just, I do want to check, I do want to check that over there. So, let's go into our camera view here. I think it's still booting up. Yep. So, we're just waiting for RTK to connect. So, I'm not going to try and waste too much of this battery life, but let's go ahead and put it up.

Nope, I did forget. So, this is a LAANC authorized site. So, let me pop into Aloft here and on my phone. What I'm going to do real quick, I'm just going to set up U. So, here maybe kind of hard to see, but I'm just going to set up a quick mission for where I'm at. We're doing a commercial flight, and I don't really have to do that big of an area. This is a 200T zone, which is perfect. Um, I don't need to request any higher cuz the highest that we're flying is 115 ft. We just got the green approval. Maybe hard to see there on the screen. And cool, we are good to fly. Additionally, I also want to check in here on my pilot app. So on here, again, it's hard to see, but this is the first flight that we just did. This is the second site. So I'm just going to click on check in. And cool. We are now checked in. So Fly Guys knows that I'm here. Now, let's take the drone off here.

So, the first thing that I want to check is this roof line here. So, again, we'll just mark, uh, we'll just line up this center marker here, and we're looking at 37 ft. However, there are two palm trees just to the right. So, we can see those palm trees. So, let's go. If we add 25 ft to, uh, 37, yeah, we'll have, we'll have plenty of flight altitude to, uh, to fly here. The one thing I do want to do though is I'm going to go all the way to the other side because I do have a flight plan that is going to go bud right up against these, uh, power lines over here. So, I do just want to do that due diligence check. So, we can see that the power pole is just across the street. So, if I recenter it and we go up and I'm actually going to switch over to my zoom camera here. So, it looks like we are right at 102 ft for where this power line pole is. So, I do feel pretty confident there. And then as for these DRO ones across, let's switch back into my zoom. So, if I go up all the way up, these are 100 and 30 ft tall. Okay. But those, those really tall ones, the, the 130 ft ones, those ones aren't actually in my flight plan. It's more of these 100 and two, right? I believe that was 102 ft. Let me just switch back over here. Okay. So, I'm going to go back to the zoom. So, if I go up. So, yeah, 102. We'll call it 103 ft. Let me just go to this border here on the end. Looks like these ones might actually be a little bit lower. So, let me just make sure my gimbal is centered here. Okay. Yeah. So, however, I do see that massive power line right there. But that is for the m, that is for the big transmission line. So, I don't necessarily have to worry too much about that one there. I just need to worry about this little guy. So, let me just recenter again. Let me drop my altitude down. And it, it looks like we are 85 ft. Yep. So, 85, 86 ft here.

Now, let's go into our flight route. Here is our Gandandy. So, I'm going to do, uh, the 3D one right here. Let's just make a tiny adjustment to the actual mission plan itself. So, I'm actually at a perfect. Yep. This is perfect here. So, we're flying at 115 ft. We'll just do 116 just to add a little buffer there. Um, our flight speed is perfectly fine. And then our route altitude. So, our frontal is 75%, our side is 65. I'm going to change this back over to a distance interval. And when we have a 75 degree camera gimbal angle and we're good to go. So, we're going to do the first flight and I'm going to take you with me and I need to make sure that I have my phone in my pocket for the Wi-Fi. So, I'm going to hit the play button on here. Everything else looks good on here. Make sure I turn our dewarping on. And then when it finishes, I just want it to exit the route mode just like before. Aperture mode 5.6. We're going to upload our flight mission here and hit start. There goes our drone and we're going to walk over to where the drone is going to go. So, I'm actually going to go to my vision sensors here and I'm going to have my hand just on the pause. All right, we look good there. So, let's go into our camera mode. We are, we are close, but based off of my mission planning, we should be perfectly. Yeah, this, this looks good to me. So, as I make my way over here, I just want to again maintain that visual line of sight of the drone itself. Let me go into our vision sensor here just to watch. Yeah, that is very, very sketchy. But we just got to the edge there. And yeah, we did, we did go over the power lines over there, but we are not going to run into any issues at all. As it, uh, gets to the end here, we're going to start making our way to the other side of the building just so that we can watch, uh, what is going on here.

How's it going? I'm doing a little behind the scenes of actually gathering.

>> Uh, I'm actually going to have you talk a little bit.

>> Oh, okay. Cool.

>> Kind of give you your role and what you're doing.

>> I wish I had my M4, but it's not here yet.

>> Hey, we can only do so much.

>> All right, so just finished up doing the three orthos. I did the two were for the crosshatch and then did the rooftop. So, have to swap out a battery now. But now that, uh, Julie's actually here, wanted to kind of tell you a little, wanted her to tell you a little bit about what she does at Fly Guys, some of the stuff that they're working on, and really what you guys have planned for 2025 on the pilot front, cuz I know you guys do have some W2 pilots. Um, but that's not a lot of them. I know you guys heavily rely on the network, which there's a reason why you guys built out the network. So, you've been there for a year working on some other stuff, but you just switched roles. So, I'll kind of let you explain that one.

>> Well, sure. Yeah. My name is Julia, Julia Gara. I am currently a solutions architect here at Fly Guys. Um, I started as the director of premium services. And there's two sides of our business here at Fly Guys. There's the marketplace missions and premium services. There are some missions that either there's equipment that's too expensive or who too high caliber to just assume that anybody off the block owns that at home. So, therefore, just like you mentioned, we use our internal pilots for missions like those. But by and large, 99% of our missions are with the marketplace pilots, such as yourself and other people in our marketplace. There's about 15,000 pilots who have signed up in our marketplace. It's free to sign up. Um, and this year we're doing some really exciting things. We started a new department last year called Pilot Experience where it's led by pilots for pilots. They full-time just invest in you all as the marketplace. Um, the intent is to create a learning management system to provide support on our individual missions to onboard and to answer questions about the FAA. You know, it's a, it's kind of a muddy world out there. Sometimes things change really quickly. So, we want to offer a consultant for you guys as pilots to be able to call internally. Um, in my role here as a solutions architect, my hope is that I can appropriately assist our sales team to define and understand the scope of work on the front end so that when we're providing a scope of work to you all, it's written by a pilot. I myself am a pilot as well.

>> It's clear and we can actually understand what's going on.

>> Right? Yeah. We're talking about overlap and GSD and elevation and the means and methods of flight. If you're using Pilot 2 or DroneDeploy or something else, uh, we want to get into the nitty-gritties to make you successful and us successful. It's a part of our creed that we want to do first time right, full time, and that is from the bid all the way to completion of delivery of that data. Uh, so that's my goal here at Fly Guys and I'm very, very excited about 2025. It looks like a very exciting year of flying over parking lots, forestry, agriculture, and all sorts of different verticals.

>> Sweet. What's funny, a little bit of context here, Jul and I have actually known each other for coming up, actually over two years now. I believe you were at a different, uh, company, engineering firm, right?

>> Yeah.

>> Engineering firm for quite a while heading up a lot of the drone tech. Well, not just drone tech, but

>> a lot of

>> mostly drones.

>> Mostly drone technology. Um, and you moved over to Fly Guys about a year ago.

>> Yeah. My one-year anniversary was last week.

>> Last week. Oh, wow. Yeah. So,

>> we're in the first week of February. So, yeah, that's that's crazy. Yeah. La Exactly a year ago, I was in Argentina. So, I was, uh, on a on a different, uh, part of the hemisphere,

>> uh, flying drones. But no, it's, it honestly, it's great to be back here in the States and and doing projects like this and actually bringing you guys along to show you what that full process looks like.

>> And really what we did at that first site is obviously the exact same that we're doing at this site. And I, I do have to give you guys an applause for the whole, uh, SOP that you've written out for the different metrics that you have or the different, uh, flight missions that you have. So, what's a little bit different compared to some of the other platforms that I've worked for, they just give you a bullet point list of, hey, fly at this height. Uh, we need a 20-megapixel camera and here's some basic overlap settings where you guys actually go in full detail and explain, hey, we need 75, 65 front side overlap. We need the gimbal angle to be pitched to this degree. We need, uh, dewarping turned on. Oh, if you're using this specific drone, you need to change these specific settings. Like that is something that I appreciate because it actually completely changes exactly how you gather your data. Not all data sets are gathered the exact same. And obviously, this was built for a specific client of yours, uh, that's having us gather this data. But for someone who one understands how to operate the drone and change all these different settings, it's easy. All I have to do is look at the list, input the values, and I'm good to go. Where a lot of the other systems, it's a lot of guesswork. It's, "Okay, well, I'll throw the drone up this high, but what's my overlap? How fast do I need to fly? Can I change my aperture? Do I need dewarping? Do I need to do terrain following?" So many different attributes that go into an actual mission plan. So that is one of the things I do like a lot. Even though yes, there are some more, I would say technical flights with the, uh, facade capture, right? That's not something that you can fly autonomously. Yes, you can in some sense, but not for the specifications that their client is looking for us pilots to do. Um, so, yeah, I mean, I'm glad you've been able to come out here today and just tag along and and watch me do their project for them.

>> Yeah, absolutely.

>> So, uh, we're going to get the drone back up in the air and do our facade capture. It was just like the other site. So, we actually have two different, uh, capture types. We're going to put one slightly above the roof line with the camera gimbal, uh, at a 35-degree angle and then one that's pointed straight at the building. Honestly, on a site like this, there's less obstructions because the other site had a lot of trees. This one is honestly going to be really easy. So, it should take me no more than 15 minutes, though about like 25% of a battery on the M3E. So, let's, uh, get this drone up in the air.

>> Awesome.

Okay, so I finished up doing the, uh, facade captures. Uh, Julia has already left and, uh, during my data review here, I took a look at the rooftop photos that I took. Now, granted, I put it in a 5.6 aperture mode because I wanted the best clarity. In doing that, the shutter speed dropped all the way down to 1/250th of a second. Now, that is way too slow for how fast and how low I was flying on that rooftop. So, rather than getting all the way back to my office and uploading that data and then realizing, "Oh, I got to come back here and refly that," I made that check here. And I'm going to go to the play button and we're going to scroll down. I'm just going to pick a random photo and we're going to download it. We're looking at the full resolution here. And if I zoom in, that is blurry. That is not good at all. So, what I'm going to do now is refly my rooftop. I'm going to actually change my altitude a little bit here. I'm going to put it all the way up to 70 ft. I'm going to slow my speed down just 1 mph. And I'm going to change my start point to be on this other end here because I want it to finish by me. Uh, we'll change that takeoff speed as well. So, it's safe. So, if we go to the play button, we're going to hit next. I'm going to put this in end mode. There we go. So, this aperture priority, I'm going to drop it all the way to 2.8. Make sure that we turn that dewarping on. And when it's done, I just want it to return back to me. I'm just going to add a little bit more height to that. Okay. So, we're going to hit up flight mission. Hit start. So, the drone is going to go to the first waypoint on the other side. We did increase our altitude just a little bit more just to keep us steer clear away from any obstacles that may be up here. So, let's just watch our shutter speed here. That is a much better shutter speed. It's 1/1600 of a, well, 1/250th of a second for shutter speed. Um, and we're not going to get any blur in any of those photos. So, now we just got to wait 9 and 1/2 minutes. Yes, this added more time to actually me being here on site.

Our drone is now finishing up its flight here. I believe I set it to do an auto return home. Now that we, uh, finished up the capture and I know that we actually got good data that time compared to the first one, we are good to go. So, we can wrap up here. In total, yes, it took me an extra 10 minutes to gather this last flight. But with everything, we did a total of about 35 minutes of automated flight. And then it took me about 15 to 20 minutes to do the flights, the facade captures around the side. So, about an hour. Really not that bad. All I got to do is again just drive back to the office. That's going to take me about 25 minutes from where I'm at. Get this data uploaded and we are done for the day.

Okay, so I have returned back to the office here. I, uh, got my drone back. Let's go ahead and pull out the SD card. So, one of the first things that I like to do when I get back from a project site after I've done the initial, uh, check out in the field to make sure that, hey, the data is there and two, the data is actually good, is I like to organize the data itself. So, we're going to pop here onto the desktop. I just had the SD card load in and I've already created a folder for clients. Um, actually, I've got a master client folder. Uh, you can see that. Oops. You can see that here with all the different clients that I work with. So, created a new one for Fly Guys. And we can actually take a look at the two projects that I just recently did today. So, I have this first one is the Atorive. So, I'm just going to copy that and I'm going to create a new folder. Go like that. There we go. Okay. So, I got the Atomo Drive project in here. So, the first folder that I'm going to create is our 3D cross. And then the second folder I'm going to create is the roof. The third one I'm going to create is facade top down. And then the last folder I'm going to create is facade straight on. And I'm going to copy these three folders. So, I'm going to hit copy here and I'm going to go back a folder and create the same thing here within the Gandandy one because we did the same data capture at both sites. So, let's do the Gandandy first because this is the last project that we just flew. Let's go into our 3D cross. We'll open up our project folder here and we can see here's Gandandy 3D1, Gandandy 3D2. So, I'm going to take both of these folders here and just drop them directly in. And this is going to copy straight off of my SD card. So, we can see it just now finished up that section. We're going to go back onto the roof. Now, we can see that I actually have three roof flights for Gandandy. Uh, this first one, I realized that the drone actually wasn't on the right path when it was flying. So, we can see when we go through these photos off on this right-hand side, we're actually missing a significant portion of the edge of the building itself. And that was the start of the flight. That just so happened to be from when I did my mission planning on the satellite view on the controller. It didn't actually translate to the side of the building that I thought I was going to be flying on. So, I ended up doing a last flight, which we did talk about that at the end. And we can see here we go. Here's the side of the building. And we have perfect clarity, um, on all of these images. So, I'm going to go back a folder here and we're just going to drag and drop these photos into our roof, um, folder number nine here. This is both. This is where, um, I'm actually just going to do some organization here. So, for my top-down view, um, I'm going to just go through and sort both the 35-degree angle flight and then both the 0-degree and we're talking about the gimbal pitch, um, on the building. Cool. So, that's brought over. So, let's get our top down. And I'm just going to start selecting all my top-down images here. All right, that copied over. Let's get my side profile, which finishes here. And what I'm actually going to do is just get another folder. And I'm going to drag and drop it to this bottom corner here and get my facade top here. So, let's go back into my clients folder. This is Gandandy. So, we're on our facade top down. So, this is our facade straight on. And we'll quickly just sort all these photos here. So, those are now all organized. And going here, we can now select deliverables to upload. We're going to upload files to this folder. We're going to browse. We'll go straight to that folder directory here for Gandandy. Here's my roof. And we're just going to select all of these images and open. And we will click upload. So, now it's going to start the upload here. Really, this is how easy it is to get all the photos in here. We can see it's actually updating the background right now. Cool. So, it's, it's going to take a little bit of time to upload all this. I'm not going to have you guys sit here and wait, but I did just want to say like this is really not that hard to get these projects done from Fly Guys. Obviously, they have different degrees of, or not different degrees, but they have different qualification levels for pilots. Granted, I am one of their more premium service pilots. So, they do give me different kinds of jobs that I am able to perform. Something like what we did today was more of like a, uh, we'll call it a medium, uh, difficulty of capture. Obviously, the automated capture with the orthomosaics was straightforward. There were still some technicalities that we had to make sure that one, we avoided the tall trees that existed at the first site and then the second site, this Gandandy one that I'm uploading to, we had to make sure that we didn't run into the power lines. There were some times where I got really close, but again, because of my due diligence and how I fixed and changed the flight plan itself compared to what they initially gave me, I was able to stay compliant but also be really safe with my flight and also get the data that they needed. On top of that with the manual flight itself of doing the facades, that was, yes, there was a little bit more technical skills required to do that, especially at that first site that we flew because we actually had to turn off the obstacle avoidance and you did see me do that. A lot of people that do that or don't know how to do that will often put their drone in a more hazardous environment, hazardous, uh, area. So, those are things that can be difficult for people that are trying to justify what Fly Guys or some of these other platforms are trying to pay. Obviously, if this is a SiteView job, this would be a much lower pay. But at the same time, SiteView probably would have sent several different people where with what Fly Guys is trying to do, especially with their pilot success team is they're trying to help train pilots to be better, be more diligent, be able to do these higher paying jobs than some of the cheap stuff that exists out there. Regardless though, if you guys did enjoy this style of video, I know it was really long. Like I don't know, I think this might be like an hour-long video. With very little cuts. I wanted to show everything. Like there's no behind the scenes YouTube magic of filming. Like this is almost truly everything. Obviously, I cut out the time of me driving from location to location cuz, well, you know that I can drive from location to location. You can do the same thing, too. But again, I just wanted to show what it looks like actually doing these projects in the real world. You know, none of this fake YouTube, "Oh, we'll go to this site and we'll do this data capture and, you know, I think it's worth $200." Like, no, this is what's actually going on in the real world. And with that, I actually have four other videos that I'm working on right now that's going to go alongside with what I just posted in this video today. Um, but those will only be available if you become a member of my YouTube channel. Um, I think it's like $4.99 a month, but these are going to be fully uncut. Uh, this was the first video of many videos in the future of so many different projects that I'm working on right now, a lot of different paid projects, and I just want to bring you guys alongside to see everything, see how it all works, and I also want to be able to answer some of the questions that you guys may have moving forward. So, please drop some questions down below in the description if you have made it this far. And let me know if this is something that you want to continue seeing. Um, I don't plan on stopping uploading content like this, uh, on the membership side of things. Um, the membership is really just to kind of help me out make more videos like this because it does take a significant amount of time to really stop what I'm doing as opposed to just getting on site, doing what I'm supposed to do, and coming back. Me sitting there talking you through and walking you through all the different steps that I'm taking does take a bit of time out of my day. Um, so I do appreciate if this is something that you want to give back towards, just a little bit. Um, it helps me out and hopefully you also learn something valuable in doing this and allows you to kind of come to the table a little bit more educated, uh, when negotiating with companies like Fly Guys or SiteView or Trace. So, with that being said, uh, I do appreciate you staying this long. Let me know what you think and hopefully I will see you in the next video in the series.

Hey guys, welcome back to another video in whatever I'm calling this series, this behind-the-scenes, this daily drone pilot life work. I don't know. Anyways, we are going to be doing a progress update for stockpile analysis on one of my clients' sites. This is actually a three-month or so project. They hired me for 20 flights and it's very easy. It's about a 20-minute drive from my office. They need it once a week, sometimes twice a week, so they let me know. Today the flight is going to be done at 4:00 cuz that's when they specifically asked me to be out there. There's actually a third flight. But what I want to do is show you actually how I even got this bid, how I actually wrote out the contract, and how I did the pricing because I'm going to be out there multiple times. So, rather than the price of just charging them one time, I charge them for 20 different flights, which they've already prepaid for it. So, in this, I'm going to show you how I wrote the contract, how I did my pricing calculator, and what's most important is you guys are actually going to get access to that. So, I'm going to have a download link either whether this is on YouTube or whether on my Pilot Bite platform. You'll be able to download the exact contract that I sent over to the client alongside with the pricing calculator so you can play around with it and see exactly how again I created the pricing for this specific client because there's a few different factors that went into it. And I'll actually give a breakdown of here very shortly, but let me talk about what systems we're going to be using and how we're going to be capturing this data. So, I now have the Mavic, I'm going to say Mavic. I now have the Matrice 4 Enterprise here that I'm going to be using for all of my mapping projects moving forward. Um, I've got the batteries charging here. Probably going to be ordering a few more because if this one bid goes through that I'm hoping for. We're going to be capturing this large stadium that's here in St. Petersburg, Florida. It's a baseball stadium, so that's about as much context as I can give. If we win the bid, we're going to be using the Mavic 4 Enterprise and the M300 that I have right here. Just doing some software updates cuz I've got a LiDAR project that I'm doing the following week, which you will see, um, in the next episode. That aside, uh, we're going to be doing a full 3D capture of this baseball stadium. And we need to use two different drones because there's some tight areas. I want to use the new smart 3D capture that the M4 has. And then for pretty much everything else, be using the P1. But I basically got a mess of drones, batteries, controllers, doing firmware updates, making sure that we all ready to go. Uh, now that we have gotten the drone aside, again, I've just got everything charging, all set up. Uh, this is usually my classroom where, uh, where I do all my teaching, but I've now got it set up as a battery charging station zone. Let's look at how I wrote the contract out, what it's broken down into, the key components that my client cared about, and then I'm also going to show you the pricing calculator and break down how I built that out. So, let's hop onto my computer so I can show you what that looks like. And then we're going to go out into the field and I'm going to walk you through the entire step-by-step process. Uh, because they do have me capturing different parts of the site at different parts of, or different phases throughout the project. Um, there's different areas that they care about. So, we'll, we'll take a look at that, uh, right now.

Okay. So, let's take a look at the contract that I created for my client. Uh, I'm going to talk about what each item is on here so that you have a better understanding of the methodology behind me creating this. So, there's actually two clients involved with this. The direct client that will be receiving the deliverables, but then there's also a subclient that I'm actually giving the raw data to, and then it's a survey company. And they're going to be giving the output, uh, to the, the base client that's actually paying me. I've taken out their names just to keep anonymity. Um, it's also to protect my clients, too. But you guys can actually use this contract for yourself. So, I'm actually going to create this as a Word doc. You can download this. Same thing with this, uh, calculator that I've built out specific for this project, but we'll talk about what each component is. U, so I always have a project overview. This one says that Pilot Bite proposes to conduct recurring aerial photogrammetry data capture for client. This is where I'd put my client's name. Um, and then actually, you can see the project site name is called Gateway 2 Project Site. The objective is to provide centimeter-accurate data every other day starting in late January 2025 for processing by the survey company. Now, originally when we did start this contract, I was supposed to go out every other day. Uh, but now they've moved it on to about a week to twice a week, uh, for data capture. And that's more of just in the communication. Again, I'm not going to hold them, you know, directly to this. Um, the equipment I like to outline that just so that they know, hey, this is what I'm coming into it. Some clients don't care. This one was pretty curious. So, I'm using a 20-megapixel camera with RTK, uh, capable drone. I'll be using a GNSS base station for the RTK corrections. I'm going to be using the ENTRIP, uh, for that because that's specifically what the surveyor wanted me to use and they told me which one they, they specifically wanted me to use. So, I'll highlight that when we're out in the field. And then PPE equipment while on site. So, hard hat, uh, steel-toed boots for shoes, and then a high-vis vest just to stay in compliance. And then safety goggles. I didn't include that here. The methodology is we're going to be, uh, we're going to be using a pre-planned automated mission to ensure consistent data capture across all the flights. The use of a GNSS base station will enable RTK functionality, guaranteeing accurate and precise data acquisition for, and then this is where I put the survey company, for their processing and deliverable creation. Um, for airspace compliance, this is a 200 ft zone, uh, because of the St. Pete Clearwater International Airport. It's less than 5 miles away. So, I will have to get an authorization before each mission. I also put insurance coverage as that was a requirement from them. They needed at least a million for general liability and a million dollars for property damage insurance. I get this through Skywatch and all I had to do is add them as an, uh, additional insured as part of my insurance policy. Something that I do recommend having just in general, having some kind of insurance with your drone business. Lots of companies do like to ask for that. For the pricing structure, uh, I have a $600, $650 per flight, uh, with $100 per LAANC authorization and $50 mobilization fee. I will show you how I got these pricings here. And then I'm doing discount pricing because they're having me come out multiple different times and I'm, uh, technically kind of waving some other costs, mobilization and then the, the, the LAANC unlocks, uh, for the airspace here for the final cost permission I got to 475. Again, I'll show you in my calculator, which you'll also have access to, of how I got that number. And then for deliverables, what the client expects. So, I'll make all the raw deliverables available for the clients and then I'll also send the raw deliverables to the survey company. Uh, payment terms. Uh, I asked for payment for the first three missions up front. They ended up just paying for all 20 flights ahead, and I've already received the check for it. And then, uh, basically the conclusion, if someone just wants a TL;DR, too long, didn't read. Uh, this proposal outlines a comprehensive and cost-effective solution for the client's recurring photogrammetry needs at the Gateway 2 Project Site. Pilot Bite's expertise in aerial data capture combined with the state-of-the-art equipment and commitment to regulatory compliance ensures high-quality, consistent results throughout the project duration. So, very simple contract here. Um, again, you guys will be able to take a look at this, download it, and, you know, leverage this for future projects. Obviously, you know, take out the Pilot Bite logo and give the proposal, um, a proper name for the site that you're working on.

Now, let's take a look at the actual calculator here. So, I'm just going to move myself over. And in here, I have just an item list to help with the calculations, uh, down here. So, you can see actually some of the numbers have moved around here compared to what is, what we're looking at. Um, it does say a $650 total per flight, uh, with all of these other items here, but again, I was still built in some of the calculations for the, uh, mobilization and the LAANC unlock. Um, so we still see that $650 total per actual project that I'm doing, but some of the other items that we see on here is the price per flight. So, here I have a base flight, uh, cost of $425, and that's up to 25 acres. Uh, anything after 25 acres up to 50 acres will cost

$5 additional per acre. Um, and then I have another one on here. Just, well, this one says LAR here, but it's not actually LAR. Uh, because I did use this from, um, another calculator that I have built out. Um, there we go. So, uh, I, I like to copy-paste my calculators and then change out some of the values, just depending on what the scope requirements are. Um, so anything 50 to 100 acres is $300. Not $300, I wish it was $375 per acre, but it's $3.75 per acre. Whoops. And then anything after 100 acres is $2.35.

So here is my input. Um, I'll input the total of acres. So let's say I put 65 acres. We're going to notice that the data capture does change. Uh, it went up $106.25. And again, all these calculations, um, are being built directly into this. Put it back at 40 acres. And I'll show you how I got the 40-acre calculation here.

Mileage, um, I use that basically my office to the project site. 23.4. I just run it up to 24 miles. Um, the new mileage rate is 72 cents per mile. Um, this calculation here probably doesn't make sense. You're probably like, well, how is it $50 when it's actually supposed to be, uh, I think it's like $38. I have a flat mobilization fee of $50. Um, and then that pretty much like encompasses what is that? Um, if I put, let's see, 35. Yep. Like 33 miles, uh, 33 miles range ends up to being like 66 miles in total, uh, is kind of a baked-in fee. So, I, I cover pretty much like a 35-mile radius of where I'm at. And then I charge extra per mileage. So, uh, that is how I got that calculation. So, put this back to 24.

And we can see there's a base cost of $50, uh, for the mobilization and then my LANK because I do, um, and disregard the misspelling here. There we go. Uh, I built this in as well. So, how I know that it's in LANK is well, this is the project site that I have and they actually did give me a KML. So this is the full site here that's in red, and then what I'm capturing is in yellow. So, this red polygon, if I bring this over, I go to the measurements. We can see it's actually 90 acres in total for the whole site, um, that they would have me capture. Sometimes they will have me capture that in the future and I will charge them based off of that coverage. Um, but for the yellow or the orange, I should say, they only care about that portion of it. So, I know it says 35.9 acres. However, I like to round up to full whole numbers. So that's why I put a total of, uh, 40 acres on here because I will have a little bit of over-capture. Um, and so I like to have this, I like to ensure that I'm getting a little bit more data for my clients. One, so that the actual data site sets come out properly. Uh, but two, that way in case, you know, if I only charge them for 35 or 36 acres, but they're out on the site like, oh, we need a little bit more, which that always happens for whatever reason. Um, I'm covering my basis.

And again, uh, because I know that this is in a LANK approval area, if I zoom out, right, we can see here is the airport and the max altitude that I can fly is 200 ft, which we're actually just going to go ahead and get a quick approval here. So, I'm going to zoom into the map and I'll just keep a square of the whole area that I want to get coverage of. So, we're going to click okay in the bottom right there. It's probably hard to see. Okay. Yep. Okay. Um, and let me just move my camera here. Um, we're going to fly. They want me to be there at 4:00 p.m. today. And it's only a 10-minute or so flight. You'll see. I'm going to reconfirm the flight out in the field. So, I'm just going to put 1 hour. And I'm going to be flying at 200 ft. And today's the 19th. So, I am the operator. So, once we are satisfied with that, we're going to hit the next button. We can see I'm already pre-approved. Hit next one more time and agree and submit. And I should, there we go. Just got the authorization. And I also just got the text message on my phone that you can see of my approval to fly exactly at 4:00 p.m. for today.

So, now that we've went through what the contract looks like, again, you guys will be able to download that. I'm going to make it in a Word format as well as the calculator. I'll make that downloadable as an Excel sheet. You guys can play around with that and see how this all works. Let us now go out to this project site. I do want to show up a little bit earlier because I do want to show you some of the ground control points, just to make sure that they are there, since our server will be tying to it. Um, it's a way to just confirm, hey, they still exist there, 'cause sometimes they do get destroyed. So, it's part of the due diligence that we will do when we get out on site. But let me now pack up the drone and we'll head directly to our project site.

So, one of the most, uh, important things is to actually have your SD cards. I have this case that I always have with me. It literally never leaves my side, um, unless I leave my backpack in my truck. So, I always have a ton of extra micro SDs and full-size SD cards, depending on 'cause some drones that I use require a full-size SD card. So, I will make sure that I bring this guy with me. And then obviously, I have been having everything sit here and charge. So, all of these batteries are now ready to go. We'll just go in quickly, put them in the case. I will probably be buying a few more. So, I've been categorizing these with just a writing Sharpie. I know some people are probably going to be like, "Oh, why are you doing that, Dylan?" But I'm going to own this drone for a while. So, that's, that's my own hill I will die on. But, yeah, eventually I'm going to get one, two, and I'll have a third one in the drone, um, itself. Well, speaking of the drone, uh, I am missing, I'm actually missing the cover. Oh, there it is. So, I got the camera cover here. So, we're just going to quickly put this guy on. Awesome.

Now, because we are going to be flying with RTK, um, I do want to make sure that, uh, my phone is fully charged for one, um, but two, that we have good cell coverage. Now, given that we are flying in an urban area, uh, that really shouldn't be too much of a factor that we have to deal with. However, there's actually one thing that I am really considering, uh, purchasing, and they have the cellular dongle that I can purchase, and it works with the, uh, RC2 Plus controller. Uh, actually, if I show you here, so here's the RC2 Plus controller. And if we open the back, just going to press the button here. So, I can actually open this guy up and I can put in, uh, a cellular dongle in here. And because I have T-Mobile, actually T-Mobile is one of the very, it's actually the only direct, um, data SIMs that I can put directly into the RC Plus 2 specifically to make it work so that I actually don't even have to use my smartphone, uh, as a hotspot. And it's something I'm actually really considering. So, if that is something that you guys would like to see and have me try out, um, I've got, I've got a contact for it. I mean, it's going to cost me $280 bucks plus, uh, a monthly data SIM. But I'm actually, I'm really curious considering that I do a lot of RTK flying, especially right with the Mavic. I want to keep saying Mavic, especially because the Matrice 4 Enterprise now has a built-in, uh, RTK module where before it was actually something I had to attach on the M3E. Something I'm really considering. But anyways, uh, I am blabbing on. Um, I am ready to go. I've got the, uh, drone ready to go now. I just got to grab my laptop, my phone, make sure I've got my SD card case, and we're going to head to St. Petersburg, Florida.

Now, one thing, uh, that I do like to always do, especially when I am packing and unpacking and taking stuff into my office and out of my office and to project sites, is the PPE equipment. So, I actually always keep my steel-toed boots in my truck, uh, alongside with my hard hat and the high-vis vest. So, we can see here, uh, it's a little messy back here, but I also have these pop-up cones. So, these are actually something new that I just got. And hold on one second here. There we go. So, as you can see, we now have a pop-up cone. It's a little slanted right now, but it makes it so that I can quickly establish an area. So, if I just wanted to use this parking spot as the zone to fly my drone, well, now I can do that because I've got these cones. So, I will throw a link, um, in the description of this video, depending on where you're watching it, where I got this. I think I paid like $30, $35 bucks and it came with, I think, six of these, which is why they're all sprawled out here in the back of the truck. But I also have my high-vis vest. And then my hard hat just lives right here. And then in the back, looks like some birds that have been having fun back there. I also have my steel-toed boots. And you'll probably also see I've got a weed eater back here. And that is more specific for the LAR projects that I do. Um, you'll hear me talk about this next week or actually in the next video when I go to Miami for my LAR project. But that's kind of my always ready-to-go situation. Um, always have a hard hat, always have my PPE vest, um, and always have my boots, um, in the truck. That way I just don't have to remember, oh, is it at my house? Is it at the office? It's, it's always here.

This is more of a real-time update. Literally, as soon as I put the camera away and I started driving towards the site, saw some raindrops on my, uh, my windshield and realized, oh, you know what? I should probably check the radar. And as it turns out, in the next, it says 14 minutes, which you can see on here, it is supposed to start raining, um, pretty much the rest of the day at the project site. So, I literally just gave my clients a call, said, "Hey, it's supposed to start raining." They said, "Yep, we know." Um, and I offered, I've got availability first thing tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. to get on site and capture the data. Because basically what they were doing today is that they were, they were preparing for me to come there to do the full site scan. So, what, what does that entail? Well, they had all of their rollers out there compressing the dirt so that they can get a more accurate volume calculation. Again, this is something that the surveyor was going to do. But again, given that it's going to rain and there's no, there is no real reason to sacrifice the drone in the rain to get the data that they need to get, we just opted to fly first thing tomorrow morning.

So, where I'm going to pick up is, uh, I'm just going to leave my drone here in the truck. I'm actually heading back to my office because there's a few things that I can get, uh, done and working on for, uh, the rest of this week. Uh, I'm going to just pick up tomorrow morning, uh, with us heading straight to the site. We'll do our due diligence on site, get the data captured, and then I'll actually be able to go straight to the office right after and get the data uploaded. So, this is going to be a quick second for you and it's going to be a whole 12 hours for me. So, I'll see you, uh, well, a little more than 12 hours, about 14, 15 hours from now. So, I'll see you then.

As you can see, it's, uh, now the next day, early in the morning. And I will say the one thing that I do like about, uh, heading out to St. Pete from where I live is now it only takes about 15 to 20 minutes and not 30 to 35 minutes, especially at this time of the morning. But we are heading a little bit earlier there than our actual scheduled time to be up in the air. We're supposed to be up at 7:00 a.m. Uh, well, supposed to have the drone up in the air at 7:00 a.m., but there is a bit of cloud coverage, so it might have to wait until about 7:30, 7:45, which is okay with me. Um, otherwise, if they want me to fly at 7:00, I am going to have to make some adjustments to the actual mission plan itself so that one, we don't get motion blur. Um, and two, we actually get good, clear images. Now, given that we're going to be flying with the Matrice 4 Enterprise, uh, with cameras a little bit, a little bit better than the, uh, Mavic 3 Enterprise, which, uh, hopefully you have already seen my review on that. Um, we should have a bit better quality, uh, images coming from that drone.

Uh, one thing I actually do need to do, given that it is now the next day, is, uh, I need to get new airspace approval. Um, so I'll have to do that once I, uh, once I arrive on site, but I'll, I'll be there in about 10 minutes. We're going to do some checks around the site to kill some time, given that I'm supposed to get there around 6:35. Um, I do want to just double-check some of the areas around one, to ensure that our ground control points are still there and still visible. This is very important. Um, this is actually an important step that you should also be doing on project sites, uh, that are incorporating ground control points, especially if you're flying for a surveyor or an engineer. Um, it's not, well, it is their points that they set up, but because you are gathering the data and they're going to be looking at it, uh, if it's, this is, if this is the kind of scope that you're working on, then, uh, then you got to go and check and make sure that they're there because if they are not, then you need to notate that to the survey or engineering firm that you're working with so they don't assume that you missed data, uh, when in turn, it's just some of their points are missing. So, I will be at the project site, uh, very shortly and we'll go from there.

I just arrived to the site. I'm actually just right outside of it. And I want to point out I'm up on the side of the road, as you can, uh, see here. The interstate is, uh, just to the left of me. But if you take a look right here, this is one of the aerial targets that we will be tying our data to, or at least what our surveyor will be tying our data to. And if we come all the way right here, we can see the actual survey nail that will be used. So, there's several of these that are spread out all the way across where these cars are coming. And then where my truck is up here on the right, there's even more points that go all the way down this, uh, there's even more points that go all the way down this emergency lane here. Uh, obviously I've got my high-vis vest on right now because, well, these cars are ripping by at like 70 mph. So, just wanted to come out here and show you how we can actually confirm these points. We saw that the nail is still there, that the aerial target is still there, and it should still be because it's painted. Now, granted, this is one that, uh, you know, was hard-set where sometimes on the site, they'll have like a wooden post with a metal stake on it, and in that case, in that case, you'll have to just make sure that it hasn't been destroyed. Sometimes you'll see like these, uh, these wooden metal sticks in the ground or like kind of posts with orange, yellow, blue, whatever kind of tape that they have around it. Um, that is kind of a making a little barrier, essentially, to mark off where an aerial target may be, essentially where a ground control point may be. So, anyways, um, now that we've confirmed that, we can go ahead and just continue back onto the site, uh, our actual project site. If I flip this around, you can see, uh, I just put this little waypoint here, but you can see that right here is the actual site. So, this is where I'm at right now. They used part of this road and my drone is actually going to fly just pretty much like right before it gets onto, onto the road. And then this is my actual project site right here. So, we're just on the other side. All I got to do is just take this road, take the exit, and then I'll be on the project site.

Some things that I do love about, uh, flying in Florida winters is you get nice, brisk mornings like I do right now. I know this has nothing to do with drones, but it does make the flying a lot more enjoyable, I would say. So, uh, what I'm doing right now, I'm just getting my deployable cones just to set up a safe area for me to take off and land and run my operations from. So, I'll get that set up. Cool.

So, now that my area is set up, uh, I actually lied a little bit. I thought it was still going to be a bit more overcast, but it looks like there are no clouds in the sky, as we can see here. And in fact, we have a very beautiful sunrise popping up right behind the clouds there. And those clouds do look pretty, pretty insane. So, what we're going to do, I still need to wait a little bit to actually put the drone up in the air. It's only 6:51. Um, but I am going to go ahead and get my airspace, uh, approval done and I'm going to check my actual flight path. Uh, make sure that we are good set there. Now, actually, one thing, the first, very first time that I did fly on this site, uh, just to the right of me, just in this area right here, there was a crane that they were using to lift materials up and bring it onto the rooftop. Uh, now obviously that crane is not there anymore, but if you kind of remember, I always talk about do your due diligence. Do your due diligence. Do your due diligence. And the reason why I tell you to do that, even if you go out to a site multiple different times, they may change, the site changes constantly. So, you need to ensure that you have good, clear airspace to fly in. I'm not talking about the actual airspace that you're flying in, but I mean the actual physical objects in the airspace. And given that this site is very dynamic and that that crane is not there anymore, but when it was, I think it was sitting at about 160, 165 ft. Even though I'm flying at 200 ft, it was still good to know that that crane was there because given that if it was moving while my drone is flying, you know, that could have way could have raised, you know, some red flags, but it didn't. And again, I did do my check by throwing the drone up, having the camera pointed directly out, uh, horizontal with it, and just to check the height of the crane. Obviously, it's not something that we have to deal with here, but something that I did want to point out.

So, I guess while I am waiting here, let me just go ahead and pull up, uh, my Aloft Air Control and we're going to do this together here. So, it already can see the area that I'm in right now. All I'm going to do is hit LAN. I'm going to make sure that I click on this, uh, commercial pilot or the commercial Part 107. And then I'm just going to zoom into the area that I'm at. Readjust my box a bit more because I will be flying. I'm just going to, just going to make it a, a nice even, if I can grab this point here. Nice even area. Kind of like that. Let me just adjust this top one. Cool. So, doesn't have to be perfect. Just has to encompass the area that I'm flying. Make sure that I select 200 ft. And we're going to do from now for the next two hours, even though I'm not going to be flying for two hours, um, I just want to give myself a window in case for whatever reason the drone just doesn't want to work, which that's not going to be the case, but you never know. So, we'll hit next. I'm already approved. Next one more time. Agree. Submit. And there we go. And I also just got the text message that we're good to fly.

Now, I got to kill about another 10 more minutes until the project manager gets here on site. Um, I've already done my due diligence of making sure that the other control points are there. We also just looked at that one that was on the side of the road. Um, everything else is pretty much on the boundary of the site itself. So, don't really have to worry too much about those, uh, nails getting destroyed or any of the targets getting destroyed 'cause they're all set in stone. Let's be efficient with our time here. Um, again, we're still waiting for it to one, have enough light here on site. Even though I know right now it looks, uh, it looks pretty bright. My camera is doing a really good job at at helping with that, but, uh, it, it still isn't quite bright enough to, uh, to throw the drone up. So, some of the stuff I'm going to do, let's go ahead and just check our mission plan itself. Um, I don't have to, I don't need to have the drone, uh, connected here, uh, for this to work. I also went in my truck and grabbed my card, um, or my case of, uh, SD cards so that I have an SD card for the drone 'cause, well, we need to be able to capture our data here with the drone or the controller booted up. Let me make sure I have, um, my hotspot on. Let's go to the controller here and let's connect. There it is. Okay, we are connected to my phone's hotspot. We can now go into DJI Pilot 2. I'm going to go into our flight routes and Gateway 2 is our project mission. I actually need to make a small adjustment because we actually don't need this area where I'm tapping right now. Uh, given that it's actually, it's this entire apartment complex here. And that flight path is actually going to go just right behind here. So, I just need to make a little small adjustment. Uh, 'cause the surveyor doesn't need all that extra data. They care about all of the dirt that I am looking at in front of me. So, let me just make this little tiny micro adjustment. We're going to pull up our mission plan here to pretty much come a little bit right behind where I am 'cause I still want to just get a little bit of data from here in case they do need it. And everything else looks good to me. So, it dropped our flight capture time down by about a minute, which is always good to me. Um, let's check our route. Altitude is at 199 ft and our speed 26 miles an hour. We may slow that down again. It's just now turning 7:00. So, I'm just going to, I'm just going to keep that as is. Let me go to the advanced settings. Everything else, everything else looks good here. So, we will just click the save button. And let's, uh, let's just throw, actually, one, one thing that you can do to check if there's enough lighting out is we can actually just throw the drone up in the air really quick. And what we'll do is we'll point the camera straight down just so we can see because some, I don't know, sometimes clients just want you to be in and out of sight. They, they just want you to get the data and be gone. So, uh, luckily this client is not like that. They're actually, they're actually a really cool client. Uh, let's get a fully charged battery here. And let's throw an SD card. All right. Now that I got these, uh, my workspace set up right here. Throw the drone down right there. Uh, I am going to just turn RTK off. I don't need it right this second, but we will be using it when we capture our actual data set. So, let's go into the camera here. And given that we are already on auto mode, we can see that my shutter is still really slow at 1/240th of a second. So, let me, um, let me throw the drone up. Yes, I have full responsibility to fly here. All right, let's try that again. Why are you not letting me take off? Oh, you know what? I need to change my return to home altitude. Just going to do 195 here. For whatever reason, the drone is not letting me take off. So, let's diagnose this issue here. I'm just going to reboot the drone. This is exactly why I'm doing this series here because, uh, my typical YouTube videos, everything goes perfect and there's no issues. But realistically, this is actually what happens all the freaking time. And, uh, well, I like to show you the diagnosis instead of you maybe, maybe this may happen to you out in the field and you may freak out like, why is my drone not working? I just, I need to get the data. Rather than freaking out, you know, I'm going to take you through a few different steps that I like to do to diagnose things like this. So, okay, we're back on here. Let's see. Yeah, still. Oh, you know what? I'm so dumb. Okay, I was doing training a few weeks ago or a few days ago and it's because they changed it into mode three on the remote controller.

Hi there. >> That was Landmark Project Manager. So, I didn't see you guys doing this stuff. >> Oh, you wanted to see it? >> Oh, yeah. >> Awesome. I was, uh, just getting some configurations in, making sure that we are safe to fly. >> So, how do you do this? You have to like check in with FAA and then >> Well, yeah, since PI is is right there, right? >> Um, we have this whole system that I checked into. >> Um, so, I've already got authorization to fly, um, I I marked out the rough area that I'll be flying in and, um >> What, what are your current coordinates there? >> My what? Your, your whatever your >> This is my current >> Yeah. What is it? 27 >> Uh, uh, 85304. >> Uh-huh. >> And then my launch is 82.66992. >> 66992. >> Yep. But I also give them, I create like a rough grid for it. It's, it's pretty cool. >> Morning, guys. >> Good morning. >> Morning. >> So you create a rough. Wow. That's pretty cool. >> And it's actually in real time. So if I wanted to create another one, um, I've actually, I may be flying to do an inspection on it. So I have to get full authorization there. >> Yeah, airport too. >> Very close. Yep. So let's say I wanted to fly. Actually, I had this project two weeks ago, this site. So all I have to do is click on it. >> Um, and I have to just be on this tab here. Yeah. It gives me, gives me authorization request, request since I'm on Part 107. >> So that just goes right into FAA and then they just >> Well, yeah. So these ones will automatically approve. >> They direct it. >> So which ones automatically approve? Like if you're not near, uh >> Well, so it depends. So if I, if I go out here and I zoom out, it gives me all these different circles or like >> Okay, that's okay. That's why I wanted to know. >> And then where we're at, I can fly up to 200 ft with automatic approval. But if I needed to fly higher than 200 ft, I have to ask for advanced approval. So right now when I just got here, I put in, hey, I'm flying here at 200 ft. I'm going to be here for the next 2 hours. Um, and then I'm automatically approved. I don't have to ask for anything else. So now PI knows that there'll be a drone up in the air in this area for the next, not 2 hours straight, but in that 2-hour time range. >> So let's say, okay, I'm, I'm I got my own drone. >> Yep. >> And so anytime you fly a drone, you got to check in with FAA now. >> Not necessarily. >> Okay. That's what I wanted to know. >> Yeah. So, if you're outside of those, you can fly up to 400 ft. >> 400 ft. I, I was wondering what the limits were, how they did it, 'cause I, when this all started, I did >> I did 118th and all the connections, whatever, just 275. >> Okay. >> And this guy that was our vice president had a drone and he come out there >> and was trying to figure out how to use it on our property. Yeah, that's what he was trying to do. Well, he was hooking his son up with this whole drone thing 'cause they also had a pipe inspection business. Ah, >> so he was going like >> using your sights as >> Well, he was getting ready for retirement, this guy too, like so Tom Rice, well, his his brother-in-law was in a survey too, so they knew all this was coming. So >> it's pretty cool. >> Dragon, how's it going, man? >> How we doing? >> He, he just walked by like 10 minutes ago. That's why I wanted to see all this stuff because that was probably about >> 15 years ago. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Given >> No, things, I mean, we were flying all that up there. >> Yeah. They have all of >> like McDill in St. Pete. >> Theoretically, I can get approval to fly on McDill. I can get on approval to fly on top of airports. >> Yeah. >> It's just, it's a longer legal process that I have to go through because airports are actually doing lots of inspections right now on their runways and obviously like Airside ID that's being built now, right? They're actually doing aerial surveys there with drones. Yeah. To monitor the progress of it. Um, and also just to keep track of of everything. So >> there's a full legal process, you know, you don't have to be, you know, at the construction company. You can just be someone like me that just captures the data. >> Got it. >> Um, it's, it's, it's, it's a pretty cool process. Uh, pretty, pretty straightforward. I mean, given if, if this site was, let's say, a thousand feet south from here, I wouldn't have to get, uh, airspace approval. Nope. I could just fly, >> But you only could go to 400 ft. >> Well, 400 ft anywhere legally. If I wanted to fly any higher than 400 ft, I have to get authorizations for that. >> Got it. >> Um, but in airspace like this, I'm, I can fly up to 400 ft, but I still have to ask for that additional 200 ft 'cause we're in, we're in a 200 ft, uh, zone right now. >> Yeah. You're here. I don't want you here. Exactly. Funny enough, this is actually the, the newest drone that just came out. >> Oh, really? Yep. >> So, what brand is it? And >> DJI. >> DJI. >> Good old China. >> Yeah. >> But it's, it's, it's the best thing that exists on the market. So, >> Wow. >> And your site gets to have the data from it. >> Cool. >> He's bringing me into the next century on this 'cause the last big earth job I did, I think, was mad over there with with, um, hoverboards. >> Yeah. This is the way to go. >> Yeah. >> This is definitely the way to go. >> Last airport job I did was Conan Graham. >> Which one? >> Conan Graham. It was taxiway J. >> Okay. >> Yeah. We didn't fly anything. It was all helicopter stuff. They That wasn't >> I'm sure that was cheap. >> Well, she was flying everything. Okay. So, she went to everybody and said, "Here's the rate." You know, Claudette from, uh, whatever. Um, >> Is that, that lady that's in Tampa? >> Yeah. Um, >> And her, they own also the survey because I think her husband has something to do with, um, CDM or whatever it is over here in Clearwater. >> Okay. >> She's been around forever. >> So we can see we're on site with all the different project managers. They are wanting to start implementing this into their workflow. So they brought me in as the expert to start doing all these flights. This is kind of the, the, the test, the, the, the beta test to roll this out on all of their other projects moving forward because of just how efficient the data captures. I mean, you guys are already know this, but it's, it's, it's pretty cool having other people out here seeing this for the first time or familiar with it, but seeing the entire process and the workflow behind it.

All right, given that we're actually about to do our flight, um, I'm already connected to my hotspot. I'm going to go ahead and turn on my RTK. >> Should go on here. And not going to be using my Emotecast. We're actually going to be using our FPR network. And then we're going to be using the RTCM3 IMAX. That's going to connect me to the closest base station, which is actually at the airport, um, in downtown St. Pete. Uh, not the airport that I had to get authorization to fly from. So, we are already doing our converging here. Uh, waiting for it to get me a fix. We just got a fix and we are now getting good, accurate data. Uh, one thing I actually do want to do, given that I had it selected on a different RTK base station and we switched over to another one, I'm just going to reboot the drone one more time, uh, just to reset, uh, all the, the static information I'm getting from it. So, even though we're getting good accuracy, I still want it to drop a little bit less than, uh, 400s of a foot on the X and the Y, and then it's on 800s of a foot right now on the Z. So, let me just reboot the drone. You can probably see the sun is now just starting to, uh, come up here. So, we'll give it another probably another like 5, 10 minutes. That way we don't have super long shadows on all of the stock piles that are out there. Want to make sure that we're giving our data, our client good, accurate data. Um, so these, again, these are some of the steps, some of the things you need to take into consideration when coming out and gathering data, especially very early in the morning. Um, usually I like to wait for the sun to be up a little bit higher, but they are on crunch time and they want to, they want to get this data as quickly as possible. Just waiting for a fix here on the drone. Okay, we just got our fix. We're going to let it sit for about a minute. Um, and then we're actually going to take the drone up because I do want to check what the camera is doing. Um, in terms of my shutter speed and the ISO. Uh, obviously we don't want our ISO going any higher than 800. It really shouldn't, given that we're starting to get a lot more light. And it's not going to be overcast, so I don't have to wait a little bit longer for, uh, for more light to enter into our project site here. Okay, let's, uh, let's throw the drone up real quick. And what I'm going to do is I'm going to take it right up to our 199 ft right there. And I'm going to just drop the camera down. So, if we look, our ISO right now is 700 and our shutter speed is at 1/240th of a second. So, that's not good enough, especially if we're going to be flying at the 26 mph that I have it set to. We're going to get a lot of motion blur in all the images. Even with an aperture of f/2.8, even though we're letting in as much light as we can, it's still not enough to get good clear images for, uh, the mapping data that we're doing. Because if we go and we look at our flight route here on our Gateway 2, we're supposed to capture 331 images. And I want to make sure that every 331 images that we gather is clear, not blurry. That's just going to do us no good. and it's just a waste of time if we come out here and capture the data as, uh, as the camera is seeing it right now. So, again, we're going to wait probably another 10 to 15 minutes. At 7:16 right now, so it's probably going to be about a 7:30 takeoff time, uh, for us to get what we need.

Given that it's pretty much go time here, you can see the sun's shining and now it's hiding behind the clouds again. I just wanted to wait for it to rise a little bit more. We're 5 minutes past 7:30. I'm going to boot the drone on. I'm also going to go get the project managers because I did want to see this flight. So, I probably won't be talking to camera that much, but you will kind of see the interactions that's going on. Um, they are really interested in this technology, as you heard the lady that came up and was speaking with me. So, let me boot the drone on so that we can get connected to RTK, have a good fix, and we'll be ready to fly.

All right. So, this whole, uh, >> I do have, but go ahead. Do your thing. >> It looks a little different than DroneDeploy, but >> gets the same, uh, same thing across. So, obviously have our project site set up here and, uh, we now have some good light out. So, I'm going to hit this, uh, actually, I'm going to slow down our flight just a little bit. He's at, he's, Oh, no. I estimated time 10 minutes. >> Yep. And I just slowed the speed down just a little bit. As the sun starts to come up, we'll start getting more light on site. But even 10 minutes to gather all the photos that we need is pretty incredible. Mhm. >> So, we're going to hit the play button here. >> Okay. How many photos does it take for this mission? >> This one is estimating 326. Yep. >> So, if I hit this play button here, got all my settings built in. >> And, uh, I can ignore those. I can ignore those settings. So, we don't have to worry about that. Everything else is pretty much >> How high it can go now. Like >> Here, I can, I'm approved to fly at 200 ft. >> Okay. >> I have the project set, the flight set to 199.7 ft just so I'm a little bit below. But that's going to give us, I mean, the accurate data. Yeah. >> Yeah. Because >> And I don't want to fly any higher than that anyways. >> Okay. You don't need to. Okay. >> I typically, um, I actually like to fly at between 160 and 180 ft. I've seen that it's given me the best results. But the bigger the site, the more photos you'll have to do. >> Yeah. 200 feet for what Davey's doing is more than enough. >> Yeah. Awesome. >> So, we just hit upload and then start. And the drone is actually going to start just right behind us here. So, we can actually take a look at the, uh, the camera itself. Just thinking here for a second. There it goes. All right. So, we got to our first waypoint here. What I'm actually going to do, 'cause I see something going on, I'm going to switch this over. There we go. Uh, I just switched this over just so that the images aren't, um, blurry. >> Change ISO. >> Uh, I changed the shutter speed. I increased it 'cause it was a little too slow. Uh, the ISO that's actually the, the highest that it will go right now, given that there's enough light in the scene and I don't want it to go any higher than that anyways. So >> There we go. So now we are at our first waypoint here, exactly at >> 199.5. >> There we go. >> Awesome. And so we can track its progress. This white box, so this is actually the newest drone from DJI. It came out a few weeks ago. >> Mhm. >> Um, so there's actually some new software updates on it. This actually, that box shows you exactly what it's capturing on the area. It's pretty cool. >> Yeah. >> We also have these vision sensors. So I can see there's, there's little cameras around. >> I can actually see each direction that it's looking at. So this is the left of it. Oh, that's bad. >> This is right behind the drone. This is to the right of the drone. So, obviously it's over that warehouse that's over there. This is in front. And then I can actually look at the bottom cameras, too. >> Even though I mean, obviously we have the camera that we have right here, but we've got an RTK, uh, to fix right now. >> How's it been lately? Uh, today is today's a little meh right now, but >> But we're still super >> Yeah. >> Super accurate. >> Oh, no. >> Accurate enough. But that's why that's why there's controls. Two tents. That's fine. I mean, they do advertise at the end of the day, it's advertised at a tenth, >> Right? Right. >> So, sometimes we get a third 003. >> Yep. Some, yeah. And that's why I like to have, uh, like an Emlid out on site. Um, I know you guys do have a base station that is here. >> All we have is the Emlid Reach. >> No, I meant there, there is a base station set up here on your site. >> Oh, okay. >> But I, is that Davies? Oh, >> I don't know if it is. >> Um, maybe they got, did you, like, you saw it today? I saw it the first flight that I did. >> The first flight that you did was >> It's just here on the, it's just here on the left. >> Right behind the, right behind the trail. That first control point is there. Okay. >> First point, but, uh >> Was it an Emlid? >> No, it's a, like a, it's a Leica. >> Okay. >> It's, it's hard-set. >> So, it was definitely the >> Uh, Atwell, the surveyor. Okay. They're using the, you know, I call it the, the real deal, the $50, $60,000 equipment. But he was bull. He saw me with the little stick. What are you doing? What is that? What are you doing? I go, with your cell phone. Like, how does it communicate? I was like, bro, it works. >> It's magic. I swear. >> I'm telling you, it works. >> It'd actually be kind of cool to to test this out with y'all 'cause you guys have internet here, right? >> Yeah. >> Uh, what is it? Is it hardwired or is it cell? We got hardwired. We got hardwired to the trailer. >> To the trailer. >> Yeah. >> So, uh, I've actually, I did this as a concept with, um, out in Texas, uh, in Houston, just or just north of Houston. There's this area called Colony Ridge. Um, massive, like 200,000 acres of land that they're just, they're selling, they're, they're splitting off the plots and selling it off to people individually. >> Okay. And, uh, so whenever they're ready for their next batch, they'll, they'll flatten out the area, you know, subdivide the plots out and obviously, you know, they got to do a little bit of earthworks out there. So doing some volume calculations and setting new control points out there. Um, and they'll do, they'll do like 150 to 300 acres at a time. So basically there's this $700 RTK base station that you can get. Um, set it up on a trailer and that's what we did at that site. So we set it up at their, we actually got two of them. We set one up.

At kind of like a local community building for the whole area because their offices were um, I think like 10 km away. Um, so we also set one up there. So we can kind of build like their own little network.

>> Gotcha.

>> And they're always online. It's just like a course. It's just like connecting to the one that's down here in downtown St. Pete, the one that I'm connected to right now. But it's highly accurate. Like highly, highly accurate. It's a triple band. Um, so you're getting really good connectivity and it's you're it's more than just two constellations cuz these ones, the one that I'm connected to, it's only using GPS and GLONAS and 9, 10, 11, 12.

>> You're on the you're on the FPI.

>> I am.

>> Yeah. And those are It's only giving me 13. It's only connected to 13 satellites where my drone is connected to 27 by itself right now, but it's also using it's using four constellations. Uh, those little base stations are are using four to five constellations. So, you're getting higher accuracy on your site. And if you're going to be doing survey, aerial surveys like this, you pop up on site, you connect to your trailer's internet, um, or, you know, mobile hotspot, and then your drone will connect to that base station every single time. And you'll get like less than I mean, way less than a tenth. Like we're we're in like the the hundreds, in some cases thousands that I've seen before.

>> Wow. Thousands is impressive.

>> Which is impressive. Obviously, that's not necessarily going to translate to the to the drone data because there's stuff that's moving. I still think photogrammetry might have a little bit of a I think more accuracy on the surface than you can actually achieve on the on the photogrammetry.

>> Yeah, we're right at the end of our uh our aerial survey, but if you guys want to take a look here.

>> Sorry.

>> It's on its last uh last little path.

>> So, just.

>> Yep. So, we're on its it's its last leg right now.

>> Let it rip. But it only took 10 minutes to do the whole thing.

>> All done. So now just going to check our data and then we'll be able to upload this to our client when we get back to the office. Just got back to the office and something I actually forgot to do with you guys out in the field was to check the data that we got from our drone. Now, ideally, again, you would want to do this out in the field. This is part of your post-flight due diligence of making sure that you got the data that you needed. So, we're gonna pretend that I did this when I was still on site. Granted, it's only 20 minutes away from me, so if I needed to go refly it, I could. Uh, so I've already got the data loaded onto my SD card here. I'm going to just plug it into my computer here, and we are going to just go full screen.

So, taking a look here in the DCIM folder in our Gateway 2 project. We're going to open this up and I'm just going to pick uh just pick a random photo. Not that random photo. Let's just uh go forward a little bit. Okay. So, here we are on the project site itself. And I do want to check the actual like quality of it because I did notice there's a little bit of a fluctuation um of the ISO. I did mention how 800 ISO is about the max that I would ideally again ideally like to be at, but again given that they wanted this drone up in the air as soon as possible because they want to get their volume calculations later today. Um, I just I had to get it up and flying. So if I click on this little uh I icon here for the file information on the right hand side here, we're going to get some camera information. So yep, we had an f/2.8 aperture. We had one over 800 of a second for our shutter, which that's what I I switch it over to that shutter priority. And our ISO is 530. So if I move along here, it starts jumping up. So it's at 640 here. 600, 570, 600. This is pretty low. This one's at uh 290. I did see some areas that spiked up a bit. So this one's 730. Again, I don't really care about this area particularly. Um, neither does the surveyor. So, let's see. 310. And if you know, if we zoom in on these photos, they should be clear, right? There is no motion blur at all. Granted, we are flying at 200 ft. So, it's not going to be as if we're flying at my typical flight height of 160 to 180, but overall, I mean, this this is exactly what our surveyor is looking for. So, if we just shimmy on along here, let's get to the other side. Yep. 410. Okay. So, you're going to notice as soon as we get over this water here, there it is. 1220, 1790 for the ISO, 2,000 for the ISO, and there's all this grain that is getting introduced into the image. However, given that we don't really care too much about this side of the actual orthomosaic that's going to get generated, it's totally fine because look, as soon as we jump, Yep, there it goes. So, here we're at 1160 ISO and then we jump and then we drop all the way back down to 500. And then when we get right back over to our project site, we're at 430, 330, 450, 580, 450. So, we're sitting below the uh the ISO that we want to sit at. And we're still able to get incredible quality out of this.

So, let's go and actually upload this to my client. They have already sent me over uh an upload uh link here. So, I'm just going to click on the add files. I'm going to add a folder. And actually before I do that, what I want to do is this gateway 2. I'm going to just copy uh the project here. Oh, I am right in the way. I'm just going to copy and click the little copy icon. And I'm going to save it directly to my server here uh for this project. And I'm going to give it, you know, a new folder name. So, today is the 20th. Okay. And then I'm just going to paste all those photos in here. Shouldn't take too long. I always like to keep all the raw data. Even if I upload it to a client and they're going to put it into their cloud, I always keep a local set of it. This is specifically set up on uh my local NAS that I have on here. So, we can take a look. Still got 17 terabytes free. Uh, so I got a lot of data on here, but anyways, let's uh let's go back into Google Drive here, or not Google Drive, Google Chrome here for our Wii transfer for a client. We're going to navigate into our client's folder here, and we're going to go to today's date. We'll select the folder. I'm going to click upload. And I will click upload one more time. And I will click transfer. And there we go. And then we can take a look here on our task on our task manager on the performance. We're uploading at about 200 megs a second. Uh, reason you're seeing receive right here is because it's pulling from my server to this computer and then uploading it directly to uh my client's weed transfer. But anyways, that's really all it is for this project site. Uh, funny enough, in between uh actually landing the drone and then talking with the client a little bit more after the fact. Um, I wish I was recording. I didn't expect for them to come back up and talk with me a little bit more, but project manager uh just asked me to start doing every 2 or 3 days to go out there. So, we already have me planned um to go out and fly at 400 p.m. on Monday. However, we have seen just a little bit of potential rain that is coming into the area. So, that is something that we're taking in consideration. Regardless though, uh I'm not going to keep throwing this exact same project site um on here for you guys to watch. I'm just I'm going to be putting new projects on here, but just wanted to give an update in in terms of that because obviously, right, I built out an entire pricing calculator based off of 20 flights. I gave some discounts because again they're giving me a lot of uh a lot of projects to go do or a lot of flights. I'm making over $9,500 on this. Um, and I don't even have to do any data processing itself. So it actually pays entirely for my M4E purchase, which is great. But with that being said, you guys do have access to the Excel sheet. It's going to be made available whether you're watching this on YouTube or um on my Pilot Bite platform. Uh, just check below in the description or look at the download section if you're on Pilot Bite website. Um, and you'll be able to download the calculator. You can play around with that. You can change those numbers in there. Um, and then same thing with the contract. You guys will have access to the contract. Uh, just as an idea of how I write these out to clients. But with that being said, uh, hopefully this next video that I have coming out is going to be a lighter project down in Miami. We're negotiating with the client right now to potentially tag on two more. Uh, there's two other sites that I did before. um, they weren't recorded um before because I wasn't intending on doing the series, but now I am. I actually didn't have the series planned in mind when I was doing this project. So, anyways, we'll see that if I can get those two other projects. I'm going to bring you along and in total we'll do three lighter projects across two different days, which I think will be pretty cool. With that being said, um, I look forward to uh to you guys checking out the next episode in this whatever this I call this series. I still haven't figured out a name for it yet.

Hey guys, welcome back to another Drone Pilot Insider Uncut episode. Today we are well, this video you're going to be seeing a LAR data acquisition project down in Miami, Florida, uh which is about 3 and 1/2 to 4 hour drive from where I'm at. So, this is actually the day before we actually do our letter capture. And we're going to be going through the actual process on how I set up how I pre-plan these missions because for doing LAR data capture, there's a few more steps involved than a traditional drone mapping project. So, we're going to be flying with the DJI L2 that I've got right here. Obviously, that's going to be going on a DJI Matrice M350. Uh, so I also have batteries being fully charged right there. In addition, there is also another scope of the project that requires a 360 uh panel up in the sky. So I will be bringing my M4E. I've already got the batteries fully charged and battery here. So I don't have to do any mission planning for that, but I'm just going to be bringing the drone out. They did tell me where specifically they want the uh the pan to be captured. It's literally just in the middle of the site. But yeah, that's that's it for really the equipment. Oh, in addition, I also need to bring my emlid, which uh is still on my rover pole and bipod here. But yeah, we'll be getting this broken down, set up, and brought into the truck.

Now, considering that I am driving pretty much to the other side of the state, um, and south from where I'm positioned and that it's been raining all day today, uh, that was something I actually had to take into consideration because tomorrow is supposed to rain as well for the area that I'm going to. However, I've just I've been tracking it all day long. Right now it is 4:40 p.m. I'm going to be leaving tomorrow at well, when you see this uh it's going to be about 4:00 a.m. for when I leave cuz I want to get on site around 8:00 in the morning. Uh, one so I can do my due diligence which I will be bringing you guys along but because of how far it is. I don't want to drive down there and be stuck with rain all day long. Uh, but it is clearing up from what I can see. It was supposed to rain almost all day tomorrow and now the percentage has dropped down to about 25%. And then the area that I'm looking at specifically, it doesn't look like there's going to be any rain um after like 6 a.m. So, with me arriving around 8:00 in the morning, um, I should be good. But what I want to quickly break down for you guys, we're going to hop here onto the desktop. We're going to look at what my client gave me um in terms of a KML for the boundary that we're capturing. They also gave me where all the ground control points are. So, that is one of the things I need to do when I go out there is confirm the ground control points. And then they also want me to do check shots, which I'll explain what the check shots are later on um in this video. Um, but yeah, they have basically everything that I need to do. So, what we're doing right now, this is the due diligence part of the project itself. We're going to look at all this data. Um, look at the specs that they gave us of what they want us to fly, where they want us to fly. Um, I have another sheet that I can't show because it is proprietary. Uh, but they tell me the uh the swath width in terms of how many points per square meter that they want, which I've already got that calculation down for the overlap and the speed that we'll be flying as well as the height. So, we'll we'll take a look at that for the mission planning. But yeah, we're just getting everything all set up, getting all the batteries charged, making sure that the drones are all up to date with software and firmware. Um, and then just doing one last checklist of making sure we have all of our equipment ready to go. And I'll also make that available for you guys to download. There's going to be a free uh checklist uh template that you guys can build out for your future projects. So, let's actually hop here onto the desktop. We'll look at the entire project itself and then uh and then we'll go from there.

Hey, this is future Dylan. Uh, I'm having to re-record this because I just realized that uh, the microphone wasn't working when I originally recorded this segment. So, I've already actually gathered the data for this project. But, let me walk you through how I get the information, how I do my mission planning, and then based off the mission planning, how I charge my client because I also have another calculator that I built out. This one is specific with my Trace Air client. So, I already have a pre-negotiated rates depending on the size of the project, uh, some other deliverables that they ask from me, and then how far away and if there's multiple days included with it. So, let me walk you through the process of of how that works. What we're looking at right now is the flight boundaries, the site boundaries, um, of what they want me to fly. So, I can easily just download this KML. Uh, what's also cool is depending on what drone you're flying with, whether I'm flying with a quad or a fixed wing, I have the option of switching between the two. Obviously, we're going to be flying with an M350 and an L2. So, here's the area of interest that I have. From there, all I have to do is click on the download KML, and I'm just going to throw it into my downloads folder. And from there, we'll just open up the KML. It's going to open up into Google. Um, I've already opened it up before, but this is how I can also just really see the entire area that I'm gathering. What's actually really funny is I actually did a project here about two months ago. This one's about 500 acres. And this site, the way that we can see how many acres it is on the left hand side here, um, I don't even think you saw what I was drawing up, but yeah, this whole area I did before, about 500 acres right here is that KML that I just downloaded. So on the left hand side, if I go onto the actual object itself, right click on it, hit properties, and um, I mean, doesn't really matter. I'll just change the fill color to something that we can see. Maybe let's do like a yellow or something. Cool. So now we can see the area that we care about. Now, how many acres is this site? Well, let's go to the measurements. And for the area, let's go down to the dropdown for acres. And we can see it's 151 acres. So, now that I have that information, uh, we can go into my calculator that I have uh right here. Again, you guys will be able to download this and use this for yourselves. But my baked-in cost is a minimum of $750. That's up to 50 acres plus a $50 mobilization fee. Um, that gets me about like uh I think about like a 33 mile uh about 35 mile range um included. Anything after that, I charge a mileage rate. Right now, it's actually 70 cents per mile additional, but I add an extra 2% because I have some other cost associated with the mileage that's going uh within it. So, here I will put in the acres, so 151. And that is based off of what I have here from the KML. Um, going back into Google, we got to figure out how far away this site is. So, going on to the maps, um, considering I already know where this area is at, um, it's here in Westlake, and I always just drop this pin here to figure out my distance. So, I'm going to hit directions, and I'll pull it from my location. And we can see here on the left hand side, it's about 217 miles uh from my office. I always like to round up number-wise. Um, so you know, if this was 213, I just call it 215. But since it's 217, I'm going to call it 220 because I'm going to have to make, you know, probably a stop along the way. So, we go back here into our calculator, put mileage, we put 220. And we'll see that it automatically calculates that here for me. And it's actually doing a round trip. So, this is 220 miles one way plus it on the way back. I mean, we can see that here in the calculation. Um, what we can see is basically just a a function here, right? If I had it under 50 miles, it's just going to be um or not 50 miles. Uh, I think 50 miles actually. Um, depending on what it is, if if this value is less than $50, then it's going to stay $50. But if it goes over $50, it'll add on whatever the multiplier is. As for airspace, I know that there is no airspace issues here, but we can take a look at this. So I like to go to a loft air control and we will go over here to our project site. So there is no link here. So we can just put no. They do want me to gather uh some ground control points out there. So my standard fee is 250. And because there's a total of six that's out there for me to confirm, I'm going to type in six. So, it adds on every additional ground control point they want me to confirm. Um, it's an additional 30 bucks. They do want me to do some checks. So, I'll explain what checks are when we're out in the field, but it basically just gathering some additional points that are out there. And the last value, even though I am not staying in a hotel, I still need to include a per diem. Considering that this is a whole day affair, um, I put one on here. If I was staying in a hotel, I would pull up whatever the government um nightly rate is. So for the area that I'm going into, this is actually a website you can use. Um, I think it's per or government per diem right here. So we go to the per diem rates and we can either just look at a national scale or we can go specific. So if I go and look at the zip code here which let's see it is 33470 and I put in a zip code here 33470. Click find rates. Here we have Palm Beach um area. So, for daily lodging, because we're in February right here, we can see it's $244 a night. So, if this is like a multi-day project, what I would do is I would put in the 244 a night and it gets me that value there. As for the per diems, um, it was 65, but I guess I guess I'm wrong there. Or $68. Maybe I was calculating a different area. Um, but basically you do your first and last day of travel. So you only include this considering it's only one day. Technically I'm supposed to put $64.50. Um, but if it's multiple days, you do $86 on the in between days outside of your first and your last. So this is a great uh resource uh to use to do your pricing because you can't just say, "Hey, maybe I'll just do 110." Or maybe you just do the average, right? Let's see. Um, if we go back and I just put Florida, right, and I click find rates, right? Standard rates across the board is $110. But because I'm in an area that's more expensive, I don't want to have to incur the cost of an addition of an additional $114. That that doesn't make sense. You should never do that. So, you want to take these rates that are here, right? This Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Jupiter that I'll be in is $244 a night during peak season. So this all there's all factors around it. Look, if I was going down to Key West, it would be wow $436 a night. So it can, you know, you never want to do what the state standard rates are because you're just going to lose money. So now that we have all of that in there, let me remove the hotel. Um, I will be charging my client $1,8230 for this data capture that I'm doing out there, which I'm not doing any data processing. It's just pure data capture. Um, so now that I have all of this information for what I'm doing, right, the entire site here, if we go to this back end, we can see what we're capturing. We used Google Earth Pro to get an actual acreage of it. Um, we also figured out how far away we are right from Google Maps and we're able to calculate all that with this calculator right here, which is simplifies my entire life. Again, these are all pre-negotiated rates that I have with my client. If I, you know, if I were to say, hey, maybe I need a little bit more dollars on the 51 to 500 acre range, maybe I pop it up to $5 an acre after, we can see that value automatically adjusts based off of it, considering I'm doing an additional 100 acres, right? It it has all the multiplication built directly into it. It's a it's a very smart um system that I have here. So, you guys can download this. But now that I have the KML downloaded, I'm going to put it onto an SD card. And now, let's do the mission planning on DJI Pilot 2.

All right, got the uh micro SD card that we can see right here. Uh, just going to plug it directly into the M350 controller. So, open this guy up here and micro SD card slot right here. We are going to go to our flight route here. We're going to click the plus button and we're going to do the import route and we're going to click the 6E44-C8D. And if I scroll to the bottom, there is my KML. So I will confirm and I'm going to allow access to the SD card and we want to do an area route. So now if I open up this new project here, we can see the entire area. Now I want to make some adjustments to this flight plan here because this is not how we want to fly it. First of all, let's go to the dropdown and I am just going to give this a new project name TA call it silver lake. Then we want to change our camera over to the L2. For letter mapping payload settings, we need to make sure that we're on a penta return with repetitive and RGB coloring on okay. All right. Now, the next thing we're going to scroll down. I want to turn off the elevation optimization and we're going to be flying at 200 ft here. Perfect. IMU calibration. We want on speed. We want no faster than 20 m an hour. And then our advanced settings here. Yeah, that side overlap is way too low. So, I'm going to increase this to I think I said 50/50. But let me put 40 here. Right. That gives us 42 minutes, which means we will need a battery swap. Now, typically for LAR, you don't want to go any lower than like 30 for your side overlap. Even though we saw the default as 20 for the side overlap. Personally, I don't like doing that. I've just I've seen bad data come out of a 20% side overlap. Um, I do want to make some micro adjustments here. Um, specifically on these corners, we don't need all of these points as they are. I want to make this a little bit more uniform. So, I'm just cleaning up this mission plan here. We'll do the same thing to this corner over here. Okay, that looks good to me. I think we can also That looks good. Okay, so it says it's going to take about 40 minutes. We can see we're at the 150.5 acres. So, what I will do just to ensure that I'm getting the entire area covered, um, we're going to go to this margin setting and let's add uh, there we go. 20 foot margin. So, now it's going to take 40 minutes. And it looks like we're going to start. So, basically, I'm going to be parking in this area right here that I'm hovering around. Um, oh, oops. Did not mean to do that. What I actually do want to do is I want to change the start point to be at the opposite end. Uh, because right now we can see it's in this corner right here. So, let me zoom out. We're going to change our route start point. We're going to set it to here. And it should Yep, it should finish right by us. And I think that's good. So, let me go back one more page here. We do want the IMU calibration. Course angle is fine. We're going to change our safe takeoff altitude to 200 ft. Rod altitude at 200 feet. Uh, speed 20 miles an hour is good. Okay, so that looks good for the mission plan. We will click the save button. And I'm just going to remove any annotations here. Cool. All right. So, now that we're done with our mission planning, we're going to check this one more time while we're out in the field. Anyways, um, but I always like to do this here in the office first. Again, we just downloaded the KML from our client, imported it here, made some fi, you know, a few fine-tune adjustments just to make the flight more efficient. Um, we can now turn this guy off, and um, we'll get everything all packed up and and and ready to go. Given that it's still uh sprinkling outside, I'll have to be kind of quick and uh diligent with getting all this equipment to the truck cuz I'm leaving right at 4:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. So, it's going to be uh it's going to be a pretty early morning for me. So, something that I did realize when packing, um, given that yes, I am confirming the control points out there. I'm not setting them. However, I do need to go to Home Depot or Lowe's to go pick up some more ground spray cans because the ones that I have with me right now, I'm almost fully out of. And I do know I have some projects coming up where they do want me to set some ground control points. I'm not the one who's confirming them. I have a survey company that I work with, but they just want me to go out there since I'm doing the aerial data capture um for it. So, we're going to take a little quick stop to Lowe's uh and I'm going to show you which ones that I personally like to use for ground spray paint given that this is an undeveloped area. But yeah, as you can see, I've got my cart of drones ready to go. Obviously, I've got the M350 over there, and then I've got the uh bipod rover pole for the emlid all set up. And I'm actually going to be taking a stop to T-Mobile. Hopefully, they're still open because I'm been having some issues with uh my data sim um in my emlid. So, I'm just going to go get that checked out. It's probably not I should have probably should have done it earlier today given that it's 5 o'clock. That's probably not going to happen today, to be honest. So, we'll scratch that off. So, I'm just going to use my phone's hotspot um for it to do its end trip connection for tomorrow. So, something that, you know, now that I'm talking it out loud, it's these are just things that you need to take into consideration when doing projects that require equipment that has connections to servers and services. That was uh my honest fault. But this is why we have backup plans. And the backup solution here is to use my phone for that process. But anyways, I'm all packed up. We got to make a stop to Lowe's real quick um to get the last bit of equipment. But we're uh we're pretty much all set, ready to go for tomorrow.

It is a little past 4:00 a.m. now. We've got roughly 3 hours 50 minutes. Probably going to be about four hours once uh traffic starts hitting up. But we are now heading to our project site in uh well, it's called West Lake is the town that we're going to. Should be pretty easy. The uh the weather's actually clearing up uh pretty nicely uh from the forecast that I saw compared to what I was looking at yesterday, which was a few minutes ago for you guys. But yeah, we are heading out there now and it should be pretty straightforward project. Um, I've got some actually some hacks that I want to show you guys uh while we're actually out on site for doing the data gathering and then for doing your data check because again I am driving 220 miles plus that back. I obviously don't want to go out there if there's any mistakes. So, I've got a few workflow hacks that I actually do myself on just about every single lighter project uh that I am hired to go on and uh it's it's actually really easy, but you're going to see that coming up.

All right, we have just arrived to our property location here in South Florida. Um, it's actually 8:45. I had to pull over because I got a little tired, so slept for about 45 minutes, which didn't really add too much more time to my drive. is actually pretty nice. But um, so first things first because we are doing a letter flight and given with letter flights we have to do a well there's a PPK processing so I need to get a base station set up on one of the known points here. So what I actually have pulled up this is the backend for uh trace for me to be able to get access to all the information here. So, this project here, if I go to the flight markers, it's going to open up a map on here, and it's going to show all of the flight markers. So, I'm actually right here. If I turn on my location, I wonder if it's going to work. Uh, close enough. Uh, it shows my pin there, but I'm actually closer more like right here. I'm parked where I'm parked. Actually, maybe we can do the satellite imagery. Yeah, even this satellite imagery is so old because literally what I'm looking at right in front of me, there is there's thousands of homes here. It's it's kind of ridiculous. Um, but as you we can see, this is the area that we're going to be capturing. And here is one of the control points that I'm going to be tying to. So, typically what I like to do, um, well, one of the things that I'm required to do is go and check all of these control points. Um, given where I'm at right now, uh, I wonder if I can show you here. If you can see out the back of my window here, it's kind of blocked off. Um, I can't necessarily drive past that. And so, what I'm going to do to confirm all of these control points, um, I'm actually going to take my Matrice 4 Enterprise, fly it up. I already know where this point is because I've actually tied to this point before for a different project. Um, but what I'm going to do first actually is I'm going to download the control book uh for all of these control points. I'm going to then put it here onto my iPhone so that I can import it directly into the Emlid Flow app, which the Emlid Flow app is how I communicate with my Emlid uh Reach RS3 uh GNSS receiver. I'm going to set up that GNSS receiver on top of that known point and I'm just going to let it start cooking. Um, I'm gonna do that first. Typically, if they had me go out and set ground control points, um, which in future episodes of the series that I have, you'll actually see some of the projects that I've done that on. Um, and it also was for Trace. Uh, I typically go do the control points first, and then I'll set up the base station on one of the known points, let it bake for about 30 minutes, do my flight, let it sit for another 30 minutes, um, and then I'll go. Oh, and there's also one other step. I have to do check shots. So, I will actually have to go out here um, and walk around and gather a few check shots, about like 10 to 15. Um, it won't be too hard. It's just it's just a lot of walking. Um, that's that's really all it is. But again, given where all of these control points are, there's a total of six if I remember. I'm just going to fly my drone to each one of these spots here, which honestly I could probably go and check this one. That's 5,0001 or 50,0001. This one is 50,000. This one's 50,0002. 50,0005,0004 50,0003. So, I'm going to fly my drone to these three out here. I've already checked this one because I can actually I can see it. And we'll go and set the the base station up on it. Um, but yeah, let me do I'm going to set the base station up first. So I'm going to download all of these flight markers here. And I'm just going to throw it into the downloads section. And if we open it, so if I go to my downloads, open it with Microsoft Excel here. Cool. So, we got the name north and easting elevation and I do believe so it does give me the EPSG code here. So, 2236. Um, I am going to actually airdrop this to my phone. So, I'm actually opened up here in Emlid Flow application. I'm just going to quickly airdrop this file. Oh, does airdrop work when I'm Oh, probably does not work when I'm tethered. Um, here I've got a different idea. This is This is what we're going to do. I'm going to open up Emlid Flow 360. So, now that I'm logged in here, I'm going to create a brand new project and we're going to call this TA dash Silver Lake. Um, okay. Let's edit the coordinate system here. So if I remember it is EPSG code 2236. So EPSG I don't think I have to type that. 2236. Let's see. So let me try EPSG and 2236. It is not finding it. What is going on here? Well, let's do Florida East. I don't know why it's uh it's not giving me this correctly. Let me um Okay. So, here it's NAD 83, not even 2011, Florida East Foot US. Was I typing it in wrong the whole time? EPSG. Yep. 2236. 2236. Okay. It doesn't want to find it. So, if I type in Florida, hold on, let me do NAD 83 for slash Florida East. You know what? It's not showing all of the coordinate systems. Okay, here's what I'm going to do on my phone. I'm going to go because I do have all the coordinate systems downloaded on my phone. We are just going to exit out. Okay. So, I'm going to call this TA Silver Lake here. And coordinate system, we'll do 2236. There it is. Okay. So, yeah, that's weird. It wasn't working on my laptop. So, we'll do that. And then our horizontal should just be navd88 height foot US. And it should just be a standard datum there. Okay, cool. So, I'm going to hit save. All right. So, now it just popped up here on my laptop. So, what I'll do is I can now import a CSV file. Um, we're going to include choose file And theoretically, if I go to the satellite view here, these are correct. This is just an older map. Oh, okay. Here we go. Yep. Perfect. All right. So, why did I just import all of this? Well, because I want to set up my base station on a known point. It's much easier just to import the control book that they have or that they gave me with the right coordinate system and then when I go and set up my base station on top of it. All I have to do um and we'll go do that here in a second is select from a a project because I'm going to tell my base station, hey, you're sitting on top of this point then because I'm also going to be running RTK and rather than just using the Florida FP network, which is free and works, um and it's what I actually will be doing for my check shots, but for my RTK for the drone, because I do want good trajectory, um and I also want just that backup, uh observation file to be logged onto the L2 itself. Um, I'd rather have it log to a known position, a known point on the site rather than just using a base station that could be much further away, which we'll see when we go do the check shots. We'll see how far that base station is. I mean, it's not going to really affect anything. Um, but this is why I did this method right here. I wanted to import it first before I actually got out there to set up the emlid um, actually on the known point. So, let me go get that set up. I'm going to get my high viz vest on, throw my hard hat on, and my boots most importantly. Unfortunately, uh, one of them got completely drenched. I had it in the wrong spot in the bed of my truck. So, that's that's my own fault there. But, let's go do that. We'll go set up the base station and then we'll get uh the M40 up in the air, check the other ground control points, and we'll be flying some LAR here very shortly.

So, I already mentioned this before in the truck, but um, I've actually already been out to this site before. This section here, the 151 acres that I'm gathering was the adjacent to what we can see behind me here with all of the uh, the dump trucks and bulldozers and uh bucket trucks picking up everything or uh not bucket trucks but um excavators that are working on the site. I was here 2 months ago and I gather this was almost 500 acres that I flew. It took me about almost an hour and 45 about two hours to fly the whole thing. Um, and it was this process that I'm doing right here was a much similar workflow um, of going checking the the the site. I actually did have to set a few control points um, just past these palm trees over here, which we're actually we will be going back in there cuz we have to Well, maybe we will. We'll see if I have to go back out there. But yeah, so all of this stuff was already captured before. Uh, which is why it's pretty familiar for me to be to be out here. It is cool to see that they're actually working on the stuff that I did. Uh, I did offer to fly it again, but they are not ready for a flight out here. But again, this is for volumetrics. This is for understanding the topography. Um, if I just pan the camera over here, you can kind of see out in the distance, there's all these palm trees. So, they just want to get a topo um of that area. But let me uh quickly get these boots on here so we can go ahead and get our emlid set up on this uh known point that's just uh on the other side of this fence right here.

So, you may be asking me why, Dylan, why are you setting up the base station? You're not even flying the drone yet. You got a few other things that you have to do before the drone is even up in the air. Why why does this matter? Well, for good accurate LAR data, it needs to have a good positional accuracy um or at least a good idea of where the data was gathered. Now, granted, we already have the GPS data that's going into the drone. Yes, we can process it with RTK, but if you want the most accurate data on the X, Y, and Z of every single one of the points in the point cloud, it needs to be referenced off of something that's known here. And it will always lighter will always be processed with PPK. Always will. And I don't foresee that changing given the fact that you're gathering hundreds of thousands if not millions of points per second with these systems where with an RGB system like a M4E or doing the P1 cam or any other drone doing photogrammetry you can get away with just using RTK because if you have just a little bit of degradation in the data it's okay because it's only on maybe one two or five or 15 photos you know out of a thousand photos on a site but when it comes to lighter because that sensor is constantly gathering data. If it's a few seconds that you're having bad accuracy, well, that's going to get affect that's going to affect millions of points and that's that's not good. So, with what we're doing here with the MLID, which I always like to get this guy turned on here so that I can start getting it connecting to satellites and on the rover pole. This is an essential process in doing LAR data acquisition. Now this is not a requirement from uh from trace air for me to do this. This is just a workflow and a process that I have done for just about every single lighter project that I do. Whether it's for Tracer, whether it's for other clients, this is how I know I'm giving them good data because again, the last thing that I want to do is drive 4 hours out here and then, you know, just throw the drone up and capture some data, which that is what a lot of other people are doing with the L2 system because DJI, as great of a company as they are of making this hardware and technology available and affordable, they never really teach you how to actually leverage the system and get good, accurate data out of it. Oh, it's just got RTK. Throw it up, gather data, you're good. Well, that's that's completely wrong. That's not how you're supposed to gather data with the L2. That's not how you're supposed to do LAR data acquisition for what we're doing today or really any other project. So, this is an essential part of it. So, I should be fully booted up here. I am going to I'm going to make sure that I am connected to it. So, yep, I can already see on my Wi-Fi. I am just about to connect directly to my Emlid. All right. And I'm going to wait for the little Wi-Fi icon in the top right to change. Maybe not. We'll see. That is one thing. I have been having some data issues and I did mention this yesterday in this video. So, let's just go to the Emwood Flow application here. It's seeing it. I am on a float. I do have LTE data. Let me go to my settings. Yeah, my mobile data is on and data roaming is on. But why am

I on a float? So, let's go back. Let's go to our correction input. I mean, this doesn't necessarily matter. Okay, it just uh it just fixed. And if I go to my survey here, there we go. We have TA Silver Lake. So, if I open this up, we should see that I am pretty freaking close to that 502 point.

Now, one thing I want to check, I'm going to zoom out. Oh, okay. Wow. So, there's a base station not too far. And h well, this is a little deceptive. It not too far, but where I'm at in in Florida, everything is relatively far distance. So, it is 12 km away. That's not too bad. Um it's like right at the range of what I want to be at.

So, okay. So, what we're going to do, I'm already joined. Um, we are going to walk over to the point and I think I can see exactly where it's at. So, I'm going to bring you with me here alongside my emid. This is a little awkward. Um, we're going to have to duck underneath the fence here. So, if we look at my phone here, we can see that I am walking towards it, but this is not the point that I'm supposed to be on right now. So, let's keep walking.

I thought that this was So, as you can see right here, this is a control point, but it's uh this is not the right one cuz if you look at my phone, we're not on top of it. Uh you see the R that means it's this the emlet right here. So let's uh let's keep walking. Apparently it's ahead. And did they use what did they use here? I'm still walking trying to find this point. Apparently I'm getting close to it. Oh, I see it now. They actually painted on the ground. Oh, this is completely different from the other control point. Completely different.

Okay, let me just place my phone down. So, where I'm setting up right now, this is the actual control point itself. And what I'm going to do, just make sure the tip is aligned. All right. So, if I just go and place my hole right on the nail there, I am going to as best as I can get one of these legs to extend out. And that does not look like it's going to work in that sense. And this just moved. All right. So, what what am I what what am I doing here? I'm looking very awkward with what's going on. Basically, I'm trying to get multiple points of contact so that the wind doesn't necessarily push me over at the same time. I'm trying to Let's see. Okay, that works there. This does seem good.

Okay. So, if you take a look, this is the control point that I needed to get our AMOLED on top of. And ideally, if I had a tri pod, a tri bipod instead of a just a dual bipod, this would be a little bit uh more stable, which I should, man, that's something I should have brought, but I am I'm already out here. And then if we take a look here is that control point that I am tied onto. So this is that 502. And I know that because that is the mark for number two.

Now here on my phone, what I'm going to do is just make sure that uh first of all, I need to go to my receiver. And what we're going to do uh for correction input, I know it's set to end trip. We're going to keep it on that right now. even though we're not going to be using the corrections uh for that because what I'm going to tell the emlet is that it's sitting on top of this point. So, how do I do that? We need to go here to the base settings and right now where the config uh the coordinate entry method is set to manual. This was actually another control point that I was set up on uh back in Tampa. So, what I'm going to do, we're going to go to configure. We're going to do coordinate entry method manual again, right? We'll go back and I'm going to choose from project for the coordinates. We're going to bring in TA Silver Lake and we're going to bring in that 5,000 or 50,0002 point here on the bottom. We'll hit apply. And then for my antenna height, I know that this is a 2 m pull. So, all I have to do here for the measured height, which we can see on the little diagram on the screen, uh the measured height from basically where the tip is that um that I have here to the top of the pole. And we can also see the the measurement units here is set to 2 m. And then it's going to add in the extra uh uh 134 m cuz that's the measurement to the actual antenna itself. So, I'm going to hit save. I'll hit save. And now this is set up as a base station.

The last thing I'm going to do uh for the base output, I want to make sure that it's set up as well. So we can see that I'm going to be using the emled caster. So I'm going to use my phone as the hotspot for my controller um for my M350 so that it can receive corrections from this guy. And I've already got this set up in the back end here. Um so this is just basic information. I mean, you guys can see my password in mount point, but it's not going to matter because you won't be able to connect to this if it's not online. So, we'll go back.

Now, the very, very last thing I want to do is for the logging. Um, so I'm going to just reset the logging cuz I want a fresh uh Rhinx, which is what I'm going to be using or what they will be using to do their PPK processing. And I want to start it from scratch. So, we're going to hit start recording now, and we'll have a brand new one. So, I can see that it's 9:14 right now. I am going to put the drone up in the air at 9:45. It'll give me a good 30 minute stretch of time. Um because you want the base to be the term is called cooking. You want the base to cook for about 30 minutes minimum for a good lighter flight. And then you also want it to cook for 30 minutes after the uh the flight itself. That way there is a time before and a time after the fact that you'll be able to do all of your base corrections and and everything else. So, this is more so done in the algorithm, but you'll have a better average of that position. So, I know that that guy is set up. I'm not worried about battery life in the Emlet. It's got like 22 hours of battery life. Um, and I only used it for 2 hours earlier uh this past weekend.

So, now that that is set up, let's um let's go do our checks for all of the other control points. I can see an old control point here. So, yeah, let's go do the checks for the other control points. Um, we're going to just throw the M4 up and I'm going to walk you guys through uh how we can validate where all of these targets are. Um, and then we'll do our our letter flight.

Now, one thing that is pretty nice is you can tell there's pretty much no clouds up in the air, but when I was checking yesterday, it was supposed to be raining. Well, it was like a it was about a 40% chance of rain. That is no longer the case, which thank God. um cuz I didn't want to sit here until late afternoon today to to do this project. But uh we do have some wind, but that's going to be nothing for any of these drones to uh to handle. Um I do need to check. So actually one of the deliverables that I owe for Trace Air is a panorama uh 360 panorama and it's I just got to throw it right in the middle of the project site here. So, good thing is the M4E can uh do that in one of the automated capture modes. At least I'm assuming. And we're about to find out live if I'm right or if I'm wrong. So, let me grab a uh SD card. All right, let's get you booted on. And you know what? I'm actually going to grab just one more cone cuz I did see some people driving by on their bikes here. You just block off this area. I will say these things are pretty convenient.

And you know what? Let's uh let me show you what this uh this RTK situation works here. So, if we go into our camera payload, hit the X, and I'm going to go into my RTK settings. I'm going to switch over to my uh not local emllet, but my configuration 2. And theoretically, we should. All right, it just picked up the base location and we got a fix now. And we'll wait for these values to drop. There we go. We are now Wow, we are 500s of an inch. Good lord. So, I believe if I click on this camera icon here, yes, there is a pan mode, but I got to go up in the sky. So, let's take her off. And what I believe I'm going to open up this map here. They wanted something um we're doing this. So, something like right there. Let's see. Let's go back to the camera mode here. And I'm just going to go forward on the throttle. I'm just going to look at the map here. And there is nothing really in the way. Oh, it's it's this direction from where I'm looking. Man, this I'll tell you what, I am loving this machine very much. And let's go up to like 250 ft here. Perfect. Okay, this is a good spot. So, let's go into our pano mode and we'll do Oops. We'll do auto mode. Uh, I don't think there's anything else I need to change. keep an auto white balance. Uh, well, hold on. Hold on one sec. Let me let me let me go in autofocus on the shutter and we'll go in the panel mode. Cool. Oh. Oh. Well, I guess it's just going to stick it to a manual focus. So, we'll just hit the trigger button. Ow. This is shooting much faster.

So, what'll be cool about this pano that it's gathering, I know I said a whole lot of nothing there. Um, but what'll be cool about this pano is it will actually it theoretically it should have the RTK uh positioning on it, which wow, we even dropped into the 9 th000 of an inch. That does not seem right. But for whatever whatever reason, I'm getting the accuracy. Um, cool. Anyways, I know I've I felt like I said a whole lot of nothing. Regardless, I want to see how this RTK accuracy turns out on this pano, which we are already done. That's incredible.

Oh, I also want to take a look at where these other flight markers are. So, let me grab my laptop. Theoretically, there should be one by the road over here. Nope, this direction. Um, I'm just going to go in this mode. So, let's see. Looking at the map, I bet you it's on this path. I think I see it. That might be it right there. So, let me go into the zoom camera. Nope, that's not it. Let me go just out one, which again, it looks like it is this one right here. What? That's really weird. Oh, I see it. Okay. Yep. So, there is one. Cool. So, they did put it on the road, which is very interesting to be honest. And let me guess, two is right there. Yep, I see it now. Or wait, what? I'm so confused. Okay. Well, that is one of the marks because it looks familiar. So, now let me go find I need to go to this end over here. Look at the map. Should be right up against uh all these trees here cuz the canal goes around. Yep. There's the target right there. Okay, that one's confirmed. And then there's one somewhere here in the middle. Theoretically, it should be somewhere. Nope, that's not it. Oh, I'm literally right on top of it. There it is. So, we just confirmed another point. And then the last one I need to confirm is way out in the corner. I think I might I might not be I need to keep going a bit more. There it is. Oh, wait. What in the world? Uh well, there's two of them here. One of them looks uh disturbed a bit. The thing is I don't know which one's which. And these are just left out here because I am in the right spot. But this one is supposed to be five. And neither one of these say five. I think they just used the targets there. So I might have to drive out to that one. We will see because this guy Oh, you know what? I know which one is ours. Okay, it's this one. So, let me do this. Let me Oh, let me go straight down on top of it. Just going to drop my altitude here. And I'm just going to take a photo just to show them what I am seeing here. Cool. Okay. So, that should be good. I'm just going to auto return it to home. Um, we've now confirmed all the control points. So, the one that I just set up on, the two that are down the street here, the one that's in the middle, the one that's in the back corner, and then the one that we were just at.

We've now hit the 30 minute mark. As we can see now, it is 9:48 on my phone. I let it run over a little bit more. By the time we get the drone fully set up and up in the air, um it should be probably close to 10:00. So, a good 45 minutes of capture here. We are now going to build out our drone here. There's two more latches on the side here. All right. So, get our controller out. It's funny is I think I still left the micro SD card in from yesterday. Yep. Still there. Cool. Put her legs on. Just going to put this guy up here. All right, just throw this guy here on the ground. We need our L2. I'm going to make sure that I've got an SD card placed in here cuz I believe I do not have one. And I was correct. Always have these guys on me. Let's uh let's pull this one right here. Got a 128 gig card. This one came directly from DJI. actually came directly in the L2 itself. Excellent. Close these up. And batteries, batteries, batteries. Two full batteries.

So, um, little side note here, but one thing that I do love about this truck, and it's more so actually right here, if you can kind of see, there's some outlets there. That is a 7.2 2 kWh battery or not battery but generator built into this F-150 uh power boost. It's the hybrid model. U only reason I'm talking about it is this truck has actually been such an essential tool for me for literally all of my LAR and massive mapping projects because I can charge I can actually charge directly from the BS65 case. Um, it's what charges the TB65 batteries for the M350. You can also do it with the uh M300 because this guy can pull almost like 800 watts when it's in full load in terms of charging. Uh two sets of batteries and a little tiny WB37 batteries too. Um most vehicles are only, you know, up to a 400 watt uh inverter. This puts out clean power. So I think there's the sign and pure sign um conversion. Uh, I am so going to butcher which one's which, but this puts out clean power, which is perfect for literally using and charging these batteries itself. Honestly, my suggestion in terms of if you really want to get serious with this and if you're flying bigger hardware, either bring a generator with you on site, I've already talked about using something like the uh solar generators or the the battery generators that you can bring with you. So, you can do that. You can bring an actual generator with you. Um, I recommend like a probably like a 25 probably like a 2.5K to 3 kilowatt hour uh generator. Those work pretty well, especially powering this kind of equipment. Obviously, I know DJI has their one their Power 1000, but you're never going to charge these batteries with it. That's more so for, you know, like small devices like a like a smart tablet here or um like the Mavic 3 or Matrice 4 batteries. Um, yeah, this is such a perfect utility vehicle because I can fly all day long with just three sets of batteries where lots of other drone service providers are going to buy four, five, six sets of batteries. And those batteries are expensive. They're 1,400 each set where now I only have to have three sets with me. One will always be in the drone, one will always be charging, and one will always be full uh for my entire missions.

Anyways, let's get you opened up. And I'm actually going to go get it set up in my uh launch area right behind me. And I'm also going to remove the front cover. All right. Power you on. I'm going to spread out my props as well. So, let's hop on to the controller. Do our last minute mission planning here. I'm going to make sure that my hotspot is also on for my phone. so that I can one get internet connectivity on here for the maps, but two get RTK corrections from uh the base station that's set up on the known point. So from the inlet. All right, so I'm already connected here and let's go into our camera view. Um I want to make sure my RTK is connected to the right thing. So it is set to emloud caster. If we scroll down, we just got a fix. And yeah, wow, that was really fast. we are already getting very high accuracy. So yeah, this is something that I am noticing um with the M4E. It looks like it is getting much tighter tighter accuracy on the X and Y.

Anyways, so okay, we've got our TK set up so we can go out. Let's go into our flight route. We'll go into our Silver Lake mission plan. And let's just again do a quick little check. So, what I actually want to do is I want to just increase my flight altitude um by 15 ft. Okay. Yep. So, we're still going to start at the back end and we're going to finish by me. So, I don't really think there's anything else that I need to set up because I think it's I think it's all good for what we're flying here. Um Oh. We want to do the double check and make sure one, we have enough storage space. So, let me actually go back. I'm going to go into my camera view. We've got 107 gigs available. Is that right? Oh, yeah. We've got plenty of storage available. Cool. Yep. So, we'll make sure that we're in auto camera mode here. Okay. Going back to our mission plan. Um, I just want to make sure again we have penta return on for our payload settings. Yep, penta return at the bottom. And we do want RGB coloring. We're doing a LAR mode with the L2 and the M300. Uh, 215 route altitude. We want IMU calibration. We're flying 20 miles an hour. That's the max speed. And our overlap settings is 40 and 70, which is perfect. Um, photo mode, the timed interval shot, I actually got a comment. Somebody mentioned why why use timed interval shot? Why not use distance interval shot? Technically, the distance interval shot is better um for doing your data gathering compared to timed interval. But me personally, I haven't really seen that big of a difference between data sets that I capture with timed interval versus data sets that I capture with distance. So, it's really kind of just up to you on on what you want to fly. This I'm I'm totally fine with. So, we can go back and hit save. And I think we are ready. So, let's hit the play button here. We'll have our RTH. We'll just put it right at 215. Not 500, excuse me. 215. Excellent. No flight uh no max flight distance. We'll have break for obstacle avoidance with next. And when it's done, we'll have it return to home. Upload our flight mission. And we will hit start.

So, if we go into our FPV mode here, it should fly all the way up to, I think, 197 ft is what I set the safe route altitude to. Look at our map. We can see that it is going to haul ass all the way to that side. Oh, I was wrong with that side. My orientation is a little off here. Anyways, we can see, man, we have 40 satellites that we are connected to. That is that is insane. And we've got good accuracy, too. Sweet. Cool. So, the drone is making its way to its first way point right now. This is pretty much just a waiting game. Um, I think about halfway through I will bring it back. I'm going to split this up into two total flights. Even though we can see estimated time left is 37 minutes. Our remaining battery is like 38 minutes. That's going to fluctuate because we do have some wind. So, if I go to my FPV view, we can see we've got actually 15 mph um of wind speed. Uh the drone's actually flying directly into the wind right now. Um it is way out there and it looks it looks like a dot. I I I will not be able to show it um on this camera. Um but it looks like a small dot out and uh it's actually not even my max distance per se um in terms of how far I can see it. I've sent this drone like a mile and a half away and I can still see it. It's just really really tiny. But what we can see right now, it's doing its IMU calibration. So, the drone's just going to rock back and forth. Let me uh put the controller up. Okay. Was getting a little bit of a signal loss here. Um the drone's going to go back and forth to calibrate the IMU. If I go here onto the L2 sensor and I go, right now we're looking at the RGB camera, but if I go to the point cloud and then change the material over, this is a reflectivity. Okay, sick. So now it should Yep. Now it's doing its data gathering. Excellent. And there she goes. So, we should be getting a really good density. We can do a sidebyside view here. We can see just to the right of the drone, it's actually flying right over the U canal that they uh dug out. Yeah, perfect. Perfect. For whatever reason, I mean, it says we get 42 minutes of battery life left. I That's not really accurate. Um because we do have tailwind. So it is pushing the drone. Yeah. If we look we can see the wind speed is 10 mph and it's right behind the drone. So it is helping the drone out in terms of the efficiency. But now it's going to have to when it makes its return flight back the opposite direction. It's going to lose some battery life. So these are just things you got to take into consideration for flights like this. Um, which is why I always like having, you know, multiple sets of batteries. It's not wise to invest, you know, 30 something thousand dollars into the drone and the LAR and then not spend the extra money on some batteries.

We are now wrapping up the actual LAR data capture. You may actually start noticing we've got some clouds rolling in, which is honestly perfect timing. Um, it was actually supposed to be these clouds two and a half hours before. Um, let's see what's going on here. It's supposed to start raining in about an hour, which is good. Well, good for me considering that I don't have to uh to deal with bringing the drone down for for the second. So, soon as it comes back, we're going to pull the SD card off of the L2. It's just doing a calibration to finish up. We're going to check all the data, make sure that we don't have any holes in it because again, we don't want to make our way back out here for a fix. So, I can hear it. She's coming back right now. She just finished up her flight. from my cover here. But now, let's go and actually verify the data that we captured. I'm going to leave the drone out here and the battery's charging. We're just going to quickly go in my truck here. All right. Um, so I've got my Windows laptop now. This is the gaming one that I typically bring with me just about everywhere because it's really fast at processing data quickly. here. So, I've got the uh got the SD card here. So, I just pulled the SD card out. We're going to plug it into my Windows laptop here. Need to just quickly log in. And I do want to make sure that I can get my uh all the data off cuz one thing I always do is quickly pull the data off and put it onto an SSD. That way I have a double copy of it immediately. All right, so SD card into the computer here and let's open up our file explorer. Here's the SD card. So, it should just be these two files at the bottom. We're going to copy. And I'm going to create a new folder on here. We'll call this TA Silver Lake. And we'll paste it. So, how long is this going to take? 16 gigs of data. Three and a half minutes. All right. So, we'll wait the 3 and 1/2 to get this on here. Um, what else should I bring over? Actually, once it's copied onto my SSD here, I'm going to make a duplicate of it because one of them I'm going to bring directly into um DJI Terra, and we're going to do a quick uh data process on here just to see what we've got. While that's copying over, let me actually transfer some batteries onto uh the charger. Okay, with both of them now copied over, I'm just going to create another new folder and call this the check. And we're going to just take both of these, control C, and just paste it in here. And it should go even quicker. 60 seconds. All right. So, while that's copying over, let's open up Terra. And we won't uh process that. Let me just delete this guy because we don't need it. And we're almost done. So, we're just going to do a new mission here. Ladder point cloud. And we'll do Silver Lake check. Hit okay. I think everything is now. Yep. Just about copied over. So, we're going to select a folder. We're going to go to my SSD. We're going to grab Silver Lake. We'll go to check. And we are done now. And I can select both folders. So, there's two sets of data. And if we go across, we can see here's all of our data. We can even see our base station where it's sitting. So, for the parameters, we're going to do point cloud processing. And we're going to do by percentage. And I'm going to do a low. So it's only going to process 6.25% of the photos or not photos, excuse me, the lighter data. I'm not going to tie it to any coordinate system. I'm just doing this really quickly so that we can just get a fast output. This is how you're able to quickly check your data when you're out in the field. Um, let's see how long this takes. It shouldn't take too long. It should only take like 5 minutes at most. Um, let me go to this task manager. Yep. I can feel the sluggishness on the computer already. See, we're maxing out our cores here. And it would probably help if I wasn't recording the screen, but I want to show you guys this in real time at this entire process. So, one thing I am start I do notice right here is this path. Looks like there's a little hole between where it started. It stopped the capture from one flight and started it from the next flight. So, that might have been my mistake and I didn't hit the pause button fast enough. Um, but we are about to see here. So, we'll just let this process. All right. This took a little bit longer than uh 5 minutes that I thought it would. It took about 15 instead. So, we can see that the reconstruction is complete. We're going to hit okay. And if we take a look at our data here, even with that spot that it looks like we kind of missed because of the overlap settings that I have, we actually were able to gather it properly. And so, yeah, this is just a great way to quickly assess the area of capture. This got everything that we need because if we go into the corners, it may be a little hard to see. So, let me go into a reflectivity mode here. If we remember, I think we got to go all the way up over here. There should be a control point right there, which I can see. Excellent. So, yeah, all of our data is gathered. There's nothing else for us to do. And this is not even all the points. This is just 6.25% of it. But this is I I always do this step when I'm out in the field to just quickly run it through the reconstruction process so I can see if there's any holes. And we there are no holes. So we are we are good to go.

Now the last thing that we need to do is do our check shots. So let me show you how that entire process works. The first thing that we need to do is actually go and get our emlid. So, it is still recording data and we need to go and stop the data being recorded. And this is where we'll actually switch back over and use the entry mode um so that we get corrections from that base station that is 12 km away. So, what is a check shot? Well, rather than control points that you actually tie your data to, a check shot is to help validate the overall horizontal or more more the vertical accuracy of the point cloud itself. Given that LAR data is not flat, it's points in a three-dimensional space. These check shots, you throw them amongst the rest of the data. So, obviously, right, we have our ground control point that our data is going to get tied to. But for the check shots, I need to go run around here and throw about 15 points. So, like I said, the first thing I need to do is stop the data recording on my Emlid. So, let me connect to it. If I go here to my Wi-Fi, I can see here we go. There is my Emlid. And now that I'm on the Emlet Flow application, we're going to just refresh. We're going to connect to our Emlet here. We can go to the recording and we've been recording for 2 hours and 15 minutes. So, we'll stop that recording. Excellent. Okay. Now, we can actually remove the emlet itself. So, we'll uh we'll pick it up. I can just take it out. And we can see that it was stuck in its spot the entire time. So, all I got to do here is just bring in our legs. And I'm going to keep the emlet on this whole time. um because I will still need it for the chuck shots. As you can see, it's a very active site over here, which is what I had flown about 2 months ago. So, they're moving a ton of dirt. This is exactly why they need this uh this topo data to understand how much dirt has moved, where it's gone, and how much has been compacted on the entire site. So, essentially what I'm going to do is these legs that I have on it, the bipods, I'm going to remove it. And we're actually going to be using the tilt function on the Emlin Reach RS3. Um, that way I can just run around with the pole quickly, grab a shot, capture it for like 10 seconds, and rinse and repeat about 15 times. But like I said, a check shot is just to check the vertical accuracy across the entire project site where the control point is what we actually tie our data to. And on larger project sites, you know, this is like a 10 15 acre site. I would really wouldn't need any check shots. Obviously, it really depends on the environment that we're capturing our data in. So, it is something to take into consideration, but really it's up to the engineer, the surveyor of who's analyzing this data if they want you to gather these. And as part of the standard protocol that I have with Trace Air, this is one of the deliverables that I owe them. So, we've got our bipod off. Throw it into the back of the truck here. Make sure that everything else is tight on here. Excellent. So, what I'm going to do is I'm going to quickly show you what a chuck shot process looks like. I'm not actually going to bring you guys alongside with me cuz I've only got two hands and I need to be able to carry both of these at the same time. Ideally, I should have a uh a mount for this, but I uh I don't and uh that's okay. I'm going to show you what a check shot looks like doing it within the emllet flow application here. So, let's actually connect back to our emllet even though what is going on here? Let me turn this off and back on. There we go. There's my emlet. Go back. Okay. Uh I don't want to connect via Bluetooth. Okay. So, we originally just used it as a base and right now we don't it doesn't really matter. So, even though these base settings are still the manual entry that I put for that control point that's behind me for doing these check shots, I again I don't really care. But what we will do is we're going to go back into that Silver Lake project that we we created on here. And this new point that we're going to create um actually I need to turn on the tilt. So, here I'll turn on the tilt compensation, and it's going to want me to do a calibration. So, if you see at the very top, it says IMU calibration. So, all I got to do, I'm going to look like a samurai out here practicing with my sword. There we go. So, now I am you. Oh, still wants me to move the receiver and it should go. Come on. I look like a Jedi warrior is how I feel like right now. Eventually it'll figure itself out. Why are you not working? Let me go. Let me click cancel on here. Oh, tilt compensation is ready. There we go. Okay. So, how does this work exactly? Well, we're still going to want to make sure that our pole height is the same. 2 m converted to feet is 6.562 ft. So, we're going to keep that save. And then for all these new point names, I'm just going to call it check. And I'll just do check one. And then it's automatically going to count up. And then we can see the accuracy that we're getting. So, because I have the tilt functionality on and I've got this little bubble level, all I'm going to do is as I go around the site, I'm just going to basically sit in a spot, uh, click measure, wait about 15 seconds, capture that spot, and then I'll be good to go. And again, I'm going to be doing that 15 times around the site. So, this is probably going to take me about half an hour or so to get all 15 checkpoints because I got to get it spread out across the 15 acres um of this uh this project here. So, wish me luck and I'll meet you back when I am done. One down, many more to go. Now I just got to walk back. I can't go straight to my truck even though I can see it straight ahead of me because there's a a little canal that's dug out and they've got probably 2 and 1/2 ft of water. And as I was walking by, something jumped in it. And being down in South Florida, well, we got gators down here, so I don't want to mess with that. That's not what I want to be dealing with uh after flying a ladder project. But I do have to say this is such a beautiful area here. Anyways, enough of my side tangents. We're done. So, we can pack up and go home, which is 4 hours for me. We'll get this data uploaded. I'll show you what that process looks like on Trace Air. They actually did build the pretty cool back end to see how your data looks and if it's accurate. We're going to see a lot of red stuff that pops up. We can ignore it because they're going to be running the data through PPK anyways. Um, I just I don't I don't really know why. you'll you'll see what I'm talking about. Um, I need some food and some drinks for the drive. So, I'll see y'all in a few hours. It's going to be a second for you guys. All right. Funny enough, as I literally got right in the truck. It just started raining. You probably can't tell, but there are water droplets and some very dark uh clouds up in the sky here. So, uh, I definitely lucked out because there's there's no way that I should have been able to capture the data when I did considering that it was like a 40% chance of rain for when I was up in the air. But hey, that is that is Florida for you. And that is literally how it's like on uh on doing drone projects. You never really know down here.

We made it back to the office. It's the next day. Obviously, I'm wearing something completely different. uh ended up having to go to my house and take care of some personal things. But now we're here. We can go ahead and get all of this data uploaded to Traair so that well we can get paid. So switching on to my desktop here. I've already taken all of that data off of the SD card from the L2. If you remember, we had already processed it out in the field on my laptop just so we could see the coverage. Um so going on here back into that folder. If I go to the TA Silver Lake, we have our raw uh files here from the L2. And then we also have our panorama that we took from the M4 E, which this looks actually really good. Wow. Uh, and then I also have that checkpoint that I took a picture of just in case they ask any questions about it. I can show them um what this looks like. Now, uh, to upload the data is pretty straightforward. What I'm actually going to do first is I'm going to copy all of this data and put it directly into um my server here. So, I've got a backend um on here. So, this TA Silverlate compressed file um I'm actually going to extract it. And what you'll notice here, of course, I just had to slow it down here. Um almost done. Okay, cool. So this is the base file that we got from the Emily Reach RS3. If we open it up, this 2500 is that bigger 43,000 kilobyte file. Um, that's our observation. That's the Rhinx that we captured on that site. So if they needed to run it through pre pre-processing again, they can do that. Oh, you can't see that if I move this over. There you go. Um, the this 43 uh basically 43 megabyte file. Anyways, um now that we've got that here, we're almost done transferring all of the data over. I'm actually going to upload it straight from my SSD, but I always like to keep a backup on my server locally in case I need to reaccess it again. I've got 56 terabytes on this, so uh I've got plenty of data to to store over the long run. Okay, so let's go here. So, on the back end of uh Tracer, they have this really cool uh upload platform. So, what we're going to do is we're going to upload our scan photos. And we're going to switch this over to LAR. We'll click add scan photos. And like I said, I'm going to just use the data that's on my SSD because it's going to be a bit faster. Um, so we're going to open up this first file or folder here. That's 11 gigs. And then the second one is about six gigs. So, we're going to go in, we're going to open all of it. Um, we'll select everything. We'll hit open. and we'll see. It starts. We'll choose the date. There we go. Hit submit. Looks like they uh scheduled me for tomorrow, funny enough, but obviously I did that yesterday. So, it'll start uh uploading. Uh we can see it's going to start doing a check. So, the yellow is the quality check for it and then the blue is the upload. We're probably going to see some reds in there because it's a bad quality, but it's not. I mean, we flew on a we flew on a good day. And we can actually see how fast we're uploading our data here. So, um, which Ethernet is being used? So, this Ethernet here, we can see that we're sending about almost 500 megs, uh, a sec. It's going up pretty fast. Sweet. Yep. So, this should take uh, should not take too long. And we can see because of the KML that we downloaded, it gave us this entire area. Obviously, there's some bleed on the overlap um for where we captured, but that doesn't matter. As long as we got what was inside, it's perfect. I'm going to do add more scan photos because this was only half of the flight. I'm going to go into the other one, the uh number eight folder here. We'll also hit open on that guy. And there we go. We'll have a th00and uh photos, 109 photos. The reason why there's a,037 um files has to do with the extra files here, the actual our actual LAR data. Everything else is just RGB imagery um that we can see, which man, this looks this looks fantastic. I'm very very happy with the result that we got out of this. So, we can see all of the uh sequential photos that it took um as it flew through flew through the area here. Much better than having to walk around, which is why they leverage LAR data. Um the next thing I want to upload Well, we'll have to Can I minimize this? Yes, I can. Okay, so it's uploading in the background. Um I want to upload a 360 pano. So, we'll click on add pano and we'll go back into our M4E photo and we'll just click the pano photo that I took directly off the drone. Um, I can tell that it's a pano because if I go and look at it, um, we can also see it's the larger file here. It's 26 megabytes. And if I hit uh the show more for the properties, uh, the details, we can see the tags. It's a pano. And if I scroll down here, we can see the image size compared to the other image size here, which is much smaller um for the GCP photo that I took. So details, just a single image, and yeah, it's just a just a 20 megapixel image. Um, cool. So anyways, we'll select our pano, click open, and we'll choose the date from yesterday. Click submit, and there we go. Pano has been added. Awesome. Oh, well, we got to wait for it to upload. So, we'll do that drop down there. And then the last thing that we need to upload is the um our check file. So, we're going to go into our emlid flow and we can see our TA Silver Lake. Obviously, now compared to what it looked like earlier in this video, we only had the controls, right? But now we have all of these checks that I gathered um throughout the site. Obviously, you can kind of see the path that I took. But with everything that I gathered, they just need spot checks of different areas. This is good enough. This whole area off to the left is I think pretty flat. Yeah. So, this whole area is pretty flat. I more so cared about the check shots inside of where all the um the the palm trees were. Um and then some of the areas out here. Again, this area is totally fine. So, what we're going to do, um, let's go back. Upload GCP coordinates here. And let's see. I'm going to export this. Um, let's do a custom CSV file here. And I'm just going to turn off a lot of these other Actually, can I just So, let me deselect all the name, the code, control code, easting, noring, elevation, a description. I want the lat launch and elliptical height. And then the last thing that I'm going to bring in is the coordinate system name. Um, cool. And let's save and export. And again, I'm just going to save this directly to my folder here. Hit save. So that's been exported. So now we can just upload a new CSV. Select and we will go to again our client folder overlay. Hit open. Uh all check

marks included in this file. Save and continue. So cool, it has been uploaded. So we can close out of that. Go to our pilot app. So yep, our pano has been uploaded. And if we click on the scan photos. So yeah, we can see these red quality checks. I I don't really know why that happens, but the data is good. It's not It's not bad data at all. Um, so as soon as this finishes up, we're pretty much done. That's all I have to do. I've already let the client know um well, I'll shoot him a text right now that the data uh will be done uploading here in probably the next two minutes. However, that's pretty much everything that goes into doing projects for Trace Air. Um, obviously, this has been more of like a three-day process considering that now I'm uploading this on the third day. I know on day one of this entire vlog, um I was doing all the preparation of downloading the KML, doing my due diligence of the site, understanding the project plan itself, making some adjustments, and then obviously yesterday um in the time that I filmed this, it was a 4-hour drive out there. Um spent about I got on site around like 9:00ish. Um and I finished around noon, so it was about 3 hour total workflow. Um, again, if I wasn't filming, it probably would have been about a 2 and 1/2 hour to two hour long workflow, which is totally fine with me. Um, I I love filming this stuff for you guys and and creating this content and giving you guys the full insight of how all this works. You also learned how I priced my uh project for Traair, so you guys can use my pricing calculator. I'm going to make that available for you as well. There's no contract. I've already got a backend contract with them, so that's more proprietary. sale. That's something you have to work through with them. I'm going to put a link down to Tracer for you so you can sign up to be a pilot. They are doing actually more than just LAR. They do other data acquisition too um with photoggramometry and mapping. So I know that they are accepting those kinds of jobs. Regardless, we just went through everything. So hopefully you learned something. Um I've got more actual Traceair projects uh that I filmed in the past um uh before I actually shot this one. So, this is this is going to be episode three, but I've got a few other episodes that are coming out um from other lighter projects that I did. Um I'll also walk through because I got to refilm some things, but you guys will be seeing that very soon. Regardless, thank you for watching this episode and we'll see you in the next one of Drone Pilot Insider Uncut.

Hello. Welcome to another Drone Pilot Insider Uncut episode. This one's actually going to be a pretty cool video here. uh this project that I'm doing, we are, and I say we because I'm working with one of my partners in the industry. He's another drone service provider um out on the other coast of Florida. I'm on Tampa, so I'm on the west coast. He's out in Orlando, so on the east coast. I don't know why I had to think about that, but uh we've actually been working together quite a bit um over the last 6 months doing projects back and forth all over the state of Florida. In this specific project, we're doing a very interesting uh inspection workflow. So, uh I'm about 6 minutes away from a church or a chapel at Rollins College. This is a very uh very high-end private uh college institution that they have here in Central Florida. And for the chapel, they are having us do window glass stained glass window pane inspections with thermal. We're also doing high resolution uh documentation um of the property as well, more so just for the chapel. And this is going to be a two to three day project. So today is all about exterior capture. Uh Drew is already there. He's already gone through a walkthrough. Uh but I'm going to be bringing you guys along to really see how this workflow is and and really what exactly we're doing. There is actually a professional uh I guess thermal inspection person who does stained glass interpretation. Uh not exactly sure what her full title is. I'll learn it here shortly. But she was actually flown out of state or flown from out of state here to basically do the full interpretation and do the documentation alongside Drew and I uh as we gather the data which again is really really cool. So we'll be learning a whole lot more about what this process is exactly why we are doing this. From my base understanding is to find moisture leakage. Uh again this is almost a 100redy old chapel. I think it's like 98 years old. So, it's been quite a while and it's a it's a very uh costly inspection to do if you do it the traditional method of setting people up on scaffolding um on bucket trucks or bucket lifts and you know putting people in specific positions just to be able to do the inspection. But with a drone, obviously you can put the drone where you want when you want it very quickly. So, this is going to be a really interesting project. I'm bringing you guys along for the whole thing. Um, I'm just being paid as a VO. Uh, they're paying me hourly uh for it. I did bring out some extra drones in case they do need me to fly. In that case, then my higher hourly rate will kick in. We can talk about that later. Um, if that does uh come to light. But yeah, I'll be here for the next two days uh doing this full walkthrough, doing this full inspection uh with Drew and with uh the the Rollins College uh uh team here. So, this is this is going to be cool. So, I'm almost on site. We'll do a full full walk around so I can uh really show you guys what this project looks like. And uh hopefully I'll be able to pull screen recordings uh from the drone controllers themselves. Um and I'm going to see if I can get a few uh interviews while we're out there uh or out on the project site. So super excited. This is going to be a really cool different than my typical LAR mapping projects that I am uh usually always doing. So let's uh let's get started.

Okay, so that's this is it. So we have um we have a tent in case this lays too much for you. So we'll get that set up as we move around the building. >> So just went through a full debrief with the safety officer here on site and also met with the two ladies that's actually going to be conducting the entire inspection. Uh Drew and I will just be gathering the data for them. So, we're doing a a brief uh um basically categorizing um all of these different windows to make it a much easier process for the ladies to actually go through and document it, look at the the data from both the thermal uh and the RGB imagery. So, I'm just waiting for Wi-Fi to boot up here because I'm going to create an entire Excel sheet that documents, this entire sheet that they gave us right here, which gives us the entire floor plan >> um of everything on on both floors. So, what I'm going to be doing is taking all of this information, putting onto an Excel sheet so that as Drew and I go around the entire property, um it's much easier for us to document all of it. Um, and all sorted. So, just hopping on to internet here. Also going to be using portable SSDs because I want to create a on-site backup of all the data. When I get to the hotel tonight, we're going to upload everything or I'm going to upload everything um to the cloud uh so that we both have a local and a cloud uh backup of everything. So, just waiting for There we go. Google Sheets just uh popped in here. Let me grab my SSD. Uh actually, is the travel? I'll just call it Rollins inspection here. So, we're going to call uh actually need to get the first floor set here. So we start with let's start with north because we're on the north side right now. So call it first floor and second floor. So how do I want to do this? call this floor name >> or um I think direction name >> name direction number and then we'll just put captured and I'm going to copy this here. So we'll do uh north. So, we'll start with north, >> north 101, >> north 102, and then I think it goes all the way to north 107. So, if we grab these two, bring it across. Great. So, now we have north. Okay, I think that is it. So, I'll be able to have this directly on my phone as well. Um, and I'm just going to walk with Drew. I think he's just getting he's getting elevations right now. Let's go find Drew.

So, here is the chapel itself. Absolutely stunning building inside is gorgeous. We'll see that here later on in this video. But yeah, we're doing inspections. Basically, this window that we have here, we've got these tower windows um as well, or not tower, but there's this massive tower up above. So, we are using a drone to obviously help with this entire inspection. It's just a much more efficient method um of gathering all of this data. And it looks like I found Drew. So, he's just getting uh she's getting elevations of the building. And there's a bird chasing the drone. But those uh the tower here, so there's these windows that we need to get. These are door windows. Let me see. Yeah. Okay. So, we need to get this stained glass right here. And I think there's one on this side. No, there's not. So, there's a there's a small one right here. There's all these stained glasses up there that we'll be getting. But, yeah, this is the entire first floor uh section that we'll get. Yeah, I think a clear filter on there. Oh, you got the Colorado drone charger. I always forgot how big the sensor was on the Pro. >> Trying to get a polarizer. Remember that last? Oh, I remember. I do remember that. Here. What I'll also document. I wish I brought my iPad. Actually, I do have my iPad. >> She's dead. >> What was that? >> I was like, uh, my my iPad is dead. I'm just going to use my phone. >> Oh, you got a charger right there. Uh, it's fine. Um, let's see here. >> Of course, I made it on my other account. Okay, >> so 5 or 5ish aperture. >> Uh, 56. >> 56. >> We're flying slow. So, um, we can do >> single. No brackets, right? >> No. Now, >> hopefully these birds don't mind me being low. >> They shouldn't. Are there birds on the other side? Birds >> everywhere. Oh, >> 120th. Okay. >> Mhm. I mean, we we can go all the way up to 400 aperture once we're on the building. Um >> Yeah. Yeah. >> And then uh do you know what the first file name is going to be? >> First what file name? >> File name. If we click on the click on the play. Definitely a trickier spot. Drew is just uh inching the drone even closer into this spot to get this window right here. >> This one's going to have to be a bleed. >> That's okay. What we'll do when you're done with um when you're done with these, we'll bring it down. And I'm just going to pull all those all the images off. That way I know it's this side. These guys shouldn't be in the way again, should they? Going to let Drew finish up this portion and help him out here. Um, and then we're going to organize the first set of photos here in like 2 minutes. Okay. So, let's get all of this sorted here. I'm going to call this uh Rollins. This was the first floor. So, let's do floor one. And we'll do north photos. And we also got one east photo as well. East photos. North photos N 101. And let's open up our SD card here. Open up North 101. >> So, our first photo should be I think it's 08. Yes, 08.08 Oh, wait. We'll go here. >> And then 09 was an east photo. >> That's right. >> That was norththeast east 101. Uh, let me do it columns here. Here we go. Much easier to see that. Actually do this and that. Perfect. Okay. >> Round two. >> Yep. Last folder right now. So, if I'm reading this correctly, >> that's east. >> Well, right. But 102 and 103 because this is the second floor plan. I just assume those those windows are just >> high or long. long because it's also the same for the first floor. >> Okay. Well, we'll capture them twice just to just to be concurrent with this, right? >> Are they the same numbers? >> They are. >> Yeah. So, just I would capture both sides of it. I'd rather have a duplicate than not have one. >> No, no, no. You're right. I'm just making sure I'm reading this right. >> This is the big guy, right? >> I believe so. Yeah. What we can do is if we're too far back from the window, we can bracket it and then I'll combine it into one photo. >> And I can I can do that >> inspection side. >> Yeah. I Yeah, I can I can do that on the back end. >> Um, >> is this me? >> No. >> No, yours is right here. >> Wipe it. >> Or keep it. >> I'm going to make a a dupe. >> Okay. >> A dupe of a dupe. Control V. >> Cool. >> That's why I love SSDs. >> Yeah, I know. >> Cool. All right. Everything's all >> So, I am going to wipe these, right? >> Yes, you can wipe it. I've got I've got two dupes now. All right. Um, you want to do the >> we do the end and then might as well keep going, right? >> Yep. >> Oh, I think there's two photos on the Oh, no. I'm just Yeah, >> there's two. So, there's two windows on the side and then the main one. >> Okay. >> So, the first floor, which this is going to take us like two and a half minutes. >> Yeah. You want to dump again, though? >> Um, >> or keep going to the other side? >> We'll dump. I'm going to bring the computer with me. >> I mean, there's there's not there's nothing in the rules that you say can't can't catch. >> That's true. >> Camera format. Okay, we're wiped. All right. This this little tricky guy in this corner. >> You going to start there? >> Yep. Yep. So that's that's uh west 101, west 102, and then this is 2011. You know, you could do go back out and then do the 3x camera and I and we can um I probably the same thing on on this one, too. So, we're considering that big one second floor, right? >> Yeah, that is the second floor. >> Okay. Uh first floor first. >> Yeah. >> Going this way. Left or right? >> Yeah. We'll get everything cuz it just I think it just I think it makes sense that way. >> Okay. >> Um cuz I I I will know. So, these are south south. That's tower tower west which I already have documented. And then tower uh I think she's categorizing that as second floor. >> Okay. >> So we'll skip that. So we'll do 1 2 3 4 5 six. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Yep. I'm going to go circle above door and then work my way left to right. >> Yes. >> Small circle down. Right. >> Yep. We got little birds in here. Yeah, just bring up your uh shutter. I took auto shutter, huh? 11,000. Yeah, that's good. I'm not sure if that one is part of it. >> Off after you can do an A maybe. This is some uh tight close quarters, huh? >> Yeah, >> that's good. >> Oh, I guess we're waiting for the light to go off, aren't we? >> Okay, >> I'm going to take one before and after, too. >> That's the only light that they can't get off in the building. >> Oh, >> that's okay. >> Of course. >> Do we want to hang and see if they find it or no? >> Are they punching? You can see the whole thing. >> Uh just a little camera. >> I'm sorry. >> No, we're just documenting our process. >> Oh, okay. >> Punch back just a tad. >> There you go. And then um shutter speed a little bit higher. Uh, right there. Perfect. Perfect. So, there's one more up there, right? >> It's through in that little >> You can access it from the stairs. >> We can. All right. Come here. These are at like human level. >> Okay. >> So, if if it if you want to photograph it to keep it part of your entire collection, then sure. But if it's too tricky, I can obviously get it just from my phone. >> You can probably just hold this. >> Yep. >> No need to fly it. Yeah. >> Fine. Are you going >> We're going to do >> You have a plan. >> Yeah. This little guy here. >> That's That's east. Yeah. >> Or west. West >> or >> whatever direction we're facing right now. >> This Yeah. This one's >> I can I can hold. >> Uh. >> So, and then the hole across cuz I want to This should be one, two, three, six. Okay. >> You going to swap? Nope. I'm good. >> Good. You're good. >> I'm going to have to do a little >> Yep. >> You're You're good. You got plenty of room. You got like four feet. >> Four feet. Okay. >> Two. >> You can punch in if you need. >> You got like a foot. >> Tell this is a great way to get all the dust off. I'm like looking up. I'm like >> like you need eye protection. Not from the drone, just from the dust. >> You said you've been flying like 10 years. >> Honestly, it's over 10 years at this point. I always I always say 10 years, but I look back, I'm like, wait, it's been more than 10 years. Saying a decade is much easier than be like 12, 13. >> Quick math. >> It's always fun doing projects like this >> cuz 80% of it is all automated. >> And Dylan, what do we leave off? Second or third? >> Third. We got >> So I pick up at four. >> Yep. >> Five, six, seven. >> Yeah. Most of the stuff I do is all automated. I just plan a mission. It flies by itself. >> This is more fun. >> More interactive. >> Yep. >> Everybody can click a button and have the drone do it for you. >> You got three to the right. >> What's that? >> To the right. You good? >> Yeah. Yeah. You've got probably like two and a half. This one's definitely going to be the oblique. Yeah, we definitely want to underexpose this one. Uh let's go like another like.7 org.1. That's good. There's like two windows in here. So, there's one right above there and yes, these two, I believe. It's got Y. All right. So, Drew and I just did all of the categorizations of all of the stained glass windows, both on the inside and outside. We just went through that whole process. So, depending on how I edit it, I may or may not speed it up. I may just use this as a voice over, but just to pretty much give a summary of what we did. Um the ladies like what I had showed you before, they created entire blueprint of the first level which we can see here as well as the second level which right there. Uh and they go all the way around. Um they they pretty much just gave each window a cardinal direction and then a numbering scheme. Um so by referencing that we went around the building on the outside and gathered a ton of photos, still images with uh the drone. We used the Mavic 3 Pro for that so that we could use either the wide or the 3x camera depending on how difficult it was to put the drone in a certain position. Um, and then we followed it up by coming now inside and doing that same process. Um, I've gone ahead and organized all the photos. You saw me doing that a little bit earlier. Um, so I just went through and did that again. And one pro tip for you. Um, create a duplicate copy. Uh, so actually everyone is going to get lunch right now. I've got lunch in the truck. I'm going to connect to the internet and I'm going to create a duplicate copy in the cloud. Um that way if for whatever reason I lose my SSD or gets corrupted, we already have a backup in the cloud. Um now we're going to either bring out the Mavic or Matrice 4 Enterprise cuz the cameras on it are a little bit better. And um it's also a bigger controller and there's a full-size HDMI that we can plug into a TV because the two women that are here with us, they're going to do some annotations and spot checking on every single asset. the assets being the stained glass windows in here. Um, and then we'll also use a thermal to find uh moisture leakage and heat signature. Um, so that is what we're up to or what we're about to get into very shortly. So, we just did a not even a dry run. Um, we now did our annotated inspections where we're gathering video and photos, like close-up detailed photos of each one of the stained glass windows. Um, and we're having one of the ladies pretty much just over my shoulder, uh, telling me where to point the camera, um, what photos to take, where to zoom in, where to zoom out, where to pan with the camera, cuz again, we're capturing video. So, just wanted to make sure we can get that done right the first time, uh, before we actually start recording, before I start recording. Um, so we're now going to do a different side. I'm going to bring you guys alongside with me, and I'm going to record my drone screen so you can see exactly what is going on.

>> Excuse me. What were you doing with that in there? We're looking at the stained glass windows. >> Taking pictures. Yeah. Yep. >> I never saw. >> What do you call it? A drone. >> That's what you call it. Yep. >> A drone inside a church. >> Yep. That's right. >> Be a pretty cool student project. >> Also, thank you for telling me I look young. I appreciate that. That's all I That's all I'm hearing is that he told me I look like a student. That's the only thing that came out of that man's mouth that I'm willing to accept. All right, you guys ready? >> We are so ready. >> All right. We're in the air. >> Maybe a little bit trickier to be calm, but I will do >> Yeah. my best here. >> Perfect. Maybe take a photo there. Is that like yellow buildup? >> Yeah, it actually might be on the glass. Nope. Okay. Yep. Going to go up and Cool. Yeah, that right there. Yeah. Cool. Okay. Can you do a a photo of each section just like this and then we can Yeah. Then we could do more detail. >> Yeah. Yeah, some are plastic and some of those are glass. >> That Yeah, looks weird. >> It's plexiglass. Okay. It's It's odd that they would do this peace meal like if you went all the way up there, just replace it all so it was all equal. >> It could have been glass and then >> broke and then they swapped it out for plexi. But you think you would just do it all so it was consistent? Cuz even when it's brand new, it looks different. >> Okay. >> All right. And let's get a look at these bars and see if they are the steel bars of the interior or some type. >> Start at the bottom and work up again. >> You could start at the top. It doesn't matter cuz I think this might be aluminum. Let's see. Do we see any? Yeah. >> Could take that photo. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Yep. >> Yeah. >> Go to the right. >> Yeah. Sorry I'm so close to you, but I'm just trying to block the sun. Right there. Yep. Can you get in here anymore? I'm just and and snap a photo. I can't tell if it's if if it's steel or if it's not steel. Obviously, a rust rust would give it away, but I don't really see it. >> Keep going to the right or >> Yeah. >> Same thing here. >> Yeah, right in there. Okay. That's some kind of bug thing. >> I do see some coloring. >> Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Interesting. >> Kind of looks like there's buildup on there. >> Yeah. It's It's wet in there or it gets wet in there. >> I got like a foot >> right there. Photo. Yep. Okay, looks good. That's fine. Yep. Okay, that's in the glass. The texture is there. Okay. All good. >> Okay. All righty. That side's done. >> All right. So, that's it for day one of our date capture. I'm going to have to figure out how to edit this entire video. um really to show you guys the entire process. I might do some voiceovers explaining what is going on, what we were capturing. Um I may have sounded a little nervous around people when when filming, but um it was more so I was focused on what we were trying to do. Honestly, like the first I would say about 2 hours of Drew and I flying, we were just getting comfortable flying in tight spaces. um because he started out flying with his Mavic 3 Pro. It has uh the 20 megapixel wide and then a three and a 7x very similar to what the M4E has. Um so we did that for our context photos. Um and then we flew on the inside obviously, so we saw some of those shots happening. Um and then I was able to record a little bit of the screen. I mean, I didn't record everything just because we were focused and this was kind of our first time doing this kind of capture together. We've done other inspection projects before in the past, but nothing nothing like this. Um, and then obviously the second half of the day uh involved me flying with my M4E. So, like I said, the first set of windows or the north side that we first started on um was just getting comfortable flying the M4 in tight quarters and also understanding these different zoom levels. Obviously, I did my review um a few weeks ago with the M4E on a telecom tower as like an asset inspection, but this was a little bit different because we're flying very close quarters. Uh we had wind pushing around. I turned off obstacle avoidance and we were bouncing between the wide, the 3x, and the 7x and then also doing some digital zoom. Um, now typically I don't recommend using digital zoom for inspection work, but this is spot inspection. We're not actually doing any measurements off of what we were gathering. So, basically, I had Bri over my shoulder. You saw some examples of that uh just a little bit ago, but just talking this over um in case I'm not able to use all the footage that I gathered cuz I'm probably going to have about like four or five hours of video recorded for this. Um, what we're doing right now actually is I have everything stored on my SSD here. Um, I gathered all of the exterior photos with the M3 Pro, the interior photos with the M3 Pro that Drew captured. Um, and then when we were doing the actual like annotations, we have a video of every single wind window basically of me painting and you saw that. Um, and then we also were taking photos in different areas too. Uh, which I think was very very helpful. Um, so yeah, we did north, east, south, and west of the entire building itself. They had this entire blueprint, which is pretty cool. Actually, let me show you what that looks like. I was trying to show it out there in the field, but I was also trying to create the annotations for everything. So, this is level 200. Basically, what you see right here, this is the entire blueprint um uh of the building itself. And it was the first and second floor. Uh so what I just showed you was the first floor. Here is the second floor. And if you see uh all of the items that are in black. like black Sharpie. Basically, what that is is they marked uh each cardinal direction and then numbered it 101, 102, all the way up to 106. That's what I was doing uh much earlier in this. I created those folders on here, copied and pasted, and then created a duplicate of everything. So, when we went out and did the M4E inspection portion, uh, where she was over my shoulder annotating everything, we captured 4K video and then tight shots, detailed shots of any areas that are she's kind of questioning. Um, I'm hoping tomorrow as we're going to be doing some thermal capture and then some more detailed inspection um of the inside of the building itself, the inside of the stained glass. Um, I'll be flying the M4, Drew will be flying the M3T. I'm hoping we get like a second during lunch. Um, I want her to really explain what it is that she's doing. It's honestly really really cool and something that I think you guys might be able to tap into. Um, so yeah, just again I'm documenting this as as best as I can. So I do apologize I'm not able to get everything the way that I want it to, but overall I think as for what Drew and I are doing on this specific project, um, I think you can apply it towards several other kinds of intensive inspection uh, with a drone uh, or projects like it. Um, so anyways, what I'm going to do right now is I'm going to upload all of the data from my SSD to uh Google Drive. That way I have a cloud copy of it and then I have a local copy of it. And what's pretty cool is if you see there on the window sill, that is my T-Mobile uh home internet. So even though this project is in Orlando, Florida, uh Winter Park specifically, um I didn't want to drive back home. It actually took me almost 3 hours to get here this morning. Uh, so I was a little bit late. I was supposed to be here at 8:00 and I ended up being here at um at 9:00 uh this morning, which sucked. But regardless, I ended up just booking a hotel that's 10 minutes away. Um, so what's great about having the T-Mobile internet is I get very fast download speeds. And why don't I actually show you this here? So I'm going to open up Google Chrome here and we're going to do speed test. So right now I am connected to my hotspot. So if I go and do our speed, I should I think have like 200 download. Yeah, look at that. 200 megabytes download. And then I think I'm just under 100 megabytes for the upload whenever this decides to finish up. Uh 50 right now. Cool. It's going up just a little bit. But yeah, we'll call it 50 60 upload. So, what's great about this is I'm I believe I'm paying 35 bucks a month for it. It's unlimited. There's no throttling at all. So, typically you'd buy like a a 50 GB or 100 GB hotspot and then you'd run out of it. Well, the data that we literally captured today is under 40 gigs. So, I would basically kill an entire hotspot and not have anything left for the rest of the month. or with this little known hack is you can pretty much take this anywhere in the US and it doesn't have to be at your home uh zip code and it's going to work. Um, yes, I'm in Orlando, so technically I'm not that far, but I've actually owned uh multiple of these before and actually like two years ago when they first came out with it, I got a T-Mobile home internet and I went to I believe 40 different states and it worked in every single state no matter what I was doing, what I was downloading or or uploading. It was great. So, I'm going to use this internet right now to upload everything to Google Drive. Um, I also have I've got everything on chargers behind me and we'll be up very early tomorrow morning to start our thermal capture. Um, hoping we finish everything up tomorrow, otherwise we're going to have to roll into one more day for Wednesday. But yeah, overall really cool project and I'll see you tomorrow, which is going to be in right now. Yeah. That's pretty. Check out that. It's cooler up there. Maybe condensation. Yeah, it is interesting. I think we should definitely notate because it's going to take about an hour and a half to do all these windows out here plus the inside. And there will be two different color attempts. So this morning we're starting out by gathering a bunch of thermal images of all of the window panes uh before it gets too hot. So we really had two different windows of time to do this. Uh the first thing this morning we got here uh a little before 7:00 already had the drone up and we were just doing a few test shots on two windows. We have now got the workflow down considering we've already flown on this building once or actually twice yesterday. Um so Drew is grabbing a few shots of all the different stained windows to see if there's any moisture leakage. They're just simple shots. We're not doing any interpretation itself. This is what the uh project manager requested. Uh so yeah, Drew just grabbing a few just simple shots uh both in thermal um thermal images and in RGB images. And then if there's any spots that seem a little off, um he's going to go and take a just a tighter shot on it. Um so that's pretty much the workflow for this morning. We have to get both the outside um shots of it and then the inside just like what we did yesterday. And then uh yeah, that should take about an hour and a half, maybe 2 hours. We're going to work uh diligently here, especially on the outside before the sun comes up and warms up all these windows. given that um we're still winter here in Florida. Um it's not as hot yet. So as about like 60° this morning right now, so we should be able to get a good differentials and and and temperatures. Again, we're not doing interpretation at all. We are just getting all of these shots for the project manager so that they can make additional assessments alongside with what Bri and u Molly um are doing with their overall assessment um on every single sing glass here. seen anything on this one? >> No, just a little bit of the sill up top. It's a little actually warmer. >> Really? >> There you got a little bit of a heat signal. >> Oh, yeah. So, I got that, too. >> Yeah. It's a good thing the sun's not beating down on this side yet. >> Yeah. I'm worried about the other side. I mean, there's so many variances, but >> honestly, I think it's just the east that we have to worry about. >> What we could do is when you finish this bottom section, we could just pop inside real quick just to get the two east windows before they heat up drastically. Sorry. >> You're fine. >> Oh, actually it prompted to. >> Yeah, cuz it it it yells at you. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> It's like, "Hey, >> do you know the screen record? Cool. >> So, you do bottom and then back up across, right? >> Yep. Cool. >> Did you format it or do I need two? I only took two pictures. Let me format it. >> It creates a new folder still. No, >> I'll format it. >> Okay. You want to start with the bottom one and then the >> Yeah. Yeah. Is that how it works in the sequence? >> What's that? >> Is that how it works in the sequence? >> It doesn't matter. I just cuz I'm going to I tag these two as >> once >> as one. Yeah. And uh well, >> all right. So first the bottom first. We don't have to deal with the glare from the outside. I assume same thing. video recording and then just zooming in and take pictures. >> Yep. >> Cool. >> Easy enough. Yeah. I'm going to walk up there so I can see where the drone is sitting. >> Yeah. >> Oh, you just saw me stash. >> Oh. You better come stand right here next to me. >> All right. So, the first thing, let's look in the lower right to see if there's a signature. >> It's there. I don't know if we can get a different angle. It would be partially obscured by the sill, but >> okay. So, this one does have a signature. >> Yep. >> We're trying to He's trying to get in. >> Can we go closer? >> Um I think it's the >> Oh, I see what you're talking about. Okay. >> Yeah. Wbert, >> let me um Sorry. Let me >> let me get the best quality for you. Okay. It is Wilbur H. Burnham. I think it says Boston uh in 1932 it looks like. >> Can you take a picture of that? >> Yep. I have been. >> Cool. All right. Cool. All right. Now, let's go up like maybe like right. Yeah. This section. We're going to We do this in three sections. Bottom to top. And I'm just going to mark any conditions, you know. Okay. and just start slowly up. Actually, you know what? This condensation still here, whatever photos you can get of this. >> Yep. >> So, there's like some stone um I guess it's like spalling and effervescence on the interior condensation sill >> or condensation tray. Okay. Um, and let's just kind of go up >> any specific I'll go out just a little bit. >> You want me to punch in? Just tell me when to punch in. >> Yeah. Sorry. I'm just getting >> No, you're good. >> Let's look at this. See, sometimes they intentionally did leads like work to make it look like a repair so they look older than they are. All right. Yeah. Okay. And let's just let's start with the border. Yep. and just kind of go up in this direction. And I'll call out anything I see. Can you go in there? >> I think it's welcome now. Where where are we? >> I'll zoom out so you can see. Okay. Yeah. See, it's really hard for me to mark the piece because this is pixel related. >> It's underneath this. It's this section here. >> Mhm. You think it's this piece? >> Yes. Yep. >> I see what you mean about the pixelation. >> All right. Um, continue to go up. Can you take a picture of that? And can you like tilt a little bit to see if that's like a a hole or if the pointing just failed? I got two feet. >> Okay. Okay. I think it's white. Okay. You just take a picture of this. Okay. All right. We can keep going up. That looks like a break. Can we get a little closer? Yeah. All right. And now I just have to figure out where we are. Where we are. >> I'll zoom out so I can see. >> So, we're up. Second one. I think it's like here. Okay. Um I don't know if that's like paint or a break. Paint. Okay. That looks like a bird. >> Less how you add it. Yeah. >> More contrasting. Yeah. >> Cool. Okay. So, I think we've done the sides. I don't know if we want to just take a pass maybe up the middle. Okay. Um, up a little. Uh, let's capture this scene. Perfect. >> Just going to get two exposures of it. >> Yeah. The for the art historical ones, the darker ones are a little bit better. Okay. Um, and we'll do the same with St. Francis. Yeah. A little darker if you could. >> Yeah. Great. >> And I think we got a space before, right? the whole shot or >> let's zoom in on this. >> Oh, you said the face. >> Yeah, right there. Could you do that? I think we might have done this, but >> I did. I'll get another one. >> Yeah, >> perfect. All right. And I guess we did the top. Okay. >> Feel good about this? >> I think so. >> Anything else? >> I I I I think it's okay. I'm going to play this thing so badly. >> How many organ people do you know? >> None. >> They do not like jokes. They do not like when you touch their organ. You don't like >> the only >> You mean the music instrument, right? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> The only people more difficult than organ people are lighting consultants. >> That I'll give you that advice for free. >> I mean, all I got is chopsticks, but >> I know. Don't you just want to be like, "Kill the rabbit. Kill the rabbit." Exactly. What's that? >> Get some good social. >> Oh, yeah. Let's start at the bottom of this sill. Don't love it. Oh, look at you. Um, signature, Molly. >> Let me get a different angle. Okay. >> Wilbur, >> what's that? >> Oh, right. >> Oh, I'll migrate the battery. >> Wilbert H. Burnham, Boston, Mass, 1933. I love when artists sign their work. It's a new favorite thing. They've never >> You know what? It might make sense for these. Can you get How wide? You know how it's like three vertical sections? >> Yeah. >> Can we do that maybe rhetoric up? You know what I mean? >> Oh, so start. >> Yeah. >> On each thing. Is that too much to cover? I are you talking about just one whole wide photo or just when we go through for the detail cuz I figure we can go just what I'm looking at 1 2 3 4 >> going horizontal or do you want to go vertical just one two three >> we can go side to side three four. Yeah. So >> I'll finish up on this side over here. >> What is going on here? Is it just the light or Yeah. Yeah. And then up a little bit. I saw something out of the corner of my eye. This section here. Can you get a um actually this whole thing? This whole box with the stuff in it. Can you zoom in on that? Yeah. Yep. Yep. Perfect. Look at that dragon. Look at them. Do you ever find in the Easter egg like >> Yes. >> Yeah. So, there's a couple of artists there. There's an Irish artist um Harry Clark. He actually ended up he illustrated uh some stuff for Edgar Alan Poe. >> Guy's a weirdo. Um but like incredible artist, but like definitely into like the Macob. And he used to like put like weird little things. Um Owen Bonoit, American who did the windows at Yale, puts these little like skeletons and like weird dark stuff. But he like notoriously actually passed on church commissions. Like he'd rather work at secular. He just wasn't beholden to the church, which is interesting. Most of these guys were employed primarily by churches. >> There's a British guy um Walter Tower was his name. And his moniker rather than signing his name was this little krenolated tower. >> Oh, okay. >> Yeah. All right. This one. >> Yeah. >> So, you want to stick with this side and finish stones? >> Yeah. >> We can go. You want some downstairs though, right? >> Yep. >> Beautiful. >> Cool. >> So, you just go over here and go down. >> Okay. >> Are you Did you get these already? >> No. >> Oh, why don't we knock them out over here? No. Or can you can you remember the sequence? I Well, >> let's start down and work up or do you want to work up and down? I was going to >> say if you want to take a picture of what the number is, if that'll help you break up your stuff, I can give you those. >> Well, if we start on one side and go I'll remember. Okay, >> that's easy for me. >> So, why don't we why don't we do this one since you already captured a couple down to go top and then finish bottom. >> That's fine. Yeah, let's do that. >> So, let's grab this one then, right? How much better you got? >> You good? Yeah, let me I can do these two real quick. >> Okay. >> And then I'll swap batteries out. >> All right. Well, this is pretty much the end of this video. We ended up shooting the rest of it with uh Bri and Molly for another good 4 and 1/2 hours from the filming that I just pretty much cut it off at. I know it was a pretty sporadic uh video. I was trying my best to record. So hopefully you guys do understand uh the chaotic nature of it given that I was one recording myself and I was also communicating with Drew. I was also communicating with Bri and Molly and then we had two to three other safety officers there on school or

really on premise, just kind of patrolling around, making sure that nobody was coming and disrupting our work. So, it was a little bit harder than I would have liked to film everything that I wanted to film, but, uh, hopefully it wasn't too boring. I know I didn't necessarily talk too much to the camera, but I did show a lot of the workflow.

Um, and just to recap everything on day one, we first initially gathered just a few context shots. That's what Drew used the M3P for, the Mavic 3 Pro. Um, and then we both did that, uh, inside or outside and then inside. Um, and then I started doing, well, I did all of the annotations on the outside. So, what do we mean by annotations? Well, we basically recorded, uh, video, 4K 30 frames a second video, um, on the Mavic or Matrice 4 Enterprise. And then Bri basically stood over my shoulder, was looking at my drone controller, and then pointing where on the screen she wanted me to zoom in, take a photo of, change the camera exposure, whether I change the ISO, uh, or the shutter speed, so that I was able to gather a high-resolution image because she was annotating every single one of the stained glass windows.

Now, my initial, uh, idea or really thought process of how this was going to go was that we were going to more so use the thermal more so than the photos, but I was completely wrong. The way that Bri and Molly work around the United States. I unfortunately wasn't able to get an interview from them. They're a little camera shy, but they did give me a lot of insight into how they work. And, uh, Bri actually went all throughout Europe understanding, studying stained glass windows, the repair process, and really how to do proper maintenance on them. And there's really only three people like Bri in the United States, which is actually really cool. A lot of her work is in New York City. Uh, that's really where she's based out of, but she travels all over the US. She gets requested pretty much exclusively by chapels, churches, uh, cathedrals to go and do these kinds of inspections.

However, this is the first time that she has ever done a drone inspection or at least use a drone to help with her inspection. Now, obviously, there's nothing that's going to replace being able to touch and feel the stained glass windows themselves. However, with, uh, the college that we were at, they did not want her to put scaffolding because that is her typical workflow. She will request that the church, chapel, or cathedral puts up scaffolding, and that can shut down, uh, any public visitations or any kind of service of any kind at these facilities for two to four months. Given the complexity or however complex the site may be, putting the scaffolding is pretty disruptive and can be pretty destructive. So this college, this institute requested that they did not use that and, uh, use drones instead. So Drew contacted me to bring out my M4E to help with this entire process. And that's what we did, which is why we recorded every single window. We got contact shots basically simulating her getting close and being able to touch and feel the windows.

Now, there's probably going to be a reason for her to come back and maybe only do 10% of the site. Uh, 10% of the really severe windows that need a little bit more attention to detail. But for us to be able to go in in 2 days and we'll call it about, I don't know, uh, 12 to 14 hours of flying cuz we were up, uh, pretty long the, uh, the two days and to get the level of detail across about 50 or so windows that we got. That's pretty incredible. So again, to not bore you guys of just the repeat process of doing it over and over and over again, I just wanted to show you a little bit of a highlight of day one and day two. I believe that this is actually a great workflow to implement into other institutions, other ways to provide high level of detail for inspections. Uh, because at the end of the day, we're just using the imagery to help give us an idea of, okay, what's what's going on here?

Now, stained glass windows is a little bit of a more complex nature than just regular buildings. But Drew and I have actually already done a process very similar to this probably about 6 months ago. We were only using the Mavic 3 Enterprise, so we weren't using the new cameras of the M4E, but the same concept applies. Uh, they weren't using a thermal. Just wanted to get a high-resolution image of all of these windows on an office building. I think it was like a six or seven-story office building. But again, same workflow. And I think this is a niche that a lot of you that are probably watching could potentially get into. You don't even have to have the M4. You could use an M3 Pro. You can even use the DJI Air3 or 3S, right? It has the two cameras, the wide and the 3X. So, I think there's a lot of opportunity that exists, not just here in the US, but around the world to leverage drones in an inspection workflow like this. We're not doing mapping. We're not doing any 3D modeling. So, there's no complex capture at all. It's just putting the drone in the right place, gathering the right angles, and being able to tell really a whole story of whatever the asset is that you're inspecting.

So, I do hope that this, uh, this Drone Pilot Insider Uncut episode helped give some ideas to you guys. I know it wasn't like a typical episode like what I've done for the last three. I'm trying to really mix it up. I'm trying to bring you guys across multiple different projects. I do have some cool stuff coming up here right now. Um, I've actually filming this segment, um, in Amarillo, Texas. I've been here for the last four or five days. Before that, I was in New Mexico for a few days doing consulting. So, these next few videos that are coming up, or I should say episodes that are coming up, is going to give you the inside scoop on the consulting side of being a drone service provider. Cuz not everything that I do is, uh, doing inspections or flying drones. Sometimes it's teaching, sometimes it's helping and consulting, sometimes it's figuring out a problem that a client may have, a unique problem that a client may have, and finding a unique solution for it. So stay tuned for those episodes that are coming out. Hopefully you enjoyed this one. And with that being said, I will see you guys in the next one.

Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of Drone Pilot Insider Uncut. This is a little bit different, uh, of a video compared to some of the other videos that you've already seen in this series. Not all projects are doing data collection or data processing or even data delivery. Uh, sometimes some of the work that I do is consulting and training, which obviously I have all these different videos on my YouTube channel and the courses that I have on my platform. Uh, but oftent times I get asked to come help train consult in person, uh, which requires me to go fly out and meet with these clients. So actually very conveniently over the next really like 10 days, I'm going to be between, uh, Albuquerque, New Mexico and Amarillo, Texas. Uh, both two different clients that actually need some of the same consulting and training on some different workflows. So one of these, uh, actually both of these students have gone to different workshops that, uh, I have hosted before, but they just, they wanted more training, they wanted more technical training on some specific aspects that again, in in a one or a two-day workshop that I host, there's so many different tools, there's so many different workflows that exist, and I really teach the fundamentals and helping you kind of master those fundamentals, but when it comes to very specific workflows, specifically with actually both of these clients, they need the same kind of workflow with setting control without having known points. Basically creating a brand new known point, uh, getting the emoleds to talk to each other, and then ultimately gathering the data to then get highly accurate centimeter-level outputs.

Um, so the entire purpose of me coming out here to New Mexico is I'm working with, uh, one of my students who's obviously a client now. His name is Aaron. And then, uh, a few days later, obviously this is going to be one entire video, or I might split it up because the other client that I have, uh, they're based in Amarillo, and they actually have operation all over Texas and New Mexico and some other states as well where they leverage agriculture or the DJI a spray drones. They also needed help with setting up controls. They bought the Emlin Reach RS3, like survey kit, where it comes with a base and a rover, but they're, they haven't figured out how to get it set up or how to make it work. They've spent all this extra money, um, on buying like all of these different accessories. Just they haven't had any success with it. So, what I'm doing here in New Mexico with Aaron, we're actually be going into the Santa Fe Mountains. Um, and there's, there's no connectivity out there. So, there's no way to use Endrip with the base stations. So, we're gonna have to use Laura radio technology. Uh, basically, it's just a, it's just a way for the emblem to talk to each other without internet. It's actually how, uh, these GNSS receivers have worked long time and still work to this day. Um, but obviously with working in urban environments and having pretty much ease of access to cellular connectivity using the 4G hotspots and even data sims inside of these devices, you know, you're not often using the lower radios. But in this case, there's we're going to be in the middle of nowhere. You're actually going to see, uh, where we're going to head out to. Uh, the purpose of it is, uh, Aaron's actually an engineer, like a CAT engineer. So, he helps design all kinds of things with a lot of different clients. I'm going to have him talk a little bit about really the project that we're doing out here. But where we're going, he's designing, um, like a new, not storm drain, but, um, a barrier, um, some kind of barrier, but he needs to do a LAR data collection. Um, he has an L2 system with an M350. Um, but he needs to set control and he just, he hasn't figured out how to get both the RS3s to work together, especially in an environment like this. So, I'm going to be working with him over the next few days, uh, teaching him how to do this. I'm going to show you guys some of what those workflows look like and then actually take you out on the project site that we're going to be working on together. And then again, if there's time that I can fit in the other, uh, client that I have out in Amarillo, it'll go in this video. Otherwise, it's going to be in the next episode because that one more pertains to using a spraying.

So, high-precision spraying, um, or we'll call it a, uh, or precision a is probably the better term for it, where they want to generate these highly accurate centimeter maps so that they can reference it for their prescription spraying with their a drones. They've got about, I think, eight or 10, uh, the DJI Aguras T50 drones in their fleet. Um, but they just, they're also in a very similar situation where they don't have ease of access to cellular connectivity. They're out on these farms in kind of the middle of nowhere. So again, if that can fit in this video, it will. Uh, if not, you're going to see the next episode for that specific workflow. But again, I just arrived here. It's been actually a very long 48 hours for me. Um, 2 days ago, I was driving to Atlanta, hosted a workshop yesterday, uh, in Atlanta. Drove back from Atlanta to Tampa. That's my home base. Uh, 7-hour drive. Uh, got back up like 1 something in the morning and then hopped on a 7 a.m. flight to come out here to New Mexico with a connection in Denver. So you guys know how that probably is, and if not, it sucks. So very little sleep, meeting up with Aaron here very shortly, and, uh, we're going to do some testing just to get his systems configured and, um, yeah, I'm, I'm excited. But regardless, like the purpose of this episode and even the next episode is to show that not everything is about, like I said, drone mapping or lighter data collection or data processing. Uh, consulting is also a very important part of being a drone service provider. The service that I'm providing is teaching. Um, and you don't have to be a massive platform like what I have, um, or have many, many years of experience. If you're really good at a specific tool or maybe a specific workflow, you can offer consulting services. You can offer training services to people. By all means, like, I, it's one of the biggest reasons why I do this in the industry is there's not a lot of information that exists. I feel like I'm rambling now, so, uh, just wanted to give you guys an overview of what this, uh, episode is going to be like. Uh, we'll talk about some of the different ways that you can actually charge for consulting services, um, because there's, there's multiple different ways, whether it's an hourly or whether it's a fixed, fixed cost. Um, we'll kind of talk about some of what my rates look like, um, based off of my expertise and what it is that I'm doing, um, and how I figure out those rates. Hopefully you guys, uh, enjoy this episode and, uh, let's, let's get straight into it.

Alrighty. Good morning. It is the next day. Uh, ended up just meeting up with Aaron. Uh, had dinner with his family and caught up on a lot of sleep, because I was, uh, pretty sleep-deprived all day yesterday. Anyways, today, uh, we're going to be teaching Aaron how to set up Known Point, um, in an area that doesn't have any monuments that we can tie to. This is going to be important for some of the projects that he's going to be doing up in Santa Fe. Um, that's about 2 and a half, 3 hours. It's really the project site that's the furthest away. So, one of the things that I always do before I actually, before I ever decide to set a, a known point myself, um, again, remember all this stuff is just for internal use. You can't sell this data because again, I'm not a, I'm not PLS. Aaron's not PLS either. So, this is all for just self-practice for using on your own data. Again, he's working with engineers that are not selling this data off so they can validate the data depending on the workflow that he does.

Here on my desktop, um, I am going to go to an address that Aaron sent me where we're going to be doing all of our training today. So, all I did was, uh, put the address in here. This is NGS map. So, basically the way that I got here is I search NGS. Uh, if I go to the NGS home, um, I'm going to go to this NGS map that we have right here. And then it's going to open up the NGS web map application here. We're going to go to this ARJS page here. And then in the top left-hand corner, I'm going to type in the address. I just copied and pasted it. I'm going to search it. And then it's going to throw us to the address that we have here. Now, zooming out, I can see that there are some monuments. Not even monuments, just some points that were already set here. But if we go and click on, let's see, this one that's on this main road, and I scroll down, right, we see it's a survey disc, but it was last recovered in 1935, which realistically, it's probably not still going to be there. And we can validate that by looking, um, at some of the data here. I mean, it is using the J818 model here. It does have a geo height. So maybe if we go to the passive mark paid, but basically this point here is where we're going to go. And if we were to go out there and want to set controls, let's say we don't have any access to any endrip networks to tie off of base stations, um, we can use this system here. So, yeah, last time this was recovered. Yeah, I don't even have a good ellipoidal height for it. It does say adjusted, but there is no, yeah. So, it's set into a retaining wall or concrete ledge. So, not something that we can actually use. Um, because, well, we're not going to go to the road over here and, uh, set a base station on top of that. Um, we also have this other marker that's over here. Looks like it's in somebody else's property. So, if I click on it, um, this was says there's a survey disc. Says it was monumented by USGS. There is no last recovered at least. Yeah, last recovered in 1951. So, when it was set. So, let's also go to this passive mark page. Basically, what I'm looking for is some kind of validation that this point still exists. Um, yeah, I don't, I don't think it exists because we have all of the adjustments on it in terms of our northing, our westing. Um, and then same thing with our geometric height, but this is not going to, this is not going to do us any good. So, we can keep scrolling out and try and find a mark that does exist, which they do, but I have to go further into the city here of Albuquerque. And I can see that there is. So, this is kind of a game of finding a needle in a haystack, especially it, it just seems like Albuquerque doesn't have anything that I can tie off to. Whereas, if I go back to Tampa, which I do have this on my free, I think I have this on my free course. I, I definitely have this on my, uh, drone mapping mastery course. But if I, uh, scroll out here, I do know that this marker here exists. This Q18 because if I go to the passive mark page, and this is actually one that I've been to multiple times before to tie to, what you would do is get one base station, set it up on top, put in these coordinates here for the latitude and longitude, and then put in the leopsal height, and that's what we would use to, we can see here in the photography. Um, we'd put a base station. This, they happen to put a, looks like a tremble on top. That way, when all of the data gets gathered on the site that we're capturing, it's all referenced off of this known point here. And that's going to give us the highest accuracy possible.

Now, given the, uh, the location, um, of, let's see if I can quickly get back to it here. Uh, just lost it. Here we go. Now, given that this location out here is just not going to get us what we need, we're going to need to set our own control. So, the way that we're going to do that is actually this morning, we're going to go to a survey store. I'm just waiting for Aaron to come pick me up. We're going to pick up some, uh, 3/8 rebar rod. They're about 18 inches long. And we'll also get some survey caps. These survey caps will have a little divot in the center. That's where we're going to put one of our base stations on top, or whatever Emlin reaches on top. That, uh, will then allow us to center it obviously onto that point. Considering that we're driving this rod into the ground, it's not going to move anywhere. Um, when we put the AMOLED on top of it, we're going to put in the height, and then we're going to let it log pretty much for like 2 to 4 hours. I recommend about 4 hours, which will then take that data off and then run it through some other systems. So, before I actually even consider doing that, I always go to NGS to look to see if I can find any any monuments. Because if there are monuments, then we don't have to do this step. We can tie off of a known point. We can get another emolet and have both of those emolets talk to each other. Uh, the way that I like to think of this is for endrip, whenever you're doing like RTK with the drone or RTK with, uh, with your emulator, and setting controls, you're tying to a known point, but that is a smart known point, considering that there is a GNSS receiver constantly talking. That's why they call it cores, continuously operating reference station. And since you don't have to put anything on top of it, that known point to talk to it, that's why I call it a smart point. Dump points are all of these, uh, survey markers, all of these benchmarks, all of these survey discs that are put into the ground. We know that they exist, but there's no way for us to talk to it unless we put our own device on top of it, which in this case, it's going to be a GNSS receiver, the Emily Reach RS3, and then we can get another Emily Reach RS3 to talk to that point, to the base station. One's a base, one's a rover, and then that's how we can make these NGS monuments smart points by just putting our own systems on top of it. If I can't do that, this is where I'll then resort to going and setting a known point where I will set something physically in the ground, such as this 3/8 rod. If it's a undeveloped area, if it's a developed place, then I'll get a PK nail and drive it into, or a mag nail and drive it into the concrete or the asphalt. Um, and then do that same process, set up an emlet on top of it, have it log for 2 to 4 hours, and then I'll be able to use that data, uh, to then process it through Opus and then get a known, a new known point. We've already done this. We're now going to go, like I said, we're going to go to the survey store, pick up the material, um, and then we're going to walk you guys through the entire workflow and how Aaron is going to be using this for some of the very remote locations that he's going to be capturing, uh, LAR data at, uh, here in the future.

Just arrived to the survey store here. Uh, we are on the hunt for, it's actually 5/8 rebar, uh, not 3/8, uh, some caps for the rebar. And then we're also going to get some spray paint for the ground or some ground spray paint so that we can actually mark out, um, where these control points that we're going to be setting alongside with some tape, and, and the tape is going to go on the rebar so it's easier to find, um, whenever you're just broadly glancing through the area that you're at. Um, now we've already verified that, uh, Aaron already has, uh, a tripod or a triacback. That's how we're going to set the emlet on top, uh, of the known point that we're going to create. And then, uh, we're gonna see what else they have in there. So, let's go check it out.

>> Is it a notebook?

>> Yeah.

Ideally, right, when we're going and setting control, we want to reference off of that known point. Obviously, here in New Mexico, there isn't. We can't connect to the Department of Transportation because it's not a free. It's a, you got to call a buddy to get access to it, right? So, we're not going to resort to that. We want to resort to using known points. Now, obviously using NGS monuments. These are the ones that are hard set in place. Um, ones that weren't necessarily confirmed by by Opus, but these are ones that you can just go into the map. Like, let me see here. Obviously, when we open up NGS here, we look at the map. And if I turn on our legend, right, these are all the either horizontal or vertical control. Obviously, we would want to find one that's a combined control.

>> Mhm.

>> Right. So, I already copied the address that you sent me, which is your brother's property, right?

>> Mhm.

>> But zooming out on this map, obviously, there's like there's nothing. There is this one right here, this woods, right,

>> that we were talking about. It's a horizontal control.

>> However, if we look down here, the last time it was recovered was 1951,

>> right? So to look more at the information, I like to use this passive mark page. It's the third option down.

>> So when we click on that and we're missing some information and I, and I'll, I'll tell you how I know that one, we don't have an elliptical height.

>> Mhm.

>> We do have a northing and westing, but

>> but we're concerned with vertical,

>> right? So, and that's what we want both. That's why we want both a horizontal and a vertical, which is why I would want to use something that's a combined control. But we don't have any combined control that's near us. At least not that I saw that was easily accessible. Right. So we're here off of, uh, 406 over here. Right. Actually 66 is over there. But there, there's nothing that's close enough for us. Right. Yes. There's ones here at the Air Force base, but obviously we're not going to go over there to get connected to it. So if I scroll in a little bit more. So, it looks like there are some horizontal and vertical control. So, this is a flange encased rod. Says it's good. And the last time it was 2003, June 27th. So, if I go to the passive mark page here. So, we can't actually access that. But that one's way too far from where we're at.

>> Right.

>> Right. So, we don't want to do that. But we can, we can use the latitude and longitude and that elliptical height. This is what we would plug into the MLID.

>> Right.

>> Where we'd set up on it is like the traditional way of using it. Given that Opus has been around for a very long time and, uh, other survey crews have access to it, we have access to it. We can actually go on to the layers here to this layer list and we're going to turn on this Opus shared solutions. I'm going to turn off the NGS database because we know that there's nothing here that we want to use. And if I scroll over to where we're at, I scroll in a little bit. We have all of these yellow pages here. So, if I open up the legend again, we have our NGS mark marks and our non NGS marks. We want to use an NGS mark because these ones are have actually been confirmed. They used Opus to help figure out the location and then they, uh, inputed it here into NGS.

>> So, obviously, we've already driven out here. We've already seen it, right?

>> We discovered it's here.

>> We've discovered it's here. So, I just wanted to show you how I got to this point. So, we're here at this Edgewood. Uh, we're using the P FO1788, right? We can see it's here in Santa Fe County and it was set on July 13th, 2023. They actually gathered this on April 6th, 2023. Right. So, how, how do we get more information about it? Well, let's go to the shared solution tab. Uh, more info here. And here we go. So, this gives us a bunch of information about it. It gives us an image that they captured. Here's also some other, here's a horizontal view of it, right? So, obviously this, uh, this flag here is that's what's laying down on the ground. And then here is our actual survey nail that we're tying off to. Now, the information that we care about is the state plane coordinate. That's what this SPC is.

>> But we need to, uh, take a note that this is in metric,

>> right? So we have our northing or easting and then we have our elliptical height, which is right here.

>> And it's also in metric. So how do we get that information into the emlid?

>> Mhm.

>> Okay. Um, I like to use eml flow 360.

>> Uh, which it connects both online and, uh, the phone.

>> So what I did, and you can do this on the phone too, but I'm just going to show you how it looks like on here. So here on the app, what we'll do is we'll create a new project. I'm actually just going to delete this one that I have here. This is the one that I used. So this is just like doing it on the phone, right? So I'm just going to call this, was it F,

>> oh,

>> 188, 1788, right? Let's just, let's just confirm it. So F-01 1788.

>> Now remember this is in metric, right? It's still state plane. So we can see it's NAT 83 2011 and then NAVD88 is our vertical. So we have our horizontal and then we have our vertical.

>> And then we need to input our state plane coordinates for northing easting and then we're going to use this elliptical height.

>> For the elevation. So on here, right, we need to set up our project settings on here. So we need to establish our coordinate system.

>> So we'll choose from library and I'm just going to type in New Mexico central. Right? But we want to just not, we don't want to use the foot US.

>> Right.

>> So we use New Mexico central right here. And then we want to do the elliptical height of

>> uh,

>> but we want go 18.

>> Okay. Okay.

>> Okay.

>> And we can go and and and just confirm that one more time.

>> So we go back here to the passive mark. We're using that 83. Um, and again, it's state plane coordinate. So SPC. So now we'll hit apply.

>> Mhm.

>> And we want to make sure that our linear units is set to meters, right?

>> Even though we're going to do all of our control setting in, um, US survey feet, we need to just tell the emlet, hey, this is where you're sitting because they're giving us the information in metric.

>> Okay.

>> Right. And the way again, just to confirm that if we go back to the shared, see how it's in meters at the end.

>> Yes.

>> Yep. Everything is in meters.

>> So we will hit create project. We're going to add a point. And I'm going to call this nail. And then for the coordinates here, I'm just going to use local. Uh, yeah, I'm going to use local. So, we have our easting, noring, and elevation. So, or, uh, sorry, I'm going to go, well, we can use, we can use local. So, if I use local here, easting, northing, and elevation in meters.

>> Okay. So go back to that shared and I'm going to add our elevation right here, the elliptical height. So 2015 or 0.522.

>> Mhm.

>> You can copy and paste it though, can't you?

>> I can, but it sometimes it doesn't, uh, was it?

>> Yep. 522.

>> Okay. And then our northing I'm going to copy here, just the front part of it first. And then I'm going to get the end part of it. So point 061, 061. And then we're going to get our easting, which is just below it. Paste that. And I think it was 788. Yep. 788 at the end. Create point and then we go all the way in. So now I created this and what we're going to use because, uh, we'll, we'll do this on yours as well whenever we're setting up the emlet.

>> Mhm.

>> Um, we will pull this because now we've created this as a known point. M. So, whenever we set the the emlet up on the base, we need to tell the emlet, hey, this is the coordinate that you're sitting at,

>> right?

>> And all we have to do is just click that one because you can either do a manual entry.

>> Yep.

>> Or you can pull it from a project. This is a project that we created,

>> right?

>> So, that way you don't have to figure out, oh, was it this? Nope. You've already created it.

>> Now, this is saved. Anytime you're ever doing projects out here again, you just come out, you place your emlet on it, you select that as your base. Obviously, we need to get our measurement for our height for the antenna here. And we'll input that onto there. That way, it's all translating the same. So, to confirm that this was all here, right? We've already come out here. We've already set up our base here. Again, we haven't put the emote on yet. Already have our survey nail. Obviously, we have verified it. And then we have centered it on top. I wonder if this is going to work. Kind of hard to see, but we are centered directly on the top here. So, all we have left to do is let's put the amlet on top.

>> Yep.

>> We'll do that now.

>> Do you need to get measurement here? I'm getting 54 and a quarter.

>> Hey Siri, convert 54.25 inches to meters.

>> Perfect. Dead set center.

>> 1.37, 1.38.

>> Cool.

>> We'll keep that. And what I'll do, because I've already got it on my phone here. I'm just going to, I'm just going to show you how, uh, and I'll, I'll connect to your emlid and I'll walk you through and then we'll do it on your phone. This one.

>> Yes.

>> And then all lowercase emllet reach connected. Okay.

>> So now I'm going to go to the emlet flow application here.

>> Yep.

>> I'm going to refresh.

>> So, we'll connect to it.

>> Yep.

>> So, I'm just going to turn these off just for now.

>> Okay. So, we need to configure the base settings, right? So, we're going to go here to base settings.

>> Yep.

>> And right now, it's doing an average over a single. We're going to reconfigure it, so it's fine. So, I'm going to hit configure coordinate entry method, manual, antenna height. So, we need to do this in meters. What was it again? 1.377.

>> 1.377. Okay.

>> Yep.

>> And then we're going to choose. So the reason why it changed is because it's adding that additional from here to there.

>> Yep.

>> And then for our coordinate entry method, we're going to just choose it from project. So that's that one that we just created here. Going to select nail. Apply. Save. There we go. So, we are sitting directly on top of the sky. If I look here at survey, it's going to be off because it's just satellite. Um, so we'll go back here to onto our base settings, right?

>> Mhm.

>> And then for logging, it's already logging now because we want to have one of these. We want to have your other emble talk to it so that we can go and set the control points. It's all going to be referenced off of this guy right here.

>> Okay. So, we want to do correction or bass output. We want to turn that on. Um, and I assume that this is your

>> Yep.

>> Emwood caster.

>> Yep.

>> All right. So, yep, this is your emoid caster. So, we'll hit save on that guy.

>> Okay. And that's it.

>> Okay.

>> So, now, um, let's get your other emolet and we can just turn it on and we'll just take a look at it. You haven't even used this yet, have you?

>> No.

>> I was using

>> Do you know how tall this pole is? Is it 2 meters?

>> I think so.

>> Okay. And that's all the way extended, I assume. Okay. And then, uh, actually over here.

>> Oh, you got them on already.

>> It's, it's booting up. I guess it's called Dr. Drone Rover.

>> Yes.

>> Okay. I'll wait for it to pop up on here. There it is. Okay. All right. So, now that we are connected to it, so we'll just turn the base output off. Yeah. What is your, uh,

>> problem?

>> We'll, we'll fix this. So, can you log into, uh, Emlid Caster on your phone? So, username is U 54226. Password 226 YZs.

>> YZS and then mount point,

>> 11567.

>> Which one? 11567 right there.

>> And we'll hit done. Save. So now we're receiving corrections.

>> Yep.

>> Based off of the base right there. If I zoom in on here onto the survey, we can see where the base is set up. And we can see where my rover is.

>> Yep. Yep. Yep.

>> And there you go. So obviously,

>> can we grab a couple points?

>> Yeah, we can do that.

>> Just for,

>> So yeah, we got to make sure. Yep. So we have 1.88 meters set in 15-second average and we can see what our accuracy is right now.

>> Okay.

>> Which that's pretty good.

>> Okay. So, we should do all of that on this phone now, right?

>> Yeah, we'll, we'll do that.

>> Okay.

>> Um, I just wanted to walk you quickly through on how all that works. So, yeah, literally just if we wanted to go and capture a point right here, just do that rock, get it level, measure. Maybe we'll capture another point over here. Measure. There you go. We can also look at the standard deviation on everything. So we got a fix, our accuracy. That's how far our base is. So as I move, see that number changing. So we should be about 4 meters away,

>> which that,

>> 12 feet.

>> That should be about 12 feet.

>> Okay.

>> All right. So we've just gotten to Aaron's brother's, uh, property. Now, there is one little caveat. Uh, there is no cell signal out here. However, they do have Wi-Fi, and we can still get NRI connection through the Wi-Fi. This is imagine if we were in the middle of nowhere and we wanted to use NRIP. Our base has cellular connectivity, but our rover because we're in the middle of nowhere may not have cell connectivity. So, what we could use is like a Starlink that can give us internet, or we happen to look out and there is a Wi-Fi router here. We've already connected and we've actually already gotten a fix, which that's just how Entrip works. If we wanted to use the Laura radio, that necessarily wouldn't really work just given really the environment, uh, that we're in. Uh, Laura does work way better with better line of sight. Theoretically, we could do like 25 or 30 kilometers with a Laura radio, but, uh, that's more in like flatter environments. Here we're in the mountains, northern, uh, New Mexico outside of, uh, Albuquerque. So that's not really going to work in our favor. So, for us to actually set these control points, we're just going to be setting a few just to demonstrate this because later today, we're actually going to go to our project site that's about 2ish hours from where we are right now. There's still some snow there. It's supposed to melt off on my last day here, which is actually going to be perfect. We'll be able to do some logging, um, of creating our own control point out there. Um, and then we'll go back out and recapture those points so that we can actually tie it into the aerial letterto survey that we do, um, on Wednesday, which is two days from now. So, we're quickly going to capture gather some of these points. Looks like it just quickly went out of, uh, of a fix. So, we're going to, I'm just going to get that fix. But, yeah, we're setting a few controls out here. Then, we're going to fly the drone, gather some data. We just got a fix back and we'll be processing some lighter data today from doing this method here.

Just a little recap what you saw before. Uh, we found NGS monument that was updated or uploaded through an Opus solution from Santa Fe County. We set up one of our emled on top of it to basically make that dump point into a smart point. We have now gone. We're about 11, 12 kilometers away, which that is actually about the, not distance, but like the furthest distance away that you should be or could be, uh, away from a base station to then go inside controls. That's with RTK. Um, now that we're out here, we connected our Emlid reach here, which this is now our rover talking to the base that's about 12 kilometers away. We're going to set a few controls out here. We're then going to fly our M350 with the L2. We'll also be using the RTK corrections, uh, that we can receive because again, we've got Wi-Fi here. So, we'll sync that up, gather some data, uh, and then we'll do a basic processing, and then later today, we'll go and set that known point. We'll create a known point, which again, is going to be really easy. But I'm going to walk you guys through that entire process.

So Aaron and his brother are just setting aerial target right now. They set one up over by the tree, you can kind of see. And here is the one that they are setting right now.

>> Unlock your phone here. And I'm just going to do a test. I'm going to set a nail in the middle.

>> Nah.

>> Well, I don't want, I don't want this to go into the ground. Then the, uh, because we're measuring to, to here, remember? Grab a rock. I'm just going to move it here.

>> We got Wi-Fi.

>> Yep. And we got a fix. So, this is that test that we did, which it should still be the same. I'm just going to delete that other point. I'm just going to delete the rock. Oops. Yeah, that's why I just move this. Going to delete. So, I'm going to add a point or Whoops. Just going to go in the plus button here. We're going to go to where we are and let's do like a 15sec.

>> CP1. There's 15 seconds. That's okay. Let's wait for.

>> Do we want to call it CP1?

>> Yeah, we will.

>> So, we're waiting for a fix.

>> Yep. Okay. Yeah, we could, we could shoot some checkpoints, too,

>> right? Right.

>> So, we, we'll do that for checks. Just going to quickly gather this point here as control point one. Okay. And I'm actually, I'll just quickly grab, quickly grab the, uh, the corners of the gazebo. We'll just call those, uh, we'll call those checkpoints. Um, I might kind of tie to them just so we can see how this lighter accuracy with the flight that we do is. All right. Oh, in this.

>> Yeah.

>> Okay.

>> I don't know.

>> They're probably going to have drained a bit. They're, they're like 60, 60%. That'll be enough for what we're doing.

>> Yeah, let's throw it on. Desert 50 is not 50.

>> Yeah.

>> It's like 70.

>> You got an SD card in there already?

>> I should. Yes.

>> All right.

>> Okay. I'm going to, I'm going to tilt it up. Okay. Um, we'll just, we'll keep the cap on for right now. So, I'm going to show you a few things on here. So, let's get this controller connected to Wi-Fi. Everything's, Everything's all lower case.

>> Everything's lower case.

>> Okay. Now, YQ CT 2 C 8 U.

>> Home point updated. Check map to confirm.

>> Okay. So, there's actually two ways that we can do this for the endrip corrections or for RTK corrections. This first method I'm going to show you, we're going to connect to that base station that's over there. Yes.

>> The second one is if you don't have that, you can actually do a local base mode. And I'm going to show you how that works,

>> but you need to be within range of, of the hotspot signal that comes off of this. Okay.

>> So, think hotspot not as in like internet, just hotspot as in network.

>> Okay.

>> Right. So, this first method, right, we've confirmed that we're already connected to the internet. Yep.

>> Right. We're going to go to this camera view here.

>> Yep.

>> We're going to click on this X.

>> Yep.

>> Right. We're going to go over three dots. Antenna.

>> Yep.

>> And I'm going to just call this, we're going to do custom. And I'm just going to build this first, um, this first configuration.

>> So that it automatically connects to your base station through, uh, through the internet.

>> Okay.

>> The second configuration that I'll create will be if you're doing the local mode.

>> Okay.

>> So this first one here, go to edit. I'm just going to change the name.

>> Fix. And this is to the

>> Yep.

>> To the one that's way over there.

>> Give it a second.

>> Done.

>> Now we're flying with RTK connected to that base station over there.

>> Updated.

>> So that error went away. Yep, it's gone because it was updating the home.

point. >> So we can actually look if we click here, the three dots, we can look at our aircraft's position, 7,187 ft. And this is our base station, 6,553 ft. Does that seem about right?

>> Oh yeah. So now I want to show you how to do the local entrip mode.

>> Okay.

>> Okay. So this guy I believe has connected to the Wi-Fi here. Right.

>> So bring out your phone.

>> Yep.

>> Go to the receivers.

>> Now, because we saw that on there, it's because it's it's connecting to that. We've already preconfigured that to connect to it. That's why we saw it. However, and we can confirm that here.

>> So when we click on it, let's turn it back into hotspot mode. So, click activate. Okay. So, now what we can do, I'm going to swipe down here. I'm going to go to the Wi-Fi. There's the rover. So, I'm going to select it. I'm going to type in mlid. Okay. I want you to now connect to the mlid on here. So, go to your Wi-Fi. We'll select it. Now, for base output, click on base output and then see the bottom. See where it says local entrip? Select that. Okay, go back. And what I actually want to do, let's turn off our correction input. We're pretending that this is our base station. Um, but we're just configuring it this way. So, let's go add a receivers. Let's go to our base station. Keep trying Wi-Fi. Oh, we actually do need to change this cuz this is a 2 m pole, correct? It This one was loose. This is a different one. We didn't use uh we didn't use this before. So, let me uh so go to configure, change the antenna height, and put two. And we'll do two minute average.

>> Okay.

>> Hold on. Okay, hit save. And you see now over the next 2 minutes, it's going to figure out where it's at. But again, we're not connected to anything.

>> Right.

>> So, ideally, if we're close to that base station over there.

>> Yeah.

>> Right. we would have manually inputed those coordinates. So, we didn't we wouldn't have to do this, but we're just doing this just for demonstration sake.

>> Okay.

>> We would have done this method here, the manual entry, right? Just like what we did before.

>> Mhm.

>> And then because we put that into the output, right, for base output or if we go back here to the receivers and it's local end.

>> Click on the little I icon. This is everything we're going to plug into this guy here. So,

>> Okay. So, you're going to configure number two.

>> Yep. So, I'm going to connect to this guy. And just for now, I'm going to forget. I'm just going to forget. So, I'm going to connect. So, the address, we'll put that in there.

>> 192.168.42.1. Basically, what's supposed to happen is this should connect to it and then rather than us going through the internet, I'm just going to receive corrections directly off of it.

>> Mhm.

>> But we'll do it with the other base station though. It's like trying. It like connects and then doesn't connect. It's just being a brat. All right, that's fine.

>> You don't want to do that.

>> Turn it off. I mean, we could. Let's try this.

>> Yeah, it's trying, but just not working.

>> Connected.

>> RTK positioning error.

>> Yeah, I know.

>> Positioning accuracy affected.

>> Fly with caution.

>> Okay. Well, whatever. We'll just we'll do the sentry link. Um, can I get that password again? So, I'm just going to switch it back to um the other RTK profile, which it should immediately. Let me just uh reboot the drone real quick. Give it a little power cycle. We'll just do a small mission here. But yeah, we've got RTK on it.

>> Okay. I'll have you have you drive here. I'm going to I'm just going to spread out the the props. So, let's just create a quick little mission. The drone is facing this way right now. That's what that arrow is. And we are already selected on the L2, but let's go to the payload settings and let's do a penta return. And we do want RGB coloring obviously. So, we'll go back. Hit okay.

>> Cool. Take 4 minutes 20 seconds. We'll scroll down some more. So, actually what I'm just going to drag this over so that it doesn't do the calibration over top because I do want us to get that control point that's sitting over there.

>> Um, our speed, let's slow that down to like and everything else is good here.

>> 70% forward overlap 40. Okay.

>> So, we'll hit save.

>> Actually, I'm curious. Um,

>> what about train management? Train uh

>> following. That's what I was about to

>> Yeah.

>> take a look at. So, if we go here, cuz we have LAR, I wonder if we can do real time following. ATL. We'll do AGL. We're ready to go.

>> Mhm.

>> Moving to start point.

>> Okay, let's see.

>> So, if we go to the FPV view, we'll see that the first point is going to be just to the right of the drone.

>> Let's see the height. 165. What did I put it at?

>> It's going to do 150, but you're going to notice it's going to do terrain following. So, this altitude is going to change.

>> I sure hope it does.

>> It will. So, it's going to go behind us and then you'll notice the altitude is going to fluctuate. So, you'll see these way points in the sky. See how this one's a little bit lower? So, watch. We're starting at 193, but look, because it's going to go down this hill right here. See, it's going to start dropping its altitude. You see that? Well, it's first it's going to do an uh it has to do its calibration first.

>> So, this takes about 30 seconds.

>> Back and forth.

>> Yep.

>> How are we on battery? 40%.

>> Yeah. Yeah. We'll we'll be we're we'll be fine. It's only like a 5minute flight. So, it should be starting its mission now. So, you're going to notice maybe one more one more calibration. There we go. I'm just gonna shut that up. Okay. So, we'll watch. See how it's going to start dropping its altitude? Yeah, cuz it's following the terrain at 150 ft above. So, it should just keep going down and down and down.

>> Just like that.

>> And if we look at the L2, we can do this SPS.

>> Yep.

>> There you go.

>> Side by side.

>> Yep. And then if we want to look at the the 3D model it's generating, hit R2. that little like 3D cube icon and we can see real time. And I'm going to just change this. There we go. So there. Now it should do a cornering. So I'm going to just exit us out.

>> Yep. So it's going to now do its cornering.

>> It looks a little low. I wouldn't have gone that low. I would have

>> It's 150.

>> Done 180.

>> And we can see it is 150 below us. So now this is just going to do one quick calibration and then fly back towards us. There it goes. And here we come.

>> You mean I didn't come across far enough for

>> No, no, it's still going. Because it changed the altitude so much. It has to do a quick calibration.

>> So on when you're doing terrain following, especially in like mountainous areas.

>> Yeah.

>> You're going to see it'll do like quick calibrations like what it's doing right now. Although this is a corner, so it's it's going to do its cornering right now. So it'll go across and then come right back. And we'll notice. So this is another longer segment of it. But this one won't go as low cuz we can see this yellow. See the yellow is like right in between and then purple is the lowest. So I assume it probably drops quite a bit on that other side over there. So it's it's very deceptive. It wasn't that low cuz that hill is much further away than what we created.

>> No, no. I'm saying we should have gone way over it like

>> Oh, you want to go up?

>> I want to see what's on the other side.

>> But this is just a quick little

>> Yep. We didn't have enough battery life for that anyways. So, if we go back here and let's click R2 again. So, here's what's already mapped out.

>> We have our flight time right here remaining.

>> 8 minutes left.

>> Mhm.

>> Or 8 minutes of remaining battery life, but the flight there is 2 minutes left. Is this the first uh terrain following mission you've done?

>> Oh, no, no, no. Drone deploy doesn't I mean, you know, and I always set it at at least

>> 180.

>> Okay.

>> And drone deploy does.

>> It's just because every time it changes the elevation a certain amount, there's a threshold inside of the the calibration where I think it's every like uh like 10 to 15 m it's going to it'll change. And it's just to make sure that everything is still accurate. All right. And this is the last leg now. Doing a quick calibration and then going to the next uh lower point. See, we're at 184. What's your altitude here? 180 179. It should be the lowest point down here. Doing one more quick calibration and then dropping down a little bit more. 172 all the way to 160. I think it's every 10 ft it looks like. Okay. Okay. And then now it's going to do just a closing calibration. So this is going to go back and forth. Um I think about like six or seven times.

>> 8% battery. I mean 18%.

>> Yeah, we're fine.

>> Yeah, I like the

>> I hate the sound.

>> Let me know.

>> It drives me crazy. Especially when you hear a click click click click the camera pick.

>> Yeah.

>> Come on, baby. So, it should land straight back on that H. You see that adjustment? It's off by like maybe 3 cm, 3 4 cm.

>> But there's a plane, too.

>> All right. It's been a little bit of a uh time jump ahead from when uh I last recorded. Uh, basically we were going through the entire workflow process of which I had already explained with Aaron setting up on an NGS uh known point uh tying to that through end with the his brother's house's Wi-Fi so that we could get um the other emlid to talk to the one that was set up on the NGS monument. Um, now we have made a change of plans. We are heading to the project site. Uh, really the original site that I was supposed to go to or we were supposed to start at to set a new known point on that property because there is nothing nearby. There's not even uh an opus NGS uh shared solution there either. So rather than burning an entire day tomorrow driving back and forth uh cuz it is about like a 3-hour drive from Albuquerque, we have opted to switch plans a little bit. Uh, it's 6:00 right now. I still got another hour 50 until I'm actually there. We're going to set up one of the emled um, we're going to create a known point out there, but basically we're going to set one of the emblems out. Uh, probably going to get set up around like 8:30. And then uh, I will be staying in Santa Fe, which is about I'd say like an hourish, hour 50, maybe maybe less than that. Um, to go back to the project site tomorrow morning so that I can go and grab the emlid. And uh, while I have been here, uh, he actually got two more sites confirmed. So, we'll actually be shooting both of those tomorrow because we have to wait 24 hours for our Opus solution to be a valid solution for that known point that we're creating. Uh, so rather than wasting an entire day tomorrow and then having a limited amount of time on Wednesday, we are opting to to do this. Uh, so it is extending our day a bit longer than uh what we originally planned, but this will allow us to get a total of three projects done while I'm here, which is good. Um, this actually helps Aaron out a whole lot more compared to us just being able to do this single site. Now, the reason why we weren't able to do this site today, the one that I'm heading to right now, I should say earlier today, is well, there was about 17 in of snowfall that happened. uh yesterday and the day before, which means there was no way that we're going to set anything uh out on that site. But we did hear back from a client that it is melting off very fast and it actually should be pretty much fully melted off by Wednesday when we get out there. Now, this doesn't really matter uh right now cuz we're not flying anything. Uh, but we will have to clear a bit of snow uh to get to the ground so that we can go and set our 5/8 rod into the ground, put the rubber cap on, set the emlet up, and log for pretty much like 12 hours cuz I'm going to go again back tomorrow morning, pick up the emlet, and then go meet Aaron out at uh two other sites. So, that's the game plan right now. Um, I've been driving for about uh 45 minutes. still got another hour and 45 until I'm there. So, that's just uh that's just part of this. But the one thing I didn't really get into is the consulting side of it. So, technically, I am doing some training, but I'm I'm consulting my client on on on workflows um and different workflows given the situation, right? This is stuff that is a little bit harder to teach in a workshop scenario given that I have a lot of these tools uh readily available for me. However, when it comes to real world projects, which again, this is what I'm working on with Aaron, um, it's it's not as easy to teach that, like I said, in a work in a workshop or like a a training environment when they come down to Tampa, Florida. But given that I'm out here on his client sites, on his actual client's project sites, we can really implement these alternative workflows that still enable us to get our tenth of a foot of accuracy for our ground controls alongside with being able to actually gather data in rural to pretty much like areas that have no connectivity, no easily uh accessible connectivity to end services or any of this other stuff. So, we're going old school here. And I actually like this. This is this is a great way to really put all these tools to the test cuz it sounds like uh when I was talking to Aaron, he tried doing this before. Um, he had he had paid somebody to come out and walk him through and it didn't work out um at all. So, he actually didn't get the project. He didn't get paid for the project that he was working on. So, uh, I put together, um, an entire workflow sheet of exactly what we're going to accomplish out here with this specific project and, uh, why I needed a total of about 2 and 1/2 to 3 days to do this, which again, we are following to plan. Uh, this is going to be actually pretty much a total of, uh, 2 and 1/2 to 3 days of doing all this, except luckily, we'll be able to get two more sites um, while we're out here, which is great. So part of uh part of what I charge for doing consulting again how I started off this episode was you don't have to being a drone pilot you don't have to always do service work in terms of doing data collection if you get really good at workflows. You can get paid to consult for that. There's a lot of people in this industry that really don't know highly specific like niche workflows and um that's that's kind of the beautiful part about this industry. it it is a very technical industry and there's multiple different approaches to it. So, how I'm charging is my typical day rate for flying drones um is anywhere from 1,600 to about $3,000. Um and given that I didn't bring out any of my equipment uh well any of my drone equipment, I did bring out my Emid and uh my M4E uh but that's technically for a different client. Um, really I just brought up my Emid is just more of a backup. I'm not really charging a mobilization fee. Um, I did charge travel, so it cost me about I think it was about a thousand bucks to get me out here. Uh, that includes the hotel, uh, this rental car, um, and my flight uh, out here. And, um, and then I did a a bit of my day rate. Um, again, I didn't bring out all my equipment. So, I charge for each day that I'm out here. Uh alongside with the technical training that I'm doing, I provided some additional deliverables. Uh meaning I've got some PDFs that I have uh well word docs that I've created on workflows for what we're doing um over these 3 days. And um, yeah, that's that's essentially like how I'm charging for my consulting and training services. Um, it's good pay, right? I'm still flying drones, but it's not my equipment, it's their equipment. But it's good because I'm able to teach them on their specific workflows with my technical expertise in a way that helps them get the data that they need, make sure that it's accurate, and most importantly allow them to be able to make money in the future. Because again, Aaron's biggest pet peeve or not pet peeve, but the his biggest pain point was that he didn't know how to implement this stuff. He's owned this equipment for a while, right? it's been a very significant investment for him, but he's lost opportunities cuz he wasn't able to prove that he could actually do this. Um, and so now that we're out here, we're doing this and we're we're going to help him learn a new skill for his specific workflows for his clients. And that's that's consulting service right there. Um, hopefully what I talked about wasn't necessarily redundant. Um, I'm doing my best here to uh to kind of work you walk you guys through this because again, this is drone pilot uncut. Drone pilot insider uncut, right? I want to show you guys how how I make money in the industry and it's not always flying drones. Sometimes it's teaching, sometimes it's consulting, sometimes it's a little bit of everything. Um, but anyways, I'm going to get back to driving and uh I'll meet you out on site to kind of show you the rest of this workflow of what we're doing. and uh later in this video, you'll see how I get this opus output for our new known point and get this accurate data for Aaron and his clients.

All right, made it out to the site. Obviously, it is uh pretty dark right now. It's uh I think like 8 something. So, Aaron and I are just going to come out here, set up the uh a known point, and we got some snow, so we got to dig up a bit of this ground. Found this spot right here. So, I'm going to see if I can get uh get you guys set up in a spot to to see what's going on. If not, we'll just kind of redo the whole process tomorrow morning. I think right here is a good spot. That way, it's kind of out of the way.

>> Would there be an area that you

>> What's this?

>> No, it's it's okay.

>> Wait, you want to go grind a point on it? All right. Hold, hold, hold.

>> One, one, one small one.

>> Perfect.

>> All right. Back embra.

>> It was It was a beautiful drive coming in here.

>> Yeah. Where are you from?

>> I'm from Florida.

>> Okay. But um my dad was in the Marine Corps, so we moved around quite a bit.

>> Yeah.

>> But Florida's been home for since 2007 for me.

>> But I I'm always on the road, so

>> yeah. Well, you know, there's something to be said for that.

>> Was very fortunate enough last year to go to uh 17 different countries.

>> There you go.

>> That was that was a cool experience.

>> Yeah. Four continents, 17 countries.

>> Yeah. Yeah. No kidding.

>> Basically bounced from from both equators back or both poles

>> out of here.

>> Yeah. Yes, please. Thank you.

>> I think you got my phone, right?

>> What's up?

>> You got my phone still?

>> Yeah.

>> All righty. This is Mr. Bass, right? Oh, this is mine.

>> This one's mine. Cool. So, uh, it's the same password, just eml reach, actually. Yeah. Why don't we have you,

>> Right. So, I can do the stop, right?

>> Yeah. Well, actually, we need to set it up first.

>> So, Wi-Fi.

>> Yep. That one.

>> Oh, this one right here.

>> Yep, that's me.

>> Uh, reach

>> 2 m pole. Yep. Okay, got it. Open flow. Let's see. Uh, receivers refresh. It's refreshing.

>> Might be because I'm got it.

>> Yep. Cool. So,

>> so I've already um

>> corrections off base off base settings.

>> So, if you go to the configure

>> configure,

>> go to the uh coordinate entry method, you're just going to do average single, which it's already selected.

>> Okay?

>> And then time, we're just going to do a 30 minute average.

>> Okay?

>> But then it's still going to keep recording.

>> Okay?

>> So, it's going to figure out where it's at for the next 30 minutes. 2 meters is good.

>> Good. And then uh Yep. So you're going to see this is going to go for 30 minutes, but um so if you go to the receivers logging, it's already logging.

>> Right?

>> So all you got to do when you come back,

>> Right?

>> When you pop in, you'll connect.

>> Yep.

>> You go to logging, you'll hit stop logging,

>> and then you'll be able to um here where it says recorded logs and settings.

>> You click on it. Right. Right after you hit stop, you're gonna see uh this one is blue, right? Because it's ready to download.

>> But uh when you first stop, it's going to say compressing.

>> Right?

>> Actually, there's one other thing that we need to do. So, actually um hit stop. Go to uh the settings. Click on the settings in the top here. And we're going to configure this to opus. So, just click default real quick. So, click opus. You see it's going to change. Click on show configuration. We're going to put our logging interval. We're going to change that to 5 seconds.

>> And then notice how it's only the GPS, right?

>> Cuz Opus only works with GPS, none of the other constellations.

>> Yep.

>> We come back out here on Wednesday. We're going to go back to um custom and we're going to select all of these.

>> Yep.

>> So there save, there's

>> So hit apply.

>> Okay. Go back.

>> and then start recording.

>> Recording.

>> So there you go. So just come back out here tomorrow morning. Yep.

>> Hit stop. Make sure that it is saved as a log on here.

>> Yep.

>> And then and then we're good.

>> Pack that up and meet you in Santa Fe.

>> Yep.

>> Okay. And hope that some stupid damn deer doesn't come knock it down tonight.

>> Let's hope not. Mike,

>> it is the next day. We are out at our second project site and I think I just passed it. But here we are in uh much further north of Santa Fe. We are going to be setting up on this NGS survey marker that is right here.

>> Morning Aaron.

>> Morning.

>> So first issue that we got is this tree that's growing here. I'm going to cut this down while we the branch. set up our base on this known point so that we can set some control at our project site. I'm going to go grab the uh saw.

>> Oh, nice. There we go. So, the way that I saw them do this.

>> There you go. There you go. There you go. Right there.

>> Look.

>> That's good enough.

>> Okay.

>> Jesus Christ. So, uh, let's boot her on.

>> 50 or 65 and a quarter.

>> 65 and a quarter.

>> What is 65 and a quarter in converted to meters?

>> I've got it connected to Wi-Fi.

>> Yep. So, let's go to Emlet Flow.

>> Emlet Flow. I was looking for Oh, look at the satellites. Great.

>> All right. You can I'll give you mine.

>> Oh, no. I want to do it.

>> Oh, you want to do on yours?

>> Yeah, I want to do it here.

>> Oh, you're connected. Cool. Now it's connected. Okay. Status. We checked correction input off.

>> Yeah, we don't want any inputs. We do want output to end trip, which is

>> output to end.

>> Already set.

>> Already set base settings. Okay, here we go.

>> Well, we actually need Let's go to our survey first cuz we need to create this nail.

>> Okay. Add project. We're going to call this Dixon.

>> Okay. And we need to change this over

>> to

>> central New Mexico central. Uh, that one. Yep.

>> Okay.

>> And then we need to make sure that this isn't NAVD88. Uh, this one meters. Perfect.

>> Yep. And we're all good here. Okay. Save. So then we're going to click uh bottom left. Yep. Going to do a add a point. Call this nail.

>> I want to call it the um NGS.

>> Oh, the actual it's called GM 0382.

>> Okay, good. I'm going to scroll down.

>> Local.

>> Um. Yep.

>> Okay. 36.17563433.

>> Say that again. 36.1756.

>> Oh, 36 10 32 2836. Okay. Ellipsoid height 1748315.

>> Correct.

>> Save.

>> Yep.

>> Okay. Back.

>> Logging. Let's reset it.

>> So, stop and start.

>> Oh, wait. Stop again. Hold on. Let's just make sure that uh go to the recorded logs and settings. Hit the settings. Show configuration. Perfect. Okay. So, yeah, we'll start recording. Okay. Okay. Now, let's go to the um to a rover and um turn one on and just Okay.

>> See if it connects real quick. Aaron and I are just setting some benchmarks for our uh engineering buddies so that we can tie our aerial lighter survey to this uh alongside with the designs that they're going to be working on. They also want these to be set in place here. Uh, cuz we're also going to set a few other control points to tie our data to. However, knowing that construction sites aren't always uh cautious with these control points, we're setting these two other benchmark so if they ever need a reset, they can pull from these guys here. Perfect. Made this flush with the ground. Same with that point. And we need to set a third one, which I think we might be setting it up by the parking lot now. You want to connect to this? Actually, I need to uh I need to have it connect to his phone and then

>> Okay.

>> So, how are we going to do it with this phone?

>> Your phone? But you'll see it. Let me let me get it connected. Oh, you have it in your pocket?

>> Yeah.

>> Yeah. Let me get it connected. Um, I'll get it configured. So, just go to the receivers page. So, RTK good.

>> See,

>> RTK positioning error.

>> It'll take a second.

>> Yeah. Enter a camera view.

>> Fly with caution.

>> Click on the X top right.

>> Home updated.

>> There we go.

>> Confirm.

>> Beautiful.

>> All right, let's see.

>> RTK's connected.

>> Yeah. So, you know how we uh your brothers, we did five returns.

>> Yes.

>> We're going to do three here. We don't need five returns here. Um, and it'll give us more accurate data, too.

>> Sky.

>> Oh, no. Um, are you trying to do a mission plan or?

>> No. Five return.

>> Oh, will you do that in the mission plan?

>> Oh, okay.

>> Yep.

>> Okay. So, here we're going to do flight route.

>> And then let's go to the payload settings and then change the return mode at triple. So, now let's uh change our altitude. We can fly like Well, it's going to be a flat. I mean this is relatively you can turn that elevation optimization off as well. Do you want to do a terrain follow here?

>> Yes.

>> Okay. So click on altitude mode. Select it and do the AGL and then go to reselect for the DSM file. Click uh download from internet. Okay. Okay.

>> Good.

>> Now go back. Just toggle that flight altitude just once. Just change it like a plus 10 and then minus 10 for the terrain follow. Okay. And then advanced settings. We need we need to change our overlap so we can have a little bit more. So let's do like a 40% overlap. Excellent. We're about to we're going right now. Yeah, we are. So, we can look at our FPV camera. We are we are well clear of everything.

>> Even those power lines. Yeah, we are we're good here. Got our little calibration flight and then

>> Yep, we'll be solid here. And we're flying nice and slow, too. So, if it gets close to something, just hit pause. So, right now, Aaron is doing the LAR data collection here on the school. Um, he also likes to provide the 3D models uh for these sites to help with the building uh as built for the design. Just it's a standard workflow that he typically um he typically provides to his clients. So while the L2 and the M350 are up in the air, we're going to use the new uh M4E to do an automated oblique capture. So we're going to do the smart oblique mode. Um, and then I'm going to do a few manual flights to gather in uh some of the more complicated areas. We got some trees and some spots. So, I'm going to be doing that method to uh get all of our data there. But, just wanted to provide a little update as to uh how this project is going. We're pretty much almost done. But, uh, the real reason why he brought me out here is tomorrow we're gonna go back out to that, uh, site up in the mountains and get a beautiful LAR capture from the Opus Point that we have created out there. So, just a little update of uh, what's going on right now. Obviously, you saw us set in some benchmarks, some control points, some check shots. Um, and then they also got the inverts um, and outlets of the septic tank, the grease trap. Um, I think just those two items. So yeah, so far this uh these projects are going very very well. emotionally.

>> This is going to be a cool data set.

>> I'll be honest,

>> return number four and five is like not even 1% of the data that you get back.

>> Well, it's not rain over. That's good. Oh, tape measure because we need to make sure we input the right height. The

>> tape measure.

>> Yeah.

>> I'll go get it.

>> Okay. Yeah. Last time we did this, I had to have him hold a flashlight here.

>> God,

>> my hands were like this. I couldn't see anything. This is all There's snow here.

>> Yeah.

>> Good enough for government work.

>> That's good enough.

>> Okay, let's get tape measure.

>> Tape measure. and the flow.

>> Um,

>> well, let's let's get the measurement first.

>> Yep.

>> If you want to hold it right on the point.

>> I am getting You're taller. I just need the measurement right to the base of here.

>> 74.

>> 74 and an eight. Yeah.

>> 74 and eight.

>> At least.

>> Now, seriously, if you want me to go get a little torpedo level and put on there, that'll give you a more precise measurement. How close do you need to be?

>> Within within an eighth or a quarter?

>> Yeah, you're okay. Now, it's moved a little

>> here. Is that straight, Aaron?

>> Pretty straight.

>> Is that a an eighth?

>> No, I can't see with that there, Mike. Now you're right at 74.

>> Dead 74.

>> Dead 74.

>> Okay.

>> The hypotenuse. Now you

>> right at the bottom of this, right?

>> Perfect. That's exactly where I need it. Yep.

>> What is 74 in converted to meters?

>> Two.

>> I need the internet. What is 74 in converted to meters? Something went wrong. I used to have all those conversions in my head when I was doing highway design. I had to design it.

>> Is it the same password for Star-Lord exterior?

>> Yeah.

>> What is it again?

>> Heritage or what?

>> Here, let me just get it. Oh,

>> so 39.37 in per meter. Uh, you said one meter. Oh, we had uh

>> 74 on the button.

>> 74. Is it a four 4x4 4T x 4T? Is that how big the target is?

>> Yeah.

>> Okay.

>> Approximately cuz they are going to come in and do some seating here. And the closer we bring it over this way, the more like

>> What about uh near the rock or No, it doesn't matter. That's right. There's fine. Yeah. And then it's going to start it'll start counting up. Yeah. So it just captured that point. So now it'll start counting up for you. All right. So we have been working away at the site. We are on our third and final day. This is pretty much the main reason why Aaron had brought me out here. Um, just a bit of a recap again. I don't know how this video is going to be edited because we've been doing a lot of different projects. Um, and obviously this is past tense me, but future future me maybe do some I might be doing some narration on top of uh what has been done in ter to this entire project. So right now um we are setting in our benchmark controls for this site. It's all being referenced off of that known point that we created back up uh the river by the property which you saw us doing that uh pretty late at night. It was like 9:30 at night when we initially did that 2 days ago. Um, yesterday we worked at a school. So again, same kind of workflow. And then now today, we're back here. We've already ran the point through Opus. We got our coordinates. We put our base station set up on the known point that we just created. And then I have my Emily Reach RS, excuse me, I have my Emily Reach RS3. Um, that is being used to tie all of these new control points that we're setting in as well as get check shots on the banks. So, getting our inverse um, doing a traverse for it, um, and then basically getting us a bunch of check shots because once we capture our lateral data, we're going to tie it to all the controls that we're setting here on site, which that's what you see us doing right now. And in terms of me putting in, um, the aerial target, uh, marking these points, and we're going to capture it. When we process all of our data, align our lighter data to these control points, and then bring in all of these check shots, it's gonna give us the accuracy that we need. It's going to help our engineer um here who is which I found out figly finally found out what this project is for. Um, this whole area, I was having a conversation with the owner back in 2022. There was a massive flood uh that ripped through. Actually, there was a fire. There's like 300 and something thousand acres here in New Mexico uh northern New Mexico here in the Santa Fe uh National Forest burned like 340 or 380,000 acres and then like shortly after that there was a flood that ripped through and that's what happened. They had a dam that completely broke um and then FEMA paid out and we're now out here in 2025 Q1 of 2025 doing the aerial survey. Um, again just so you guys know I'm not the surveyor here. We're working with an engineering firm to set all this stuff in. That way they can actually have design because all this stuff, all the old um survey uh that was done out here is not irrelevant, but it you can't use it given that this whole area was wiped out. So you can see all these logs and trees all uh cut down. Um, there's lots of debris all around. So we're shooting it with LAR to get a new topo that they'll then be able to bring in and do their uh design on. Um, we're also creating brake lines so that our data comes out beautifully. Um, again, this is the entire reason I came out here to help Aaron as a consultant to understand these different workflows. It's not just flying drones. There's all of these other components that go into getting highly accurate data. And this is one of the workflows that I've helped him embed, which is nice because he's going to be able to uh embed this alongside with the project that I did yesterday at the school. And then tomorrow, which I'm not going to be here, I'm going uh today to uh another client in Texas. Um, he's going to implement this exact same workflow at this other site. And in 3 days, we helped saved him tens of thousands of dollars in headaches and and lost potential revenue, which now they are lining up his pockets basically with projects all uh up and down Albuquerque to Santa Fe and pretty much all of New Mexico, which is which is awesome. And I'm glad that I've been able to come in and and help him with that entire process cuz before he was very frustrated. He invested all this money into all this equipment and couldn't get the proper training. And here we are. We're now going through this entire workflow. And it's great. It's great to be able to help people, which is why being in the drone space, it's not all about flying and processing data. You can be a consultant. You can go out. You can help teach people how to leverage these tools because there's so much work that exists out there. Like I'm still getting calls back home in Tampa, hey Dylan, I need you to come do this. Hey Dylan, I need you to fly this project. So it's not all about flying. It's not all about doing data processing. It's all about the relationships as uh as well. Like there's there's a lot of different things that you can do in this space. And consulting is definitely an area that's under um I would say under utilized, not under utilized, but um there's a there's not a big supply of it. Uh, I'll be honest, there's not a lot of experts in the space. Um, and I'm not an expert in in everything. You know, I'm an expert in doing mapping and LAR and, you know, helping with these workflows here. When it comes to agriculture or thermal, I am not the guy for that. Um, anyways, little ramble here. Just wanted to get you caught up because I don't know how this video is going to flow. I know this is going to be a much longer one. Uh, but you guys are also learning some of the workflows that I'm teaching uh my client here. Um, so I got to get back to uh setting these controls in so that we can get the drone up in the air very shortly, gathering data, and then I'll be on the road to Amarillo in in a few hours.

right here.

>> Not much more money though.

>> I mean, they they designed this pretty well. I mean, it's not the most aerodynamic thing, but

>> Well, for what it's doing,

>> for what it's doing, it's awesome. Yeah.

>> All right.

>> Uh, let's let's throw it on that log so it's doesn't sink into the ground. Moving to start point.

>> It's okay. So, what I like to do personally in situations like this, I like to look at the FPV camera and then just watch these points. So, we're just going to watch these altitudes here. This is the exact direction that the drone is flying and what's in front of it. So, we are we're good. Like, we are totally fine the height that we're at cuz we can also watch it here. Now, it will get a little deceptive when it starts climbing. Um, cuz our perception that's why I will use this specifically.

>> Cool.

>> Why does it need to go higher than that?

>> Uh, it's going to follow the terrain.

>> And maintain the same altitude throughout the entire terrain. So, we can see that these points are going to go a little bit well, it's going to stay pretty much the same because it's relatively flat.

>> So, um,

>> yeah,

>> we've got 12 13 minutes left in this flight. We've got plenty of battery life. We have RTK, which is beautiful.

>> It only take 13 minutes to do the whole thing?

>> Roughly.

>> 20 acres. Yep.

>> It'll it'll last another 3 hours or so. So, yeah. See the blue? It's going to start going higher and higher and we can visually see that right here. But we are we are very steering clear of everything. So if we want to look at the data Yeah, we're we're still climbing altitude.

>> I don't need to do that right now.

>> I just want to keep an eye on the

>> Yeah, absolutely.

>> Why did it stop?

>> It's uh does a little calibration throughout the flight just to maintain accuracy. So, as it climb every 10 ft, it'll do a quick little calibration.

>> Yeah, we're

>> we're very high. So,

>> how many drones have crashed into the trees? Oh my god.

>> So, I'm going to So, see this uh sidebar right here? It'll tell us when we start getting close to if we start getting close to objects. It'll give you the distance right below up to like uh I think it starts at like 120 ft and then you'll start seeing it come a bit. So, it's actually going to do a route here and it's going to come back towards us, I believe. Yeah. Cool. So, it's flipping around now. to wrap this video up with Aaron. Um, ultimately I know we did multiple different projects but uh the main purpose of this video was obviously just the consulting and how I work with them uh or I should say with clients but here is roughly the final output. Um, I was asked to not show anything else outside of this but what we're looking at is that LAR data capture that we did up in Sepeo. I mean this is such a beautiful data set to be honest. Um, let me see here. If we look at like this intensity. Oh, not that one. Um, the elevation here. Although I could change the range a bit. There we go. This is um this looks pretty cool. Um, what's what's like a better better view? Uh, I don't know. We'll just we'll just go back to RGB. But basically, this is this is the output that we get now. we get this absolutely beautiful point cloud that I was able to generate with the L2 or really Aaron was able to generate and I helped him through this entire process of bringing in these control points or setting these control points from the base that we set up right uh right here. So, here's the base station sitting up on the tripod, which I mean, this thing worked perfect for what we needed to do because of that nail that we created. And then we are going to basically reference off of uh that nail over there where all these control points are that we can that we can see. So, if I go into this intensity view, there we go. Target shows up like a sore thumb pretty much. If we go over to this other one right here, same same situation. Um, so yeah, but other than that, that is pretty much it for this video. Um, I have kind of jumped forward in time. Uh, I'm about, this is about a week later after we did the project. Um, the next episode that is coming up, I'm going out to northern Texas to the panhandle to work on some agriculture precision a tech. also doing consulting but actually doing a lot of training alongside with it too. So that was a very fun project. You guys will see that in the next episode. If you've enjoyed this one, uh thanks for uh thanks for sticking around and uh hopefully hopefully this series is actually doing something beneficial for you guys. I truly I don't know. I'm trying to do my best and share everything that I can from all of my project sites. Whether it's drone mapping, whether it's lighter, whether it's consulting, whether it's a concoction of a bunch of different projects that I'm doing, or maybe not even a focus. Um, I'm kind of blabbing on at this point, but I I appreciate you guys. Uh, I hope that you guys are finding some value out of it. Hopefully, you're learning some new technology. Hopefully, you're learning that you can do so many different things within this industry, which is why I love it so much. So again, with that being said, I appreciate you guys and I will see you in the

next episode. Hey guys, Dylan here. Welcome back to another Drone Pilot Insider Uncut episode. I am out in Northern Texas, uh, just north of Amarillo, working on another consulting project, uh, for a client of mine. His name is Reed Barnhill. He is the founder and owner of Tex Drone A. and we are doing, uh, agricultural spraying out actually on one of his farms right now. Uh, doing a lot of testing, but the biggest reason they had me come out here was to help them get, uh, RTK technology up and running so that they can have high precision accuracy on all the maps and models that they're going to be using for prescription spraying.

So, uh, Reed had actually attended one of the workshops that I partner up with UAB Coach to run. Uh, they have these one-day workshops that teaches, uh, part of my curriculum, uh, around the United States. And, uh, they attended one of them to learn a little bit more about Emlid, uh, systems for RTK, uh, drone mapping to create these, uh, prescription files and ultimately figure out how to get the mapping side for the agricultural side.

Now, they, uh, they still had some questions. They were still kind of wondering how to get all these systems connected cuz they've invested thousands of dollars, actually hundreds of thousands of dollars into all of this, uh, equipment here. Uh, they've got seven A drones, which we're actually about to see one here very soon. And, um, they also bought a DJI M3M. Now, like I said, the the biggest issue.

Yeah. >> Changed her a little bit up on where we were mapping. Just it's still 12 acres. >> Yep. >> But if you can imagine out in that green wheat, >> Yep. >> the weed that is coming up right now, and I don't really see any around here, but it's only about that size. >> Okay. >> Few inches. >> Yeah. >> Yep. >> It's green like the color of that grass, but I'm sure it'll still be able to figure it out. >> Yep. >> 180. You think? Probably drop it down to like when I was out in south of France, they were also looking at stuff of that size. They flew was it 45, 50 meters? 40, 120 feet. Yeah, same overlap. >> I like that better. I think that would be much easier. >> Yep. >> See, >> we'll do that.

So, as you can see, that was, uh, Reed there. Um, been out here actually for the last few days working with them and we're putting all the training that we've done, um, over the last few days, uh, into practice, uh, testing out just different workflows. I've got another day out here. So, I'm going to bring you guys along for the process. Uh, I skipped just the last two days cuz it just would have been a bit redundant, uh, for you guys to to watch over that. So, we're actually out here doing field trials. I want to walk you guys through what this process looks like again being a consultant, uh, for the client. And here comes the, uh, Agaras T 25 right behind me here. And that thing is a menace. Uh, we're going to, I'm going to get some close-up shots for you guys to see how that whole thing works. But you can probably see it just landing off the screen here. Um, that thing is is pretty awesome. And they're using RTK right now. So again, just a little bit of recap. We're going to go through all this stuff together. Uh, we're going to go through the mapping side of it on how they would do that for agricultural farms, specifically on looking at things that are like a few inches, um, in size for the weeds that they're looking for. Um, this is again, this is Reed's property here, but they're looking at expanding and doing, uh, mosquite trees to, uh, spray pesticides on it. Um, they've actually got this new chemical thing that they're working with to spray feed lots to kill the fleas and the flies off of all the cattle out there. So, we're actually going to do that tomorrow. Um, tomorrow my time. You guys will see this within the same video. That's going to be really cool. But, uh, you can actually see them swapping out everything behind me. Um, putting new battery in, putting water in. Uh, we're just going through the entire workflow. But really the key is that they wanted the RTK technology with the mapping so that they have within 4 cm of accuracy, uh, or sorry, 4 inches of accuracy, which we're actually getting greater than that right now, and then to tie that into Pix 4D fields to create the prescription file so that they're being precise, precise within four to 5 inches, um, of where they're spraying, uh, for whether it's the pesticides, the herbicides, fertilizer, whatever else, whatever it may be. Uh, they're working out this entire workflow. I'm helping them step by step and with my knowledge in the mapping side of things with RTK and getting the right overlap and the resolution, it's allowing them to scale their operations because they have here in Amarillo, out in Dallas, out in New Mexico, and I think up in Oklahoma, um, as well, that they're going to start operating and, uh, they just, they want to do it right. So, they've hired me to come out here to help them through all the different steps so that they can scale this properly.

So, here I'm actually going to bring you guys along. This right here is the Agris T25 about to do a, uh, spray. We've got Jamie over here on the controller. He's about to set it up. So, right now we're just doing some testing. So, here comes the drone. And, uh, off she goes. So, let me take you guys through the actual entire process right now to show you really what they are trying to achieve. Uh, Donna, who is going to be their main mapper, is, uh, getting a flight plan configured right now. She's about to take off. So, let's go, uh, check in with her and see how that's going.

So, yeah, when you, when you first get out, the first thing you're going to do, Starlink. Obviously, we already have it set up. So, depending on the vehicle, you'll probably just plug it into your jackery. You guys will probably already have it mounted on top of the truck, I would assume. Um, it's either going to be powered from an external battery source or the truck, whatever. Doesn't really matter, right? So, this will be the absolute first thing that goes on. Power to the power brick, power brick to the router, and then a satellite cable back into the router. There's really nothing that you have to do. It'll take probably two, three, maybe five minutes to fully boot on and connect the satellites, right? Yeah, ideally you want to point this north, but I think with the way that it's going to be flat mounted on top of the truck, it'll be able to pretty much connect to anything. Um, so that won't really be an issue. The reason why they say point north is if you're in a like a mountainous area, you want to just find, just your find your north star, basically. Um, so we've already got the Wi-Fi going. So, uh, and again, this is part of just the mapping initial process. So, this is what you would first do.

Then the second thing would be the Emlid. Right now, we have it set up on this whole tripod system, but with the new setup that you'll get, you're just going to get a standard 2-meter pole, right? So, the pole is going to be 2 meters. It does. It's not a telescoping one. It's just hard set 2 meters. And it screws. So, it screws off and screws on. There's two pieces. So, once you got to make sure everything's properly screwed. There's also going to be a tip on the bottom, kind of like that Emlid pole that you have. There's a tip on the bottom. You want to make sure that's fully tightened down. You'll put that in and then you'll have a tripod bipod situation. Um, you want to make sure that those are staked into the ground. And then the pole is not, it's not staked. It's just sitting on top of the ground, right? Because you'll have the 2-meter pole in the settings within the Emlid app, which we're about to go through that really shortly. Um, you just want to ensure that the base is set up at 2 meters. You're going to see it's going to say probably 2.134 meters. That's because it's adding that extra height in there, but you're just putting in the height to the bottom of the base.

Now, we want to ensure that it's actually connected to the Emlid or the, the Emlid is is connected to the Starlink. That way, whenever we get our drones, whether you're flying with your Mavic, uh, M3M, um, or you guys are flying with the Agaras drones, whether it's the T-25 or the T-50, everything that is connected to the Starlink will all talk to each other, but it needs to be preconfigured. Once it's configured once, you'll probably never have to change it ever again, but it's just the check and and and validate situation. So on here, I'll show you guys. So if I go to the Wi-Fi here, obviously I'm connected to the Starlink, right? And there's nothing that's being outputted from the Emlid. This will be what, again, this would be one of the first things that you guys set up. So first Starlink, then Emlid. But if the Emlid boots on and you see, which I'm just going to simulate it. If you go here to the Wi-Fi, we're just going to wait a second here. And you see this where it says the base. We'll want to go onto it and the password is always going to be the same, all lowercase, emlid reach. Right. So now that we are connected directly to it, that's not a good thing. So if you ever see a situation like this where you have both the Starlink network and the Emlid, that's not good.

>> Okay.

>> It's a very easy fix. So, because we're connected to the base right now, going back into the Emlid application, I'm just on this first page that says receivers. Right. Uh, because I'm connected to the Emlid, I can see it here on the available receivers. I'm going to go onto the one that has the IP address, not the one that has, um, it's a Bluetooth icon, but the one that has the IP address. You'll click on it. And now we are connected to the base, right? But we need to configure it so that it connects to the Starlink. So, if this ever pops up that, um, it's having issues connecting to the internet, well, duh, because we're in the middle of nowhere, there's no internet on it. So, we're just going to click keep trying Wi-Fi. Now, the first thing that we want to make sure is that our correction input, so what's receiving on the drone or on the on the Emlid is off. So, we just want to turn this to off. And then the base output, we want to make sure that it's on the NTRIP and we can see caster. Whoops. Caster right now. This is set up on my account, right? But this is also will create a documentation for every Emlid that is out there. They're all going to be labeled base and then we're going to have an excuse me, another label on the bottom that gives it the mount point. So, for instance, if we were setting up this one, it would have MP7678. That way you know whatever device that you're out with, whenever we configure it, which we're going to do that here very shortly, it's on the same mount point cuz we need to tell the drones, which are also the rovers, that we want it to talk with the Emlid. So again, we will have this information. We're going to reset everything so that it's on, uh, Reed's Emcaster, not mine. But just to explain what's going on, if there's, if it's blank and there's nothing there, you want to click on this little edit tool. And then this is the information that you'll want to input. Again, we're going to use the one that, uh, on Reed's account. So, we'll have a document that tells you on the Emlid it needs to have this address, this port, this password, and this mount point, right? And that's what that way you can validate it. For the most part, whenever it's preconfigured, you will never have to change this because it's always going to be hard set. We'll call it hardcoded into it. But if you ever have an issue where you go, um, onto the rover, onto your Agaras controller or your DJI M3M controller and you're not getting RTK, this is the first place that you want to go. You want to make sure that this third option here where it says base output is set on to NTRIP. And then we'll go into it and make sure we can see the MP7678 at the end. We want to make sure it's the same that we're being told what to use. Okay.

Now, the last thing, right, we are still connected directly to the Emlid. We don't want that. We want the Emlid to be connected to the Starlink. So, to fix that, see where it says Wi-Fi?

>> Mhm.

>> See where it says hotspot? It means it's in hotspot mode. It means it's sending out its own Wi-Fi. All we have to do is click on hotspot and then you'll see available networks. See how that's the only one that showed up.

>> Right now it is set as saved. So we'll pretend that we never set it up before but or whatever. Maybe maybe you one Starlink goes down and another one gets sent over to you, right? You'll have to reconfigure that. So right now we can see that the hotspot mode is active. But again, we want to switch the Emlid into talking directly to the Starlink. So, we'll click on it and then now we because we clicked on it, it's automatically going to connect to it. So, we need to switch our phones to the Starlink. So, to do that, we will go back into our settings. And look, my phone already connected to it because what we'll do is we'll wait a second here to see other networks that pop up and it should cancel out because it's not in hotspot mode anymore. So now the Emlid is talking to the Starlink and we can validate that. All we have to do is go back into the Emlid Flow app. We'll click go to receivers and there we go. So it's refreshing and we can see it still pops up, right? That's because phone connected to Starlink.

>> Emlid connected to Starlink. I can click on the base and I'm back on it now.

>> So now our Emlid is configured to send out corrections through NTRIP through the Starlink. Okay, this whole process that I went through, if everything is already preconfigured, there's nothing that you have to do.

Now the last thing that we also need to do is this base settings, right? So we have base output and base settings. This is where we're going to check and verify. So remember what was that height that I said we're always going to be at? 2 meters, right? For demonstration prop, uh, purposes, because we don't have the 2-meter pole right now, we're going to change, uh, the settings for it. So base settings, we'll click on it and right now it shows our antenna height 1.834 meters and then averaging time. That averaging time is fine, right? Um, that's so it figures out where it's at. But we need to adjust that antenna height. So, all we have to do is click on configure. The way that you guys are going to make sure, again, this is going to be all preset. So, once this is set, every time the Emlid turns on, it's going to go through the same, um, steps by itself. There's nothing that you really have to do. For coordinate entry method, we're just going to do average single. See this red single in the top right hand corner?

>> That's because it's just talking to itself in the satellites. Now, if we were talk, if we had another device that was talking to it, it would say fix because it's receiving corrections. But because this is just by itself, it's always going to be on average single. We're going to go back. And then our antenna height, I've already measured it. So, I need to put in 1.76, but you guys will just put two. Now, you're going to notice when I put in 1.76, it's going to actually adjust it a little bit to 1.894, 894 meters. Again, that's just the adjustment from here to the center.

>> Where, where the sensor is.

>> Where, yeah. Wherever the, uh, the receiver is. Yep.

>> And we want to make sure that our measurement units is in 2 meters. Right. Hit save. And then the last thing is averaging time. Um, we're going to preset yours to 2 minutes. Hit save and you're going to see this little progress bar. So, now for the next 2 minutes, it's figuring out where it's at and then just averaging to its position. Now, this is never going to be as accurate as if you were going to set this up on a known point, um, or if you're using another base station to talk to it, but for what you guys are doing out here, you only need the accuracy to be within where you're flying from, right? Which is why it's important to do this step right here. And that's pretty much it. So again, over the next 2 minutes, it's going to average itself out, but we're done here. We know that our base output, where it's sending its information, is going to this Emlid caster on this third setting here. And we know that the Emlid is talking to the Starlink. And then our base settings are inputted correctly. So that's just the troubleshooting side of things. You will probably never have to do that, but you do want to check.

>> So, Starlink first before you turn the Emlid on, you want to make sure that everything is all leveled out. It has to be leveled, too. So, there is a bubble level on this guy. There will be a bubble level on that pole that you guys use. Make sure it's level because if it's off level, that accuracy is going to get applied to the drone. So, if it's off center by two degrees, well, that two degrees at 2 meters high is much more than two degrees and your drone can be off by several inches or even several feet, right? This is going to keep everything within a few centimeters of accuracy, which is perfect. That's ideal for everything that we're doing for specifically precision ag.

>> Any questions?

>> I do.

>> Yes. So, you set it up for, uh, two minutes to gather the information.

>> Now, realizing that that Jamie and John might have more stuff to do,

>> would it be, would it become more accurate if they set it up instead of to do a 2-minute pull to do a 10-minute pull?

>> You can go all the way up to 30 minutes. So, yes. Um, the longer it sits and averages out,

>> Right.

>> the more accurate,

>> the more accurate it'll be.

>> So, yeah, you could absolutely do that. Um,

>> I'm just thinking they have that time anyway.

>> Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. You could absolutely do that and there would be nothing. The only thing you'd have to do,

>> again, Starlink first, level everything out, turn the Emlid on. Once it boots on, you can, your phone will be connected to the Starlink or whatever device you're using that Emlid Flow. You'll pop in there. You'll go to that receiver's page and you'll click on the one that has the IP address. Once you do that, it pops up this entire page of options. Really, the two areas that you care about is your base output and your base settings, right? So, your output is telling the Emlid where to send the information from. Your base settings is telling, is letting you know, okay, is this configured properly to send the information out, right? All right. So, we'll just go here into the settings and all you have to do, see, we have, we're already done. That 2 minutes is gone. But if we go into the configure,

>> you can set that for 15 minutes or 10 minutes or whatever.

>> Or 20 minutes, right? So, you could set it to 20 minutes. It's going to average for the next 20 minutes, right? So, why don't we just do that right now? Right? Because we still have a few other things that we have to do. Um, actually, I'll just do it for, I'll just do it for 10 minutes. Um, so we'll hit save. And now, for the next 10 minutes, it's going to re-average its position. Um, so you're pretty much done there. Um, and now this is where you would either peel off and do your mapping or peel off and do your spray. But let's just follow the steps here. We, we need to create our map for the prescription. So, now we can pop on. We can bring, um, our drone out. We can set it on our launchpad here. We do want to make sure that we have an SD card in the drone. Um, and then that's when we'll boot on, uh, our M3M, uh, controller, make sure that we're connected to Starlink with the drone sitting out. Then we'll boot the drone on, um, and then we want to make sure that the configuration is the RTK is configured and then we can create a mission plan. So, let's go inside there to to do that.

So, one of the things, um, right, just as, as Reed was saying, um, before we actually fly, let's take one step back. You always want to do your due diligence. So, for me, my due diligence before I ever fly is I want to check the environment that I'm flying, one for safety, right? So, check airspace. Um, you also want to check the winds for the day. So, something like the, uh, UAV Forecast or Windy app, um, is great. UAV Forecast is probably even better because it'll tell you if it's good to fly or not. Um, and then our actual field survey, right? Since we're doing prescription spraying, we need to understand how we're going to create our mission. If we're just getting a broad area, you know, there's not as much, um, I don't want to call it less attention to detail, but there's less, um, we don't have to fly as low to get a higher resolution map. But today, because we're looking for, uh, weeds, right, we want to actually go out there and assess it and see, okay, what is the size of these weeds that we're looking for? Um, so, let's go out there now and just do a, a dry run of of what that looks like for the environment and where we're flying in the field that we're capturing. That way we can mentally document it and then take that mental documentation so that we can apply that towards our mission plan. All right. Okay.

So, I mean, obviously, I know that this is, um, demonstration for we're doing our training right now to figure out what these weeds look like and where they're going to be, but I think a good rule of thumb, um, would be what you have right now, the the ruler, right? Um, to place it next to the object that we're looking to, but, um, sideways, um, and then figuring out what that measurement is.

>> From edge to edge.

>> Yep. Pretty much.

>> So, we're looking about 4 inches.

>> Yep. So, that's going to be, you know, that's a, we're going to be flying at about 50 feet to get that resolution.

>> Mhm.

>> Um, which in smaller areas, that's, that's fine. Much larger sites, you know, that will be a challenge, but that's just, we got to, we'll figure out that workflow because every single time we go to do a new prescription, um, we just need to understand what that resolution output needs to be, right? Because if you remember, our input is just as important to get the good output.

>> Absolutely.

>> If we don't have good input, you might as well have just not even flown in the first place, uh, for that. So, obviously, we have this one. This was, this one's going to be a challenge given that it's in and around, surrounded. Something more optimal would probably be, I think that one over there. Right. I'd rather keep it like that because if we're going to be, I want to make it as realistic as possible. If we, uh, if we give the the software a helping hand, then yeah. So, something like this would be pretty, pretty optimal. This is still pretty small, but, um, yeah. So, we'll put it right next to it. And that is almost 5 inches. Four and a half. Five. Yep.

>> So, yeah, we're just,

>> This one.

>> That one.

>> Yeah.

>> Yeah.

>> That one's even smaller. It's about three and a half.

>> Yep.

>> That one. Also about three.

>> That one's skinnier but taller.

>> Yeah. Two and a half.

>> Yeah.

>> Okay.

>> But that one is wider.

>> Four and a half. Almost five.

>> Yep. Another thing to take into consideration, what's the weather like today?

>> Clear and sunny.

>> Clear and sunny, right?

>> Little windy and chilly.

>> Yep. And also our, our sun direction. So, we do have not as long shadows, but we do have some shadows. Obviously, if the sun is directly above, we're not going to have any shadows,

>> Right? Um, so those are some things to take into consideration, too, because the software that we're using, it's looking for pixels and it's just doing a comparison across the entire board for all the pixels. So, we're doing a very extreme example right now. Um, but it's still important because it's giving us an idea of what this environment looks like as we go through a training, um, model training specifically. So, now that we've identified a few of the objects that we're going to want to look for in our prescription, um, spraying whenever we go through the actual process, we'll take that mental note. We know that between probably 3 to 6 inches is what we're looking for, um, in resolution. So, we can now go back and do our actual mission planning to try and achieve that resolution range.

So, we've, we've identified the size of, uh, weed that we're looking for, right? Um, we've done a very basic site assessment. Uh, what was one of the anomalies, obstacles, I should say, that you noticed out there?

>> The colors were very similar.

>> Taking the the plant you're flying, what's going to be up in the air?

>> Oh, the sun and shadows.

>> Obstacles.

>> Wind.

>> Obstacles.

>> Oh, the power lines.

>> Power lines. Power lines. Yep. Power lines. In this building, right?

>> We know that those are probably 25, 30 feet.

>> Um, obviously with that, um, silo is a grain silo. Is that what that is? Kind of. Yeah.

>> So, take that into consideration, but I think with the height that we're flying at, we should be fine. Especially using RTK to help with better positioning.

Um, so you can either go about this one of two ways. You can either just do your mission plan right now or you can set your drone up, get it connected to RTK, and then do your mission plan. I opt for doing, uh, I like doing just mission planning first, walking the site, understanding it, and then readjusting it. But I think for helping with, um, on the controller because sometimes when you turn the controller on without the drone, it's going to, it will throw you at your last location and your last location could be 500 miles away. So, um, and that's not where the drone is going to take off. It's just where the last known location is. So, let's, let's get the drone out there. Um, we already checked for SD card, new fresh battery in there, and the lens cover is off, right? Well, I'm going to turn the control on first. You want that on first.

>> And now you can turn the, um, the drone on. All right. So, positioning accuracy.

>> It's going to give that to that us initially because it just booted on, right? So, it's giving us these, uh,

>> Um, these prompts,

>> Right? Um, so, the first thing that we want to do is we want to make sure that RTK is working. So, in order for that to work, we need to have the drone controller connected to

>> Home point updated.

>> Starlink.

>> Starlink. Yep. For internet, right? And so to validate that, well, we're on this homepage here, we just swipe down twice from the top. And it looks like, yep, we are already connected to the Starlink. The second thing that we want to do, go back into our DJI Pilot 2 application. We'll go into Emwood. We'll go into enter camera view. We can just bypass this and we'll click the X in the top right hand corner. Now, it looks like RTK is already working, right? We're already connected.

>> Mhm.

>> But if this is red and it's not working, let's, for instance, go here to the, uh, three dots in the top right hand corner and the second icon from the bottom on this right hand page. You see a little satellite icon. That's your RTK. So, we can already see it's already turned on. Let's just say it was turned off and this was on none for RTK services, right? So, you're not going to have any RTK, right? We can see at the very top it has RTK but it's crossed out.

>> So, if we click on that, right, RTK is disabled, but we do have GNSS positioning. That's just the raw data from the drone. Um, it is strong, but we want that centimeter accuracy. So, let's make sure that this is connected. To do that, once again, three dots, top right hand corner. We'll make sure that we're on the satellite page, second from the bottom. And we are going to want to, uh, make sure that we, where it says select RTK service type, click on that and we'll make sure that we select custom network RTK. It's going to tell us to restart, which we will do that, but we want to configure it first. So, hit okay. Now, we've already preset the Emlid caster, but this is where we can go and validate. Okay, mount point 7678, right? It's going to be different. Obviously, this is just for training right now, but it will be different. It's going to be under Reed's. Um, but everything else should pretty much be the same. The entry address should say caster.emlid.com. The port should say 21101. You'll have the account and password given to you. And then that mount point for your base station should be the same. You also have a physical documentation of that, too, right? So, now that that is set, we can see that the status is disabled. We are connected to it. So, we have a fix on everything and we can already see our, our accuracy deviation. Now, it's not enabled. We need to make sure that we enable it. So, to do that, we can either just scroll to the top of this page and turn it on.

>> It's going to readjust.

>> I'm going to click X.

>> The second way to enable it is just clicking on the RTK icon in this page here,

>> and you can just toggle it on right here.

>> The way that you know everything is solid is if you have green and it says connected.

>> One last way to just validate it, we'll go back in. We'll go to our RTK page and if we scroll down, right, we also have a green status for connected and then we also have a fix across the board and we can see our accuracy. So, on our X, we have, uh, 400s. On our Y, we have about 300s and our Z, we have about 800s.

>> That's beautiful. And we're getting really precise accuracy right now.

>> So, now we can go into the mission planning. Right. We can just click the back button or the back button on the screen or the back button on the controller.

>> It's going to bring us back to our page here. We'll go to flight route. We're going to create a brand new route. Now, the way that I like to do this specifically for how you guys are going to be mapping on your client's fields, when we go to the plus button and create a route, we'll do area route, right? We'll start marking our area. Obviously, this is, you know, an older satellite map, but that's why we're doing this because there's no way we can create our prescription off of that,

>> Right? So, um, we know that we're going to fly because this is north, we're going to fly the, um, oh, wait. North is that way. So, that's south. We know that we're going to be flying the southeast,

>> Southeast side of the barn here. So, tap probably go midway to the field here. We'll zoom out a bit. Did you guys go past the Playa Lake?

>> Uh,

>> Over there or no?

>> No.

>> No.

>> There's no way that far.

>> So, we'll go probably to here and then over to the road. And there you go. Now, you've created your area. That's,

>> The other side of the road. Power line.

>> I would, I would map to the other side.

>> Mhm. On the other side of the power line, too.

>> Okay. So, we just drag this over.

>> That's too far. But,

>> That's too far.

>> Yeah. Yeah. I mean, just to the road.

>> Just past.

>> Yeah. Just past it. Yeah. There you go. Perfect. That's about 16ish acres with the check mark on it. Because we're already connected to the drone, all of this information is pre-selected on here.

>> And, uh, just for the sake of this, I will capture multispectral at the same time. We'll click okay. For the area route, what we were doing yesterday, we're just saying 20 acre test. Right here, I like to give the client name and the field. So, maybe this was split up into four plots, right? Maybe northeast, northwest, southeast, southwest. So, let's say that this is southeast, right? So, we'll just do Hill dash southeast.

>> Mhm.

>> And then maybe we also give it a date. That way the folder, create the whole folder gives us the client name, the plot or where we're capturing, and the date.

>> So, 16th, 3, 16, 25. Okay. Now that that is already preset, we can go and do the rest of our configuration. So, we're just going to skip past all of this. We do want ortho, uh, collection, but we're going to skip this all the way down. We're going to turn off the elevation optimization. And for the route altitude, I believe we said 50 feet.

>> 50 feet.

>> Okay. So, 50 feet.

>> I don't think we're going to fly multispectral because it wants to fly at 3 miles an hour and it's going to take 2 hours and 30 minutes to do that.

>> 4,200 pictures.

>> Yep. So, um, we'll just, uh, back that off. There it goes.

>> There we go.

>> That's still,

>> 1,044 pictures.

>> That's fine. And an hour and 10 minutes.

>> Hold on.

>> That's because the speed was set all the way down. So, the fastest that we can fly at 50 feet is 10.3 miles an hour,

>> which is 30 minutes. 30 minutes.

>> But we can also adjust our, our overlap settings.

>> So, that will drop it down. I'll just do 65, 65 because that should be enough. It's still 30 minutes. So, maybe, um, Oh, we can go a little bit faster now. There we go.

>> We can fly 18 miles an hour and it's going to take,

>> 19 minutes.

>> So, maybe let's bump up to 60 feet, what we did yesterday. It's a bit better. 14, about 14 minutes and it's going to give us a resolution of 0.5 centimeters per pixel, which, wish I could do that conversion in my head. 0.5 centimeters to inches. 2 inches. So, perfect. Okay. Um, so we have our route altitude,

>> and we have our advanced settings here. Now, the last thing that I want to change is instead of timed interval, I want to go over to distance interval. That way, it's perfectly calculated.

>> Okay.

>> I think it also saves us, yeah, it saves us about 100 photos as well. So, we're still getting the perfect overlap.

>> It does all that calculation itself. You don't have to figure that out. Once we're happy with it, we can hit save. Yep. So, we'll hit save. This is going to take 18 and a half minutes to do.

>> Um, and then this is where you go through your pre-flight checklist.

>> Mhm.

>> Um, I believe that's on the, on,

>> On the website.

>> The website. And then there's a, a paper.

>> Yeah. There's a,

>> Information on what you just put in the computer so that we have that hard copy.

>> Perfect. Okay. So, we can now fly. Uh, it's actually going to take 18.5 minutes. Um, but it's going to cover 15.5 acres at 60 feet, 65% front overlap, 65% side overlap. And we'll get enough, more than enough information for what we're doing. And we can probably just bring our return to home altitude down to do like 100 feet because there's nothing around here. So,

>> Right.

>> Okay.

>> That's 98. I guess that's supposed to,

>> That's good enough. Yep. Hit next.

>> There we go.

>> You can ignore all that. And the last, we actually do want to turn this off.

>> Okay.

>> Yep. And then we'll keep everything else the same. We are, are rocking and rolling here. Uh, okay. Yep. So, you can see, except I don't know why it's doing all that extra stuff there.

>> Just adjust all that. Yeah, just hold it. Cool. Check mark.

>> Oh, so that's the name of the folder. Create folder. Oh, okay. Okay, that's good to know. Okay.

>> Okay. Then you can hit upload.

>> And start.

>> Now, will that one battery last the 18 minutes? It will depend on the wind and how hard it has to fly.

>> So, as soon as it gets to its first waypoint, we'll see in the top right hand corner right below the battery.

>> Right now,

>> Well, there's going to be a time that kicks in here. So, we've got 27, 28 minutes of flight time. We're,

>> Yeah, we got plenty of flight time. We're good.

>> Okay. So, one battery. Okay, that's good.

>> So, we'll let this do its thing and then,

>> There it goes.

>> We'll wait. So, you want to get your SSD plugged in first, the Samsung into the computer. Let's just plug it on this side here. Okay. Once it recognizes, we'll see it says T7. We'll open that up. I'm just going to get rid of everything on here except for the Barnhill. Okay. So, you've got your client property on here, right? So, or you have your client and then their property. Um, put Senette, Sinette. Is that the,

>> Stanette?

>> Stanette.

>> S T A N E T.

>> Okay. And then in there, we'll put, we'll just call it the Southeast.

>> And then here, we'll put the date. So, 31, 16, 25. Now, there's going to be two folders that we create. One called RAW and then one called working. Right. So, we're going to open up our RAW. Now, we're going to get our micro SD card from the drone. Plug it into. Oh, I think I had it right the first time. Plug it in. And then we should see another one pop up called Untitled. It might either be an icon like what we're looking at right here, or it might be look like an SD card icon. They're, they're both the same thing. So, open this up. You're going to have a DCIM from the untitled. And then we're going to look for the flight that we just did,

>> Which is,

>> So, one thing I actually notice here is there's actually two folders. The reason being is every 1,000 photos that gets taken, it's going to create a new folder.

>> Interesting. Okay.

>> That's how it will always be.

>> So, we, but we can notice there's 003 right here and 004, right? So, we'll just capture both of these and we're going to. And what I did is I selected both and I hit Command C. On Windows, it's Control C. Now that they're copied into the memory of the computer, I'm going to select my RAW folder and I'm going to hit Command V and it's going to paste it. Or you can two-finger click and it'll say paste. This one happens to say two items because we have two folders selected. So, this will take about two minutes, but yeah, there's over 1,000 photos that were taken, which is why there's those two folders for it to download. Does the computer lid need to be opened or can it be closed and it's still able to download?

>> Computer has to be open.

>> It has to be open.

>> I'm just thinking driving, you know, if I'm driving down the road as I'm waiting, you know, if I'm,

>> If it's two minutes, you know, this process here, right? All right, cuz remember the last, your part of your breakdown is part of your setup. Starlink, Emlid, then drone. Breakdown, drone, Emlid, then Starlink. So, while this is going, you turn your Emlid off.

>> You can be doing some things.

>> Then turn your Starlink off.

>> Got it. That's, that's smart. Okay.

>> So, you just let this run. It shouldn't take any more than,

>> Because this won't, Starlink, this won't need Wi-Fi.

>> Because this is all being done locally on the computer,

>> Right? You can do your power.

>> Yep. You can go through your checklist and,

>> Website. Yeah. Yeah. Is are you saying that you don't want me to do that now?

>> Huh?

>> Whenever you're ready to,

>> Got it. I hear you. Am I in the guest area? I don't even know. I'm still logged in. There we go. So, just I'll annotate here while you're doing that. So, now we can eject our untitled. So, our SD card. So, we can just click on it, click eject. Cool. So, now we're done with the SD card. Now focusing on the data that is now on our SSD. We have it in RAW. We also want to create a duplicate of it for working. So, we're going to select both of these. I'm going to hit Ctrl + C again. This time we're now copying it from the SSD, not from here. And it's going to be much faster. And you'll see. So, I'm going to go back one page with this arrow. Or if you're in this view here, right, we can select the working and paste and it should be much quicker. Yeah, it's going much faster. So, this is where we're actually, we will actually pull our data from. That way, if you ever mess up with the working data, you can go back to the RAW,

>> Back to the original,

>> Copy the RAW back into a new working folder.

>> Because that's never happened to you, right? That's how you learn this.

>> Unexpected error. Finish copying. That's odd. Let's, uh, let's retry this. Is this the cable that came with it?

>> Yes. Far as I, yes.

>> Actually, it's this cable right here.

>> Oh,

>> I know because I have so many of these.

>> So, yeah, this cable is giving us issues. That's what's going on.

>> Oh, that's interesting. So, I'm just going to eject these guys here and just, I'm going to replug it in. Yeah, this is not,

>> It's annoying because they don't tell you if it's a data cable or not. This one is a data cable, meaning it's made for,

>> So, I need to mark that Samsung,

>> High speed. Yep.

>> Yeah, because actually I just picked up the wrong cord, putting it in my computer bag because that stays in my computer bag.

>> Got it.

>> Anything that connects to my computer goes in my bag. This is all drone stuff. It's all just, I just got to keep this separate. Well, I can't do all this until I'm done.

>> This should work. Yeah, that cable was the issue.

>> Okay. All right. Good to know. So, I'm kind of glad that happened because,

>> Yep.

>> Otherwise I wouldn't.

>> And there is, um, this is the backup one.

>> So, that goes, so that's the same one. So,

>> But this just goes into a different,

>> It goes into, okay, got it. So, that's good to know. I'll put that over here for my bags.

>> Yep.

>> I have enough wires in there cuz good.

>> Okay. So, now that this is here, right? So, we have our file structure. Senate or Stanette.

>> Mhm.

>> Southeast.

>> Barnhill Stanette Southeast. The date, RAW and working.

>> We're going to use everything that's in the working.

>> So, now we can open up Pix4D Fields.

>> Now this is recording your, your screen. Everything you're touching is your point.

>> So, here we'll create a new project.

>> And this is where we do our folder import for captured by drone.

>> So, we'll go where it's already opened into the last location that it was. So, we'll go Barnhill Stanette Southeast, the date, working, and we're going to select both. We'll select one folder initially and then we'll go back and select the.

second folder. So you can only do one at a time.

Correct. So we're going to click cancel because we need more photos in here.

Okay. Before we process. Oh, wait. What? Why did I do that? I wonder if I just click on working and click open. Yeah, maybe. Oh, it'll get everything.

Yep. Okay. Okay. So, I can see it in the back.

I believe on the advanced. Yep. Okay. So, we're just going to do the fast processing with everything just for training purposes. We'll click apply. Ah, okay. So, if I if I did that before, I can import another folder. But oh so you have to do go through these things first then you can add the second folder and then go through it again.

And the way that we can validate it see where it says image source and there's one here and then there's two it's from both folders. So 003 here and yeah. So 003 here and then 004.

Mhm. You want to name it?

Yep. We'll want to name it. Barnhill FC I guess date and we'll give it the uh date. So 31625 and we give it a description if we wanted to hit save.

Let's say there's another folder that we needed to import. It gives us the option right here. But we've already brought in everything that we need. So we'll click on start processing. It's just one photo that won't be processed, which is fine.

I think that will be okay. We'll click process. And then now we'll just sit and wait.

Sit and wait. But it's already going pretty fast. Saying 3 minutes.

So, we'll let this run through its process right now. HDMI to cuz I have just been throwing cables in to make sure you had enough cables.

It's the most confusing thing ever. And that could have been one reason it took y'all so long powering the batteries up.

Very well could be. Could have been. Could have been. Yeah.

So, this is actually notoriously a slow cable. it. Jamie, yours is the only uh stuff that has not I'm going to say been molested.

Okay. We need to label your cables.

It also depends on your output. So, the thing that's in here to charge the two hubs that you have, it's 100 watt output. Um, but total, so really when you have two hubs together, it's actually 50 into one and 50 into another. I bought this thing from Amazon, it's like 50 bucks. It's a 300 watt charger. The top two ports are like 140 and 140, although the chargers will max out at 100. So, you can actually get full throughput on three chargers at once, although you'll only ever have two.

Mhm. I That thing is a godsend. I have like three or four of them. I have one that sits at my house, two that sit at the office when I charge stuff because everything charges at full power. You'll notice when things are charging at full speed when these lights are going really really fast. It goes d otherwise it's going to go d because it's really slow speed. These are things that they just don't tell you.

No, you just learn or read or YouTube somebody. So why why in the three charging hub?

Yep. That this fits into

Mhm. why does it only charge one at a time? Because that's the way they design that. There's a company called Colorado Drone Chargers or Colorado Drone something. Um, they have a case that's kind of like this that will charge four batteries at the same time with slots to to store four batteries. Now, it takes I think a one 10 in and I think it's a 400 watt inverter inside and it's doing 100 watts on each one. So, all four are charging at the same time instead of in series.

Is the purpose is because of just the energy that it takes to charge them?

That's just the way that DJI designed it. the way it's just designed.

Yeah. So, but the one that is designed by this third party company, they designed it so each one is outputting the same amount of power so you can charge really, really fast.

Mhm. Okay.

When we mapped this whole place, we were cooked up to my pickout trying to charge

Yeah. with the controller and it wasn't keeping up. But you remember probably wasn't enough output into the controller to for it was probably burning more battery than it was inputting is what was going on.

Getting the generator.

Well, we switched to the generator. Yeah.

because it was charging it faster.

Yeah, it was charging faster.

That makes sense. That makes sense. Yep.

Okay. So, now that we've got our map here, we need to first create our boundary.

Right. So, we need to make sure that we're selected on our orthomosaic layer. If it's ever just gone, just click on this orthomosaic layer. It highlights around blue and we'll select it. Right. So, we want to create this area to spray.

So, we'll first go to

Yep. We'll go to this operation and oh wait, not the operation uh boundary. Sorry. We'll click on boundary. So we can select it and then we'll create our boundary here and go just to the other side. We want to go to the other side.

Yeah, just got just a couple on the other side of the road.

But what about the power line?

No, no, stay stay like there. You go right there.

Well, the power line comes right here.

Yeah. Okay. So, it does need to go on the other side of the power line. Just on the other side of the power line. So I can tell you're right where that power line is. I see where it is. Right there.

Oh, no. That's one of our blue things. So So yeah. So that's one of our blue things. So we need to be on this this side a little bit more. Like here like here.

Power line is right here.

Well, we've got to make the boundary for the power line. You can still pick out these these plants for the orthamosaic, but the boundary has got to be on this side of the

Oh, okay. Okay. take power out.

So, I'm just making a path.

Right up against it cuz I can see the pole is right here.

Right there. Yeah. And I can see actually see the power lines right here.

Yes. Yes. So, that's a shadow.

Yep. Which makes it look like a pole. So that's the pole, the short one. And that's

Yep. And the power power line is right here. Yep.

Now, it is a bit distorted, and that's okay.

Yeah, we learned about the distortion. I want to keep going a little a little more here. or something just like that. That looks good.

Okay. So, now we just hit return or Oh, it's the check.

Yes. with the check. Okay, there's our boundary. We'll just call it boundary here.

Sounds good. Save. And then we want to create some obstacles. Right.

Mhm. So, open this up. Select obstacle. And I just want to give this a bit of a bounding here. Just a or a buffer.

Sure. Right. Blue.

Okay. We'll create another one here. And then another one here. And now I want to do for the power lines. So, we know that we are going to launch from here.

H Yeah, cuz if we're going to launch from here and there's this obstacle, I probably want to get rid of this cuz we can change that offset. We can manually override the offset for how high it goes. So, why don't we just delete? Yeah, I agree

this short anyway because it'll go here.

Mhm. But we do want to put in these power lines. I will just create it just like this. right up against it. Cool. Call this power. Okay. So now we've created our obstacles and where we want to spray.

Mhm. Right. So now we can click X. We will do the magic tool. And this is where we define our cell size. But we also want to well before we do the cell size, we want to make sure our boundary is selected. Our source layer is ortho. If it ever looks like this, we we have to do for the source layer. It's a drop down. We'll click on orthomosaic. and bring it bring us back to here. We'll make sure a boundary there could be multiple boundaries if you're doing different parts of the field. Then we want all of our obstacles to be selected. So rather than checking each box, you click the three dots, select all. Now all three of them are selected. So we can click continue. Now this is where we define our cell size. This is how we start using the software to really pick out these weeds. Now, I know that this is going to be tough to pick out.

Can I mention something?

Yes. You want to take this boundary off right now because some of the some of the uh

blue is in it.

Is in that, right? Or the boundary small.

I didn't even think. Now just take the boundary out for now and then you can go back and put it in afterwards so that the magic tool can at least pick out the weeds. Go to boundary. There you go.

Um well we're not spraying over here. Correct.

Right. But we found weeds in that point to make the prescription.

I see. Then I would need to reset the boundary that I created to all the way over here to be included into that.

So that it but we took a picture.

We did over here.

But we're only doing our flying over here. Correct.

Right. Yeah. Can you Can we make our boundary all the way over here? Then after it picks them all out, come back and redo the boundary afterwards.

Trim.

Trim it. Trim is just going to do this.

Well, I think I think so. Click. Oh, shoot. Where's the No, hit the edit button.

There's no way to hide it. I can just read it later. for boundary.

Yeah, it'll just trim it to here. So, trim.

We'll go to the magic tool. We'll select these other tool two obstacles. Click continue. And now we get into our cell size and we should see the cells over here. Yep. So, right now we're set at 1.6 six feet per cell. And those triangles are here.

And if we remember, it was between 3 and 1/2 to 6 in.

5 and 12 inches. Yeah.

I see it. Is that it right there?

That's it. But it does look like everything else.

Yeah, unless we knew what to look for. So this is set to 0.5. So we're not going to see anything less than.5. The computer won't

half a foot. We also have these other tools here to rotate ourselves if we wanted to. See how they're moving?

Mhm. So if we wanted to put it like that, I'm just going to put the offset back to zero. Well, um, we can try this and see what it does.

Did we select that? Uh,

not yet. We needed to create the cells to divide everything else to divide it all out. Um, and then from there is when we can do the wants and the not.

Yep. The yellows and the blues. By the way, what did you think of the Texas barbecue that you had here?

Were you just looking at that? I just looked at that, too. It was good. It was really good. Yeah, they they do have really good barbecue.

Shout out to tech to Tyler's barbecue.

It was really good. I will say I did have some stuff in in uh Kansas two years ago.

Oh, yeah. it was pretty good. It's always it's it's Kansas, Texas, and what's the third state? I'd say Missouri.

Missouri. Okay. Tennessee's got some good barbecue. Memphis ribs.

That's That's what I heard. Memphis ribs.

Style ribs. It's like that soul food over there, right?

North Carolina. South Carolina.

Yeah. I have a great uncle who used to own a barbecue place and it was really good in North Carolina, Charlotte area. Wing So, there is actually a little warning down here. It says smaller cell sizes degrade selection performance. If possible, use a larger cell size or acquire higher resolution data. Um, that's where a camera like a 45 megapixel on an M300 or that 60 megapixel on that VTOL would come into play because you could fly at like 100 ft and still get higher resolution than what you did just did at 60 ft. Um, that way you don't have to make your cell sizes so small because the resolution is going to be so high for it. just got a text asking what direction do we need to point the Starlink at.

North. He just texted back. Got it. these uh people that just texted me, they're they're actually up in North Carolina right now at their cabin and they have a Starlink there that they only activate when they go there.

Very nice. I've got that down. It's just all as easy as a Starlink. You just plug it in and point it north. That's all you do.

So, I guess now we get to pick our wanted. So, this will be interesting.

Yeah, I think it's Yeah, that one. So, the wanted is what the drone sprays.

Correct. What we want the drone to spray cuz it's right there.

Yeah, probably here. Oh, it's this spot. Some of them are are are the size of I don't see it.

I'm going assume they try to pick the middle and then there's a bunch of blue. You'll see blue going across on the road. It's like this is the road, right? So there like there's Yeah. So just to the north of it is where there's

Oh, see it didn't it didn't make it over here. It only put it inside here for the boundary. I figured it was going to do that. Well, now we know.

Yeah, that's why I was trying to say go to the other side of the road, but we couldn't because of Well, the boundary is going to make it as part of the drone flight,

right? Yeah. Yeah, this is definitely a needle in a haststack game. Oh, that's a perfect one right there.

Is that one right there? I think that's just like a rock. I mean, ideally, we spray all the um because how can the drone spray that one weed when it's surrounded by all this crab grass?

Well, there's also that 30 foot w. So, it's going to get it's not going to spot spray it like that. It's just going to do an area. an area

spot. Okay, there's another one there. I see one right there.

And I'm going really fast. And we're pretty much all the way down at this pixel level. I remember. Yeah, there's some more over there to the left. Oh, that's where we started. There we go. Yeah, there's a little cluster of them. Okay, I think we picked out it's 24 of them. So, not wanted. And when you do three

Oh, there you go. That's the problem.

Yeah. Not See, it's picking out all the green, isn't it? Wanted is almost everything.

Yeah. And there's no way, like you said, with the swath and everything, that the drone won't spray just everything. I'm I'm curious at the wanted I can't even find them now cuz it's all blended.

Let's go. Here we go. I mean, it is selected. I wasn't too hopeful for this, but yeah, let's just pick straight dirt. See what that does. I just pick straight dirt. It's like a perfect square right there. You see that?

Yeah, we're trying to go to such a granular level. Mhm. You just can't pick that up, can you?

I think this is going to do more well with bigger plants. Mhm. Rather than weeds and weeds, we just do a full application of it, but we can be more precise. Even though I'm adding a bunch of not wanted, it's still It's interesting that you can see the shapes of everything. Mhm. Yeah, that's what I mean. Like I mean you Yeah.

Yeah. I don't know. I don't know either.

Well, we'll just go to the cleanup. We'll just call this as is because there's not really much that Oops. That's not what I meant to do.

They're everywhere. Yeah. Not able to depict the different weave that. Well, we were

I didn't think it was. Yeah. Call this RX.

So, yeah. Once once we finish with our annotation, we're going to switch over. We'll call this an operation. We'll do RX. um weed trial since this is our weed trial. Click convert. We'll do gallons an acre. We'll click continue. And now we have all these. Well, technically it is in all the spots that I want it to be in. So, we wanted to put what? One gallon, right? and we'll feather it out.

I agree. That's what we have. Let's just see how that works.

Cuz it's pretty much getting all the uh So then the purple is where it will spray.

It will probably be spraying over this too cuz there's some dots in there, right? This is Yep. Okay.

And then the green. So like these rows here, it will spray and then it won't spray and then it'll spray the purple and not spray the empty with a new rate.

So what we can do is we can add everything that's not filled. We can give it a new rate and we can maybe do like.1 gallon cuz we still probably want it to spray a little bit on top.

Okay. I'm just making an assumption here, right? That way it does drop down and it's not using so much material. Mhm. So it looks like this.

Mhm. So once we're happy, we go to export, right?

Well, we'll want to add it one more boundary in here.

Oh, that's right. That's right. We need to put back the the power line. Yep. So we'll get our obstacle here.

Good memory. And we'll do just right at the edge of it just to give us a buffer cuz we do have a swath. So

yeah. So then overlapping the boundary and the obstacles. You can do that.

Correct. Cool. Call this power. Honestly, I'm just going to delete this red tractor. We're just going to offset it to fly higher.

Did it work?

There it goes. Okay. So, now we go to the Okay. And we'll click on export with our operation selected. We'll click operation.

Click okay. So we'll have the operation that is selected that we want with our boundary and we need to switch over to DJI aggression.

What does V stand for?

I don't what works. So we're going to put it 12 ft and I think this was 26 feet spray width.

Mhm. We'll click continue. We have everything created and it has our partial nofly areas.

We'll click export. We're going to go now back into our file structure. So, Barnhill for the client, their property, the field, the date, and just select the date. Click open. And we'll see it creates a DJI folder.

Mhm. So, now that that is done, we'll want to grab an SD card, an empty one for the Agris drone. So, let's get uh they have Eagle set up. And I wonder if it's still in here. That it is. Okay. So, the micro SD card for the spray drone.

Now, do you need the guys in here for all this now? Is this like

um Well, you'll be the one who's inputting it for them. So, you'll give this file to them and this will also be documented here.

So, now the prescription file is now on here.

Okay. So, we're going to take the SD card out that was from the drone. That's mine, right? and we'll get the one that's for the spray drone and put that in. Okay, we can minimize Pix40 fields. We can open up our untitled.

And the untitled is the one you just put in.

Yep. And I'm just going to delete everything in here.

Okay. now with nothing in this untitled folder. And now we're back again. Our client where their field is, what field it is, the southeast and the date.

We have that DJI folder.

We're just going to copy this DJI folder. So I'm going to hit control C or you can two finger click on it and click on copy. on the untitled. We're just going to paste commandV or you'll paste it just that folder because in it it'll have our prescription and our shape.

So now we're ready to import onto the DJI Aggress controller.

And at the end of the day, that's taking this putting it into the hand. So to safely eject it, we'll click on the eject button next to the untitled. And then now we're good to go. Okay.

Uh we don't need the drone on just yet. So, we've already created our prescription file. We've already gone ahead and put it onto the micro SD card that is going to go directly onto the Aggress controller here. So, with the controller booted on, we're already connected to the internet, which is why everything is green. We will go through that process though because we need to make sure that it is properly set up for our RTK flight. But all we're doing right now is just importing our actual prescription onto the controller. So with the micro SD, it's going to go into this port that says micro SD with these pins facing towards you into the slot and it'll kind of click in. As soon as you click it in, it'll say SD card inserted. So, if you don't see that, it may go away and you'll see just a little SD card icon that folds in. There's two ways to access that. You can either click on the SD card here and it'll take you into it or you can click on the folder icon in the top left and you'll see an item that says micro SD card. Right. So we first have our task. We want to import the task. That's our entire boundary that includes all the obstacles. We'll select the bottom one that that doesn't have the underscore. We'll click import. Then the second thing is our actual prescription. So let's select prescription map. And it's the same thing. It's that second file. And we'll click import. Now here before just clicking yes, we need to select other. Even though we're flying on a DJI drone, this is just the way you import it so that it has the correct gallons per acre for what whatever was set for basically that flow rate will be imported properly. So we'll click other. We'll click HA max value and then yes. Now it's imported. So from there we can click this back button or the X to bring us back to the home dashboard. on here. We'll click on begin. It'll bring us to the map. Now, if you see all of these other um boundary areas, this is from other projects that you've done. So, if you want to get rid of that, that way you don't get confused and select the wrong one. In order to remove that, we're going to go back to the home screen. So, we'll click on the back button here. We're going to go back into our folder. And these are all these different tasks or these different boundaries that were set. So what I can do I can select and we'll I'm just going to select all of these and remove them so that we don't get confused on what's what. Right.

Remove and how.

Okay. Removing forever. Correct. Do you want to save these ones?

They're those two I'd like to save.

Okay. Right. And then these are the ones that we've done for the last few days here. Correct.

So, we'll just delete those. You can also save these to the cloud, but that's a different different thing.

Okay. Are you about to delete the one we're about to fly?

Yep. And I'm going to reimpport it. That way. Yep. So, if you've ever run into this, you're like, "Oh, wait. Where did it just go?" Well, remember we just put it. It's still on the SD card. It isn't deleted. It imports. So, it makes a copy of it.

So, we'll click delete. Okay. We can go back to our micro SD card at the top and we'll reselect that task. We already have that prescription imported. We just need that task back. So once it's selected, we'll click on import. Okay. Now we can click X, go to begin, and now we'll only see just that area. So now we need to select it. We're going to click use, which is the R3 or the button on the uh controller here. Okay. Now that that's selected, we also need to import our prescription. So before you do anything else, we're going to click there's a little folder with a plus button right next to this little green and it may not be green. Just we'll click this icon here. And there's our prescription. Here's the one that we just imported. When we select it, we need to make sure that we click yes. If you ever want to deselect a prescription because you want to make some adjustments, you click back on that folder and you just tap that again. See, selected, deselected, right? So, if you want to unselect it, there it's gone. Now, you just have the field. So, we'll go back and reselect our prescription and we'll click yes. So, now we have our application rate that's already baked in. We have two different applications that's going to be applied. We we just created a one gallon per acre and then a 0.1 gallon per acre. So I actually did an operation where we filled all the other cells. Instead of it being blank and having it do nothing, we set it to 0.1 gallon because we probably still want to apply a weed application on everything but not at the full gallon rate. That way we're conserving.

Can I ask a question?

Yes. Go back to where you clicked the prescription rate. So go back or Yeah, there we go. Uh, cancel.

Oh, you want to deselect it, right?

Right. Yep. So, we'll click on it and we'll just tap it again.

Okay. And then we want to make sure we click yes so that it goes away.

Okay. So, we want to bring it in. Selected. That was 3:15. So, that was the yes yesterday's. I just wanted to know what that other RX

Yep. And I didn't delete that. So, if we wanted to delete all the prescriptions, the way we do that is we go back to the home. We'll click on the folder icon and we'll go to the prescriptions. And we can see there's two in there. So, if I select this guy, the that second one that you saw, and delete it. Now, I go back to my map, right? I'll select my area. I'll click use. I'll click on the folder again. Now, there's only one prescription showing. So to select it,

that's a very good point right there that whenever we're making that prescription and you're putting it in there, this could be that field out there that in early spring we've got a a herbicide that we're putting onto it. So, it we might need to start labeling that prescription herbicide because you might want to come back again at a later date and put a prescription fungicide on it.

Does that make sense, John?

Well, that's why it's important to label every single prescription, right? But it's like if you were to go and whatever prescription you need to get from the doctors and it, you know, you start off at a,000 milligrams, but they need to ease you off onto 250 milligrams, but they accidentally give you a,000 again. Well, there's a problem.

There's a problem. Same thing out here. So, we've got our prescription set. We'll click yes. This is where we can now go through your regular configurations such as your spray droplet size. You can change the micron. Obviously, you know about that. um your flight speed in feet per second, the height and the route spacing. Um so we just put in 12 and then 20 I guess 26.47 for route spacing. Obviously you can adjust that here if you're not happy with it. You'll probably want to adjust it anyways because when the prescription is created, it's created then. But this allows you to fine-tune it. Maybe it's high winds that day, maybe it's low winds, right? So you go here and do the finetuning. That's pretty much it for loading it on. Now, let's actually go and get the drone set up for the workflow that you guys are going to do. So, this is where again when you guys first get out on site, the first thing that goes on is the controller. The Starling, then.

Perfect. Then the controller.

The controller. So, we've already gone through that process earlier this morning with Donna's flight of that's on, that's on, and then the troubleshooting. It's the exact same workflow. Um, now we want to make sure that RTK is working. So, we go boot the drone on. So, I'll go let you do that. Controller is already on, too.

It's probably not signed in, but it it probably isn't. So, we'll go through that process, too. We can see that RTK mode is turned on and it's going to give us all of these different auditory notifications.

Now, remember how I told you guys if everything's already preconfigured, it's automatically going to work. We've got the green light here on the RTK, right? But if that was not working, right, your workflow is going to be Starlink emlid emlid on. Once it's all set up, then the drone obviously controller first. You want to go into your settings. So, if you're on the homepage, right, your settings is is right here.

Well, you'll probably just you'll just click on begin.

Even if you're not even if the drone isn't on, but you do want the drone on in order to get the RTK configured. So, you'll click on the settings on the top right. You'll select where it says RTK. it. This RTK positioning needs to be turned on. Otherwise, you won't see all that other information.

So, we'll turn that on.

And you want to make sure that your RTK signal source where you want to receive everything, not DRTK2, but custom network. And then in the custom network, again, you guys will have your emlid will tell you what the mount point needs to be. We'll get it configured underneath reads account, but these two items at the top will be the same. Caster.lid.com mlid.com and then port 21101. Username and password will be given to you alongside with the mount point. Right? So that's a di diagnosis. If this isn't working and everything is connected, you will need to check on the emlid what mount point it's set to. That way you have the right mount point on here. And it, like I said, it's that same process that we went through this morning. So it's it's very redundant to ensure that we actually do have RTK right. It gives us this information here for orientation for the aircraft and the positioning. It's the positioning that we care about for that fix. See how on the left side these coordinates are changing and on the right side it's not. This is the coordinates of the base station. It shouldn't be moving but the drone is right. It's recal. It's recalculating everything. Everything else on here will be set. Right. So, because we recycled everything, I'm going to click back on the area that we want to fly.

We'll click use. We need to import our prescription. So, that folder again, and there's that prescription that we have. With it selected, you'll see the little green check next to it. We'll click yes or R3. Now, everything is in. Now, let's say that you need to fly over an obstacle, right? when you go on this start. Right. Yes. Right now it's telling us it's exceeded. That's okay. Um the default setting for it to take off, right? So we have our operation of what it's going to do when it's flying, but then we need our flight, right? So obviously this is a flat land over here. And then our connection routing in return to home speed. So, how fast it's going to fly as well as the altitude. Let's say that there is a 32 ft obstacle obstacle in front of the path of where the drone is going to go. Obviously, that's not the case here, but let's simulate. Let's pretend that there's something that is that high in front of it. Everything is grayed out here, right?

If you want to override it, you can override it. The way to overwrite is by clicking back in the settings on the top right and then on the aircraft tab. See where our routing is? Connection routing and return to home altitude. By default, it'll probably be here at 30 ft, right? Let's say we want to override it. So 32 ft obstacle, we'll keep adding. So it's going to go to 43 ft. It'll go 10 ft higher than that obstacle. And we can also change the routing speed. It's by default 10 ft per second. Here we have it to 22 feet per second.

Awesome. So, this is how you overwrite it. Make sure you go here before here cuz this is the default. To override it, you just go into the settings aircraft, set the connection, routing, and RTH speed, and then the connection routing and RTH altitude. And if we go higher than 22 feet per second, it potentially takes the obstacle avoidance off of that drone.

It just limits its capability. It limits its capability. So we should always have that set if we want to do it as fast as possible at 22.

Yep. So I assume we're happy with the settings that we have here and we're ready to fly. So this is the flight operation. Maybe we do want to turn on obstacle bypass.

Obstacle bypassing enabled.

Okay. And then the operation. This all look good. Maybe faster for the flight speed, right? For the operation.

We've we've overridden to 22. No. No. So that's the that's its connecting to and coming back. But it's actual flight. Yeah.

So that should be set at 26 feet per second. Okay. They took it. Okay. 12. That's it.

And we've overrid that to 22. And we can verify that one more time.

Yep. Okay.

All right. So, we're good to fly. Yes, sir.

Okay. Um, props are extended. The boom arms are locked, right?

Yes. And the lid is on.

Yes. Okay, ready to fly.

Resume. And obviously we have our chemical inside our water.

Yep. So now we'll click on resume here and press and hold.

Aircraft preparing to take off. Stand back at a safe distance. 43 ft.

Yep. Then we can verify that right here. Altitude kind of went 43, but yeah. And then it should drop down to 12 once it gets on the other side. And we have our camera that we can watch as well. And there it goes. So it is spraying right now. We can see our flow rate at one gallon per minute. We can even zoom in. And as it gets over some of the bluer areas, it should drop the flow rate. It should.

So, it is dropping it a little bit. Well, there's some green there underneath it.

Yep. And that's probably why it's affecting it. So, it's interesting. It is going to pop over. And this is why I like to also have kind of my finger near this pause button. So, it's going to come close. Oh, no, it's not. Oh, it's a different flight path. There it goes. So obviously that wind is affecting its uh its spray, right?

So maybe we change the um droplet size to something more coarse and apply. That helped. It is going more down now. And that is the boundary right where Reed is. Now you see the bypassing.

Yeah. See how it rose up cuz it's saw read. Yep.

That's because of him, right? Yep. Maybe we make it even very coarse and apply there. Now it's even more straight down. But it will be using probably more. Oh yeah. So you saw the the flow rate drop a little bit. Very minute. I mean there's a lot of green spots. So it is going to be hitting those green spots. There it is. Well, it's turning. It doesn't spray when it turns. There is a button you can click to make it spray when it turns. There you go. It's dropping down there. Point four.

Oh, yeah. Perfect. Exactly as designed. So, So, we'll see how much further it comes in.

Yeah, that's exactly where it was supposed to go. Watch. It'll beep in the yellow. Yep. That's 40 30 ft.

Purple. Did it just a little bit? I know it didn't. Yeah, that's as designed. So that's feet. 45 ft right there. Yeah.

So it actually will come one pass in, but we have plenty of space. Yep. So it's going to come one pass in, but it's not going to go as far.

Did y'all put a boundary there?

I did, but this didn't come in close enough. How many feet does it say in there? Obstacle detected above aircraft.

Above aircraft of caution. Yep. And that's as far as it's supposed to go. And you see on the map here, it didn't spray that section there.

Okay. But yeah, that's right where it went to. That's as far as it was supposed to go. Did you just turn it?

No, this is all automated. Yeah.

Okay. So So it wasn't the line wasn't directly with the It was off center just to tell.

Correct. Yep. Gotcha. I see it now triangle. Okay.

Yep. Did you plan it that way, Dylan?

That's how it automated it. Yeah, but I actually I did bring the boundary around. You can see where I brought the boundary around cuz I was trying to follow this but also have a bit of an offset.

GNSS RTK. It's okay. You know why I would do something? It h that happens sometimes.

Yeah. So sometimes it may flicker out of RTK, but that's okay. It's not going to stop your mission. Yeah. It'll come back. There you go. It's pretty Yep. We're going to pretty straightforward. Your process should be way faster than Donna's.

She has a much longer workflow than what you guys have. Yes, she does. But there's still the integrity that you guys when you come out here are just checking things.

Make sure. Yep. And even with this map here. Now, the one thing I want to start implementing. Yeah. So, our flow rate should be pretty low right here.

Battery level. So, yeah. 3 cuz I set it. But the green is right there. Puts it back up.

Cool. So, now this should go up to 43 ft or 40.

40. Yeah. Perfect. I'm glad it went even a little higher. I'm happy it goes higher than than lower. But there we go. Now we're coming back. And that was because of battery life, not because of the tank.

Right. Yeah. We got almost eight gallons left. And theoretically, we should land right back on that dot.

Yeah. And even if it's 6 in difference, I'm okay with that. I'm okay with the spraying.

I'm more so thinking about your uh your trailer cuz you're landing on the trailer. Unless you don't feel comfortable with the trailer and you want to just land laying on the ground.

I uh I'm more concerned with power lines. Yep. That is right on the spot.

So, it should take a second. Yep. RTK is back. This is your show.

Well, we're not on camera anymore, so I guess anybody can play. What the hell?

Okay. Why is that? Did you put that on there?

It's It's recording. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Okay. So, I should be able to hit resume, right? Pedestrian obstacle.

It's probably just sensing her. No, it's sensing your camera.

Can I force it or no?

No, it won't let me force it. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, it will. Pedestrian too close in front of aircraft. Check promptly. Take off. Aircraft on ground.

Yeah, right back at 40 40 ft. So that might be a mental note to take of of hey you want 43 ft it will come back at 43 ft but for whatever reason it's not sending at 40. Well, and let me tell y'all also the other mental note to make on on this with the obstacles as as you can see this drone. Uh let's say we were flying this whole thing. If it's way over there, it doesn't come back over here to land.

It comes straight. It comes straight. So that's the other kind of mental note. Find your biggest obstacle and make that your your height. Your height.

You can also manually override it, too. So, you can manually override the flight off the flight. Yeah. When it's coming back, you can actually take full manual. So, also take that into consideration if you bump it when it's coming back.

That's going to take that input even if it was a misinput. I don't know if you noticed when you were out there. Did you notice it fly higher?

No, it didn't. when it come came by you sensed you it it beeped at us and went and then it sensed you down the was that obstacle bypassing cuz it'll bypass it.

Now did you leave that tractor as an op obstacle or Yes, he he put that tractor as but because it's not in the mission plan it didn't show on there. That's why.

Well, I thought that a corner of it was in the was in the boundary. Well, I don't Yeah, maybe a corner corner of it was in the boundary, I think.

Oh, I can get after it. All right, so it's been a few hours since I last picked up the camera, but we pretty much just went through the entire workflow once again with the Tech Aag drone team. They've been phenomenal to work with uh over the last few days. Today is actually my last day here uh with them. Uh back at my hotel. It is now 7:00, but uh it's a Sunday. I got here uh Wednesday late at night and went straight to work basically Thursday all the way through until today. The first 3 days was just a lot of discovery, a lot of training, a lot of really understanding what their problems were. They described it to me on the phone when I was talking to Reed and then they immediately pretty much booked my flight up here um alongside with the rental car from New Mexico because I was with Aaron uh the pre uh well earlier this past week uh working out in like I said New Mexico. And uh really the whole point of me being here was to help them understand how to do the precision a or the precision portion of their precision a business. They had gone the spraying down. They've already been doing it for the last year, but this year, uh, pretty much they want to do the precision side of it. So, having highly accurate maps, highly accurate models to work off of to be able to have their drones do the prescription spraying, whether it's on feed lots, whether it's on their farmlands of of the flat farmlands, and then pretty much everything else in between. And there's some other uh workflows and some other uh business services within the spraying side of things that we also talked about that they could leverage this technology for. Now, this is really the first time that they have ever used maps. They bought the DJI Mavic 3 multisspectral to be able to integrate into their workflow because before all they had been doing was creating maps or really mission plans by hand with old satellite imagery on their Agress drones. Now, some of the biggest issues of doing that is not understanding the anomalies on site such as power lines, uh, the barns, and even to the tractors that exist out there. And then maybe even some unknown anomalies given that it's the panhandle of Texas. Well,

One of the main things that people know Texas for is oil and gas. Whether it's oil or natural gas, right? They have the pumps that are out on the sites, the refineries, the midstream segments of it. I'm kind of butchering some of the terminology, but you you get the point. Um, so they have all these different anomalies on site where if you're not building your mission plans properly, specifically on the A drones, you're going to run into these things. So they wanted to start incorporating for the 2025 seasons of the the grow seasons alongside with the feed lots, they wanted to incorporate the maps to be able to integrate into their workflow, but also use Pix 4D fields to their to do their prescription spraying. So, me being out here understanding their workflows for the last few days and helping them build out a workflow that works alongside with using the Emlid, using the Starlink to get that centimeter level of accuracy in the trajectory, the flying, and even the spraying is exactly what they were achieving. And given that today is the fourth day where we put everything into practice, we did a little bit the day prior, just didn't really film much. Um, but today on Sunday, we filmed and captured and did the entire process and they loved it. They feel comfortable. They are in a much better place to start applying this at a mass scale given that they now have seven a drones and now one mapping drone. They are ready to uh to hit the feed lots, to hit the farms they're doing here in Amarillo, out uh northeast Texas, outside of uh Dallas, and in Albuquerque uh New Mexico. It's a really cool venture that I've been a part of. Again, this is kind of a two-part series of me doing consulting. Given that this was doing some training alongside with the consulting with my clients, um did the same thing with Aaron. They are in a much better place. They're much happier. And like I said, this is the other part of being in the drone service industry. Providing consulting like what I did here is exactly what they looked for. But that is uh that's pretty much it for this episode. Hopefully you liked it and I've got some cool stuff coming up here very shortly in the future. So stay tuned for those next episodes.

Drone Pilot Insider Uncut. Hey guys, welcome back to another Drone Pilot Insider Uncut episode. We are doing LAR again. And uh this is actually pretty cool. This is a client that I have not heard from in over 4 years. Uh, funny enough, this is the first client that I ever got in the commercial drone space doing progress monitoring on their sites using a Mavic 2 Pro and Phantom 4 Pro V2 with Drone Deploy. Uh, this is this is the client that pretty much gave me the opportunity in the start just into this industry. So, um, with that in regards, uh, so with that being said, what am I doing for them? Well, I just mentioned that I'm going to be flying LAR. Um, and this was an ASAP call. So, uh, few episodes ago, you saw that I was in New Mexico and in Texas. Uh, well, they actually emailed me when I was out in Texas saying, "Hey, uh, do you still do drone services?" Because since then, I had changed emails about twice, but still had their phone number. They texted me and um they gave me the site. It's about uh about 25 minutes uh from where I'm at um here at my office. So, very convenient. Um but yeah, we're actually doing a full LAR process for them. So, I will send you over I I'll talk about the contract here um when I get back. Um but I'm giving them a discount compared to what I would typically charge for a client. I think I'm charging them 14 about $1,500. For a project like this, I would charge anywhere from $2,000 to $2,500. I'll explain a little bit later with my pricing calculator that I have built out, which you guys have seen before, but it's also going to be in the contract um that I'll send over to. Now, the reason why I'm giving them a discount is this is a this is a loyal uh customer of mine. Again, I haven't heard from them in four years. And uh I think now that they know that I'm back here uh stable and I have a uh a headquarters cuz before the last four years I've been really all over the place. Um it's been a little difficult to do some projects. Uh so anyways, we're flying the M350 with the L2 and uh we're going to be actually processing it. So I'm going to walk you guys through my entire processing workflow. We're going to be using LP3 to get highly accurate data and then we're going to be using RockCloud to generate our deliverables. They just need some contours and a too. So, we'll look at what that looks like. And in the contract, I actually have built out uh the pricing for it of what it's going to cost. Um so, they're paying for the uh the data processing, too. Um yeah, no, super super excited to uh to work with them. However, the only issue is uh I didn't realize that my drone is still at my house, actually at my parents house. I dropped it off there um because they took me to the airport um about two weeks ago from when I'm filming this uh cuz I came from Atlanta. I had a workshop I was hosting. So, yeah. Uh the only thing that was here are uh my batteries, which is right here, and the L2, which I have right there. I got to run to uh my parents house to go grab the drone. Um, and my rover pole and bipod is already in the truck. Um, but my ground control uh targets are also at my parents house. So, I got to go pick those up before I go out to the site. Um, so yeah, gonna run there real quick, grab what I need, and then we'll hop on the computer um at the actual project site itself to show you exactly what it is that we're doing, walk you through my mission plan, and uh show you how easy it is to execute all of this in quite frankly a short amount of time. So, let's get into this episode.

So actually one of the things that I want to do before I go out into the field given that I want to have good observations basically a good base setting for my Emlet Reach RS3 because as always with LAR um I want to have good control. Now, given that this site they weren't able to give me the survey files themselves, was actually, let me go ahead and pull up um the control book that they sent over, which it's actually not a control book. Um where's it at here? Um they had issues that they couldn't get the control book from the survey, but they do have the survey that was done. Um so, let me show you guys here what that looks like. It looks like they want me to just open it as a PDF here. Okay. So, I'm going to share my screen real quick. So, uh this is the entire survey of the site. And if we scroll down, we can see uh right here. Let me move my camera on the other side. This is the entire survey that we're looking at. The only issue is that I don't have any of the boundary um north and easting and elevations. Um they only give me a line table and a curved table which that doesn't that doesn't do anything for me. And unfortunately my client wasn't able to give me the control book. So what I'm going to be doing for them is actually creating uh my own quote unquote controls from the site. Um, I'm going to be referencing using the FPRN network, which that's the free network that exists here um in the state of Florida. And actually on this uh this sheet here as part of the project DATIM um if I scroll in or zoom in, I should say, we can see the project DATM right here. They give me the horizontal um with the bearings and coordinates and survey feet. It says are based on a national geodetic survey and GS state plane coordinates Florida west zone North American datim 1983 2011 adjustment. They use the Florida permanent reference network the FPRN. And then it shows um which specific ones were used. So I'm going to be using the exact same thing whenever I create um the ground controls. And then in addition to that, I want to set up my base station on a known point, a known marker. Given that they didn't send me over a control book, what I had to do was first here is the site that I'm going to. So, it's this uh this big open area right here that I'm flying. So, I needed to find an NGS mark that was nearby. So, what I did was I copied um I just took a an address that was nearby because this place isn't developed yet. Copied the address. I went into NGS map and it basically brought me over here. Now, what I'm specifically looking for is if I pull up my legend here, which you'll see right above, I'm looking for a combined control. I want both a horizontal, so my X and Y, and a vertical, my Z. Uh, reason why that's important is I need to set my base station, my Emily Reach RS3 on a known point. And I need both the horizontal and the vertical. And if we see here, we have one called Apollo A. And then I have uh Humphre here. So Apollo A looks pretty promising. So if we click on it, we'll get over to this passive mark page. The way that we do that is we click on Apollo A. And I'm going to use this third link right here where it says more info and it brings me over to this Apollo A. Now given that this wasn't used in an up-to-date DATIM, which I can see this position DATIM was done on NAD 83 1990, not 1993 or not uh 2011. I want a 2011. And we're also missing an elliptical height. Now, it does say that it was found, right? We do have all of these photos here that we can uh zip through. Yes, I know that this uh marker exists. However, I don't have an elliptical height, and I don't want to take a guess either. So, what's cool is on this passive mark page, we can scroll down, and here's the map of it, and it looks like there's another one nearby. It also shows you other nearby marks. So, I want to use a point source and a vertical source, both adjusted, and it looks like the condition is good. So, if I hover over this one is Humphre. So, I open that in a new page, and there we go. We have NAT 83 for 2011 for our position datim. We have an elliptical height. We do have a vertical datim in navd88 and I have all my information here. So um I wanted to get all of this data to be able to automatically input into the emlid reach RS3. So what I did was I clicked on data sheet here. It opened up this massive sheet that we see um on this page here. And what I'm going to take is my position. So, my northing, my westing, and my elliptical height that I have right here. The way that we're going to input that is I'm going to open up the Emlid Flow application that we have right here. And I'll just restart this from scratch so you can see exactly what I did. I'm going to click on a new project. This is the same application uh that I have on my phone, except I pay for the subscription. So, I can do it both on the computer and then it'll automatically sync to my mobile device. Um, you don't have to do this. So, I could literally set this up on the phone, but I'm going to just call this uh we'll call it Humphre. I'm just going to do V2. We need to make sure that we set up the coordinate system correctly. Now, this is not the coordinate system that I'm going to be using. Let me move my camera over a little bit more. This is not the coordinate system that I'm going to be using to set my ground controls. This is just the coordinate system that I'm inputting um into the base station so it knows where it lives in the real world. So, on here, we're going to go to the coordinate systems. We're going to choose from library. I am going to look for Florida West. Now, we notice there's two of them here. We have Florida West foot US and then just Florida West. This top one is in metric because if we go back to our data sheet, everything here is in meters. So, we need to be sure that we input this in meters. Going back to Emily Flow, we want to make sure that we choose our vertical datam and it's going to be our nav d88 go8 height. I also know that because if we go back to our passive mark page, we can see that the goid model right here is in goid 18. So we will select that guy, hit apply, and make sure our linear units is in meters and we'll click create project. Now we want to create a point. So we'll click on the plus button here. We'll click add a point. And we have two different options here at how we can add it in. I'm just going to go to uh DMS for uh degrees uh minutes and seconds. And we will first start. Um the way I'll do this, I'm going to drag this over to the right. And I will bring in my data sheet. Let's move this over a little bit more. Let's start with our longitude. So, it's going to be this position right here. So, we're going to type in 82.23.2. 27.20960. Then our latitude we're going to type in which is right here. We'll type in 27.45.55.83875. And then finally this elliptical height we want to put that down here as -21.413. We'll give it a point name. I like to call it nail because that's where we're going to input um onto the emllet. It's also going to be the same process for when we're processing it um in LP3. So, we will click create point. I'm just going to refresh this page here. And if we scroll out, so the way we're going to do this is we're going to create a new point. We'll click add a point. I'm just going to call this nail master. We're going to go to DMS and we'll start with the longitude which is this guy right here. So we will type in 82.23.37.20 20960. Then we'll type in 27.45.55.83 875. I got that from right here. And then finally, we'll type in our ellipsoidal height, which is this guy right here. So we'll type in -2 1 413 create the point. And there we go. So to reference and make sure that this is where the point was actually set. If we go back to our NGS map page and let's switch this over to a imagery and we look at where Humphre is. Well, that looks pretty much the same spot, which it should be because we imported it properly. So, now that we have this uh imported properly, we can now go out into the field. Obviously, still need to go pick up the drone um and uh my aerial targets. Um but this is actually really the last thing that we do. We first need to go on site to set ground control points. We'll do that. Then, we'll get the base station set up. So, let's uh let's meet you out there.

set up the control points out here. Again, the surveyor wasn't able to or the company that I'm working with was not able to send over the control book. So, I told them that I will be able to get within the margin of error that they need in order for this LAR uh aerial survey. Again, I know the word survey can be get you in some trouble. Uh but I explained it to them that I can't certify the data that I'm providing to them. However, I can get highly accurate data. So, here we're on site right now. Um, I've actually already gone ahead and located where the NGS uh monument is. That's actually not too far uh down the road um from where I'm at, about like a mile. Um, but what we're going to do is first set control. So, behind me uh you can kind of see there is construction going on. There actually is I'm not sure if you can see uh it's like right hereish there. Uh they do actually have a base station on here. They have somebody's uh truck battery connected to it, which is uh which is pretty funny. Um but I I'm not going to be able to tie into that. So I am going to just set some points out on the outskirts cuz I am going to have my drone fly on this outer portion that I'm at right now. It is part of the site plan. Um so I want to make sure that I can uh you know see what I'm capturing out here. So I'm going to set a point pretty much like just to the right of my truck here. There's one down by the intersection. Then I'm going to go on the other side um of the project site here and set two more points. I only really need four total controls for this site. I don't need a whole lot more. I might set one more if I can get a little bit closer. Um I might set one next to the uh the project uh site trailer. Uh we'll we'll see about that. But let's go ahead start getting these points in. But first things first is we need to get the emlid uh configured here. So, I have my standard 2meter pole that I always use. Get that out. And then we'll get my Rover the bottom of it with my bipod legs. Put this guy here. I'm just going to fold this up. Get my emlet out. So, let's get this guy on. And I will be driving around the site here. So, I'm going to open up this bed cover so that I can just quickly throw uh basically the emlet setup in here so I can drive from side to side. I'm not walking this side. I'm just going to be going to be driving around. Just make it a little bit easier for me here. So, let me get this guy in here. I'm going to go ahead and just boot on my emlid. And I do have a data sim in my emlid. So, it will be talking to the internet. I'm going to use to talk to that FPRN network. And um I will also set this whenever we set it up over that known point that's not too far from here. Um I'm going to turn the base corrections on uh and I'm going to send it through end trip so that I can have my drone connect directly uh to the base station that's being referenced from again that known point. So we'll let this guy boot on. what I'm going to go ahead and do um on my phone here. Let me just go ahead and get this uh recording going. Turn the microphone on. Start recording. Uh I'm going to go into the Emlet Flow application here and I'm going to set up a brand new they call it a survey. So top right hand corner, we'll click the plus button. I am going to call this uh Apollo. Call it Walmart. Just for now, uh, we're going to use a coordinate system. We'll be using Florida West and we're going to use the foot US here. And then I'm going to use my NAVD88 G18 height foot US and our linear units in US survey feet. We'll hit save. All right, cool. So, now that that is set there, let's go over to our Wi-Fi. It looks like we just connected over to our base. So, we go back into Emlid. We will refresh for our receivers. There she is. Now, correction input. I want to switch this over to Entrip, but I want to set this over to my Florida one. So, this F dot right here. Waiting for corrections should kick in here any moment. I think I do have my data SIM on. Let me go over to hotspot mode. Yep, that's on. Our settings. Oh, I need to turn mobile data on. So, let me turn this guy on. Okay, it is booting on here. I can see it in the top lefthand corner. And there is service out here. I do have T-Mobile. Um, so I should be able to get connected here very quickly. Let me uh let me close out of the app and open Emlid Flow one more time. We'll get connected to it. Looks like it's still waiting to get connected to the internet here. So, we'll just we'll just give that a second. There we go. Okay, it switched over to 2G for whatever reason. Come on, give me my LTE. Let's go to my correction input. Says receiving corrections. It's on a float. It's getting more accurate here. Oh, it just went out. Came back. What's going on here? Says we are receiving corrections. Okay, there we go. There we go. Maybe let me restart the app just one more time here. Okay, looks like it's working. Um, I do want to turn off the IMU because I don't need that on. So, we'll turn that off. Go back. Why is Why are we having issues here? Let me go to my survey. Go to Walmart here. Why am I connected to that one over there? That one's pretty far. Let's uh let's diagnose this real quick. So, let me go in and see all these different mount points that exist. For whatever reason, it's telling me that it's on a 2G connection. I am not sure why that is. Let's go into our settings. Let's go to our mobile data. Uh it looks like it's connected properly. I'm not sure uh not sure why that it's on 2G, but regardless, I mean, we are getting our accuracy. We're 21 km away. That's not ideal. Let's uh let's look at the FPRN network here. FPRN base. Let me just disconnect from my emlet real quick. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. Okay, let's see here. Once it loads, what I might do is I might just restart my emlid. Okay. Why is this Why is this being dumb? Do I need to go into this mode here? No. Oh, I just needed to scroll down a little bit more. Okay, let's go to the dynamic map real quick. So, I am down. Oh, I guess that one is the closest one. Okay. Well, that seems fair enough to me. Okay. Yeah, I guess. Uh, I guess this is the closest one. I do want to uh I do want to restart this. So, let me just turn this off because for whatever reason the data sim I actually know why I was doing training out in Texas right before this and I was teaching them how to do uh base corrections um through Laura which is basically little radio that sits on this. So, give it a few seconds. Okay, we'll let this boot up. While that's booting up, what I'm going to do is I'm going to get out and I think my stakes are going to be back. So, I got to climb into my into the bed of the truck here real quick. I got to move this back anyways. So, we'll do this. Strap you in. All right, just need one buckle in. All right, my rebar. So, I need to get some gloves. Oh, no. I didn't pack any gloves, did I? Um, do I have any in here? Let's see. I do not. Okay. Well, that's my own mistake. Oh, you know what? I might have some inside. Well, that was lost hope there. So, just move all this stuff aside. I'm going to grab a single rod here. Nice and dusty. Sounds like my emblem just turned on, too. All right. Well, we got a rod. Okay. Let me turn my screen recording back on here. All right. Let's go to the Wi-Fi. Connect to our emlid. Go over to emlid flow. Do a little refresh. Connect to it. I mean, it says it doesn't have internet, but I am connected. Okay. So, I guess it is going to connect to that one that's in St. Pete. That's okay. I'm still getting good accuracy on everything. That's fine. Okay. So, we can go to the survey tab here. Let's move some of this trash out of the way here. All right. I am going to put it just right here. Flat enough ground. There we go. And we will just drive this into the ground. Don't forget to put the cap on it and pound it the rest of the way in. Okay. It's going to look something like this. You can see that it is perfectly flush with the ground here. So, I'm going to put my emlid rover on top of here so that we can uh figure out what this position, what this coordinate is. And then I'm going to place an aerial target on that spot. And I'm going to just make sure that everything is all tightened down here. Just throw this in here. Make sure the tip is not was not screwed. Okay, that is tightened. This is tightened. And so is this guy. So, I'm going to put the tip right on that little spot that we saw. All right. Put the feet in. Level her out. Okay. bubble is leveled. Now we'll open up back into our survey here. Click the plus button. We need to make sure that we have the right height. So I know that 6.562 ft is exactly 2 m. So that is saved. And we want to make sure that we change this over to an average. And we're going to do an average of three minutes for collection on this point for fix only. We'll hit save. We're going to give this a name. I'm going to call this CP one. And we will call this uh northeast corner. Okay. And then we'll just click measure. So now for the next 3 minutes, it's going to average that position. I'm going to go ahead and prepare the rest of these points. I'm just going to do, like I said, I'm going to do three more controls off of this. If I can get one by that trailer, I will. If I can't, then I won't worry about it. So, we'll let this average and I'll show the rest of this process here um of gathering the rest of these points very shortly.

Now, the key to making sure that you get highly accurate aerial targets is by making sure it is flush with the ground. So, this last uh stake that I just drove, I literally drove it straight into the actual mesh itself. I did that to ensure that this center part is sitting with the ground. Otherwise, it would have been sitting about an inch or two above. Because I measured where that cap that I placed it on top of the coordinates for it, I want to make sure that this aerial target is sitting flush with this so that when I tie my data in later, which you'll see, it's exactly where it needs to be. So, now let's set up the rest of these controls on this site. Set another one right here. By the way, I forgot to uh put my hard hat on. Must do that otherwise they're going to yell at you. Cap on. and finish pounding this into the ground just like that. Get our emlet on it. Level her out. And once again, rinse and repeat. Just going to grab another point here. It's the same process as what I did it just at that other point. Now, one thing I want to say is this entire time I am not turning my emlet off and turning it back on. I'm just keeping it on, throwing it into the back of the truck and pulling it out and gathering a new point on this same uh survey here. So, CP2, we will do southeast corner for the description and measure I'm going to get spray paint so I can write CP2. There we go. Grab aerial target, five stakes, and my hammer. And we'll just place it right here while we wait. Grab my phone and see where we're at. Still got another minute left on it. So, just taking my tools, just make this an efficient workflow here. Now, one other thing I'm actually going to do because there's this there's a turn lane right here. And because there's arrows um on the turn lane telling you to turn, I'm actually going to grab the tip of two of these guys. Actually, I'm going to do the bike lanes. Reason being is, well, they're already painted on the asphalt. I don't have to paint any stencils there, and it's just more reference points. That way, I don't have to drive any more of these stakes into the ground. So, as soon as this is done, what I'll actually do is quickly grab two of these uh points here. probably probably this first one that's just right behind the emlid and then there's one on the other side. So I'll just quickly grab those. I've got some mag nails with me. So I will just place those in. Basically see this right here because it has that tip. I can place this tip directly into the asphalt and then use that little divot. So we're done with that. Let me actually Just going to take take this one and place it in right now since I'm right here. Just right at the tip. And this stuff goes in like butter. All right. There's one. And then let me grab this second one across the street here. See if I can get this done really quickly. Beautiful. Now I got a few more controls that I can tie all of my data to. I'm not going to do three minute averages on these. I'm just going to do a quick one minute average. So let me just throw that guy there. And I placed my phone back here. Yes, I did. So, let me just uh let me just grab my amblelet here. Throw it onto this nail that I just placed right into the divot. And then we'll level you out. Beautiful. Okay. Now, let's pull this out. We'll call this uh we'll just call this a check one and then row paint. I know you guys can't see what I'm doing right now, but that's okay. Change my average over to a one minute average. And we will hit save. I'll measure this real quick. This is going to feel like the longest 60 seconds of my life, but um this is what we need to do so that we can get good accuracy on these uh on this data set here. Come on. 15 more seconds. And we should be done. Right. Perfect. All right, let me just grab this second point really quick. I do see a big old truck coming this way, maybe. Nope, he's not coming here. They have another truck coming now. All right, let's quickly quickly get this cuz I don't like being in the road. All right, this should just be check two. Another measure. Yay, more cars. It's kind of the best part of wearing a high viz vest. People do not question what you're doing. Otherwise, if I was just wearing civilian clothes, then uh be like, "What is this crazy guy doing?" Although, the other construction workers are probably like, "What is this crazy guy doing?" Even with my high viz vest on. The good thing about this Walmart being built is there's already uh asphalt here, so I can just drive on it and go all the way to the other end, which would be very nice. All right. And we are done. Cool. All right. Let's get out of this road here. Just going to place this here for a second so that I can get my next aerial target in. I always start with opposite corners kind of like what I did on the other one so that I can stretch it tight. All right, let's get the other corner here. And the last last corner. Oh, come on. Looks like I hit some uh some rock there. So, I'm going to go at an angle. Perfect. And of course, this last stake here is to make sure that it's nice and flat with the ground. Beautiful. All right, two more to go. probably won't record, but we'll pick up uh we'll pick up at setting our base station back at that known point that's uh just down the road. So, okay.

So, this marker right here is that Humphre NGS marker that I was telling you about that we're going to set up on. Looks like it's been marked a few different times because there's so many different wood stakes here. But uh let me actually show you what this marker looks like. Obviously, we saw what it looks like um on Google Chrome, but let let me let me let me show you this here. So, here's our marker. And basically, let me just move the camera down in this hole. If I move all of this grass out, there is our Humphre marker. We can see it was set in 2000 and it's Hillsboro County Primary Geodetic Control. So, this uh let me get all this stuff out of the way. This triangle that's right here is where I'm going to place my emlet because it's on that rover pole. I'm going to make sure I place it right in this divot just right here. So, my emlet is already on because I just drove over. It was about a mile away from the site. So, literally all I have to do make sure that all of my connections are tight. I'm just going to use my foot to guide. So, it's right on top of that divot. For some reason, it feels really loose. Okay, that's better. So, let's put it right on the divot. Let's stake bipods into the ground. And for whatever reason, it always keeps getting stuck on this left side. Not sure why. Oh, now it's Oh, come on. And place that one in. And there we go. Now we can get you leveled out. We are now staked into the ground. Let me turn on my phone screen here. So the first thing that we'll do is we'll make sure that we are connected to our emlid which we can see here. Now we can go into our emlid flow application on the receivers page. Let's reconnect. Um corrections input I'll keep on. It's totally fine. But corrections output I do want to turn that on. We're going to make sure that we select end trip here and mount 7678. Perfect. All right. The next thing that we need to do is reset our base settings here. So, I'm going to go to the configure. I'm going to go to the coordinates entry method. I'm going to click on manual. I'm going to choose from project and we'll do Humphre V2. We'll click nail master. We will click apply. Make sure that our antenna is exactly or our pull height is 2 m like what we see right here. So, I'll click save. And I'm going to click save. There we go. Now our base is set up directly on that nail. The last thing I want to do is go over to my recording. I'm going to stop. We're going to go into the logs and settings. I'm going to click on the settings here. I want to make sure that we are recording in full rate. Perfect. I want all of these constellations here and believe we are going to Yep. Uh Rhinx. Let's do 3.0.4. Beautiful. We'll click apply. I'll click start recording. And there we go. So, pretty much I I ideally I want to do like a 30 minute timer before I start doing my data collection here. By the time I get the drone set up, connected to my base, it's probably going to be about 15 minutes. Um, realistically, that is okay given that we are set up on a known point. So, you know, it's not it's not the end of the world if uh if I don't wait 30 minutes to get set up, but I do want to wait at least 15 minutes. So, that'll give me enough time to get back over to the site, establish my safe area of operation to take the drone off, do any of my last checks, which uh now that I think about it, I actually I forgot to bring my other drone because I wanted to capture some photos and videos of the site. But uh given that I didn't do that, um I'm actually going to use the L2 RGB camera to gather my photos and video of the site. So that'll be the first time I ever do that. So we'll uh we'll see how that goes. But I'll I'll leverage that opportunity to just give me a bit extra time cuz it's actually going to take about I think 27 minutes to do my entire flight. I'm flying really slow. I might actually speed up my flight time or my flight speed cuz I don't need to fly as slow as I was going to fly. And I'm actually going to change over a few settings which we'll do that on the controller. So let's hop over to back over to the project site so that we can uh do our photos, our videos, and ultimately our ladder data collection. One other thing I quickly want to do here is I want to I want to throw down some cones so that people don't mess with this. I don't know if this is just highlighting it even more, but there we go. All righty. Let's uh let's go to the site.

So, one of the things that I actually love about uh back of my truck here is that I can use this as my base of operations pretty much. So, I'm going to get the drone all set up, batteries in. Uh let me actually show you one little hack that I always do. So, I recently just got back my T-Mobile home internet, which I did talk about that I believe in the uh one of the last episodes or earlier episodes, but that essentially gives me highspeed internet just about anywhere. And that means I don't have to rely on my phone. Basically, I'm going to be using the T-Mobile Home internet to give uh well, internet to my drone so that I can get the end trip up and running. So, with that being said, let me actually get the drone out. Let me get the batteries and the L2, which of course the batteries are always the heaviest, the L2. All right. So, let's get the uh let's get the drone set up here. Beautiful. I'm going to get the controller on so that I can just connect to the internet already. All right. I know. I know you want the drone on. Okay. So, let's get this guy in here. Just close you. I'm going to get my batteries in. Do I have an SD card in? I do not. Let me Let me grab that real quick. Always have my tech bag with me. So, believe it goes in. Actually, you know what? I just realized um I actually I have a P1 camera with me. So, let me actually throw this guy on. Just grab one from here. All right, this guy will now go in. Cool. Okay, let's get the lens cap off and I'm going to set you up right there. Okay. Okay. So, let's just make sure we're connected to the internet, which we are not. Uh, do I remember this password? Yes, I did. Okay, cool. So, let me uh record my screen here. So, let's go into the drone. You know what I did not do? And this is because I've been away for 10 days. I just got back from Texas. I didn't mention that earlier. Okay, cool. There's no firmware to update. So, let's go into our camera view. We'll click X. Let's go into our P1. And yeah, we do have storage. Cool. Okay. So, I'm just going to get some photos, some videos real quick. Oh, let's see. Our RTK is already connected. Let me go to the Yeah, I'm already connected to my base station, which uh that is that's freaking awesome. Oo, and we're getting 300s of a foot of accuracy. Beautiful. So, let's uh let's take her off. And I'm going to go into the P1 camera mode here. I might need to go back because I do have a much tighter camera on here. Okay, cool. So, I want to record in JPEG and RAW, and I want Oh, can I not change my image ratio in here? I guess I can't. Wow, there's very limited photo options here. Okay. Well, I guess I get what I get. So, take that photo there. We're going to go. Okay, another photo there. Let's get one from the back. This is funny. I've actually never done sight photography like this, but the benefit is that I'm actually using a 45 megapixel camera, so it does look way better. Well, theoretically should. And just to show you where I'm at, I'm literally in the middle of Oh, I don't have it preset for that. Okay, never mind. Um, I literally have nothing behind me. Keep on going. I can even see where I am on the map. Yeah, literally just the railroad. And there's nothing out there. Perfect. Let's get another direction here. I will need to cross over the highway very briefly. There is no there's no cell towers around which is perfect as well almost to the back. Beautiful. Now I'm not going to get a top down shot because I will be able to get that with the orthomosaic that I generate um from my LAR mission. So, that's not going to be an issue at all. I'm just uh getting back in position here. And that should be good right here. Yeah, this is really interesting to do uh site photography with the M350 in a P1. This is a very uh expensive setup right now. I will not lie. Okay. And now let's get myself over the um over the road here. Oh yeah, this is a great shot right here. Just like that. And then I need my last one. Quickly, quickly, quickly. Just traverse over the road. Okay. All right. Position myself right on top of the building. Just like that. And then I just want one dead on with the property. And I will do that POI. I think I can do the POI. If not, I'll just have to do a manual orbit around the entire site. Right. Traverse. Traverse. Traverse. Okay. Perfect. So, let me just get to the center here. While it's flying, let me switch over to video mode. I want 4K. Okay. I'm just going to go like dead center. Can I even do a POI mode? I might need to go into FPV mode, maybe. Um, yeah, I'm not sure. Let me straight 90. Um, is it here? No, that's my flights. Yeah, I don't think this uh this drone is made to do this. What is this? Nope. What about you? Yeah. Okay. Well, um I guess we're finding out new things right now. So, we'll just have to do a manual orbit, which that's that's okay. Not ideal, but it'll uh it'll work. Let me go right up to like 400 ft. There we go. Right underneath it. All right, we will do that as a reference. Can I go in a um Okay, I guess I can't switch into tripod mode, which that's okay. Well, this is all manual here. This is hilarious, not going to lie. Sorry, I'm being a little quiet here. I'm uh I'm just focused. I've never never done this with the M350 before. Come on. All right, call it that. Let's bring her back home. I think that will do. While that's going, let me get a fresh set of batteries here. Come on home, girl. Let's look at our map. I would say that's a pretty good circle. I'm going to give myself a pat on the back for that one. That was hard. I know. I know. I'm I'm complaining here, but I've never done that with an M300 before, or I should say M350. And I accidentally flew a little bit higher than 400 feet. So I I do apologize for that. I was just I was so focused on trying to nail nail doing the perfect circle. So we will wait for her to land. I've already got an SD card inputed into the L2. So, it's just a matter of uh turning the drone off, swapping payloads, and then flying this mission here. Heat. Heat. Beautiful. Okay, let's turn her off and do a payload swap here. open up my case. Uh, there we go. Let me get my SD card out so I do not forget. Okay, let's get you on. Take my lens cover off. And let's get two new batteries in. I have no idea. >> I don't have like a date. >> I'm just a subcontractor. >> Yep. >> Best person to ask is someone over there. >> Thank you. >> Of course. Okay. boot you on. It's funny, you always kind of get these interactions where, you know, perks of wearing the high viz vest is people don't ask you what you're doing when you're flying a drone or doing other random things, but they also ask you other information that you have no idea. Again, I was just subcontracted to come out here and just gather some data for LAR. Um, I have no idea when this Walmart's going to be done, but that's just part of the job. Anyways, uh, back on the controller here. We're going to go into our flight route. And I believe it's this area one. Nope, that's not it. Oh, you know what? I did all my mission

Planning before on um on my M4E when I was in Texas. So, we're just going to create a brand new route here, and it's going to encompass pretty much to here, down here, and across. Yep. 62 acres. Okay, the L2 M300 and I'm think I'm just going to do a triple return. There is no vegetation here, so I don't need five returns. We'll hit okay. And we will call this Apollo. I'm just going to call it wall. We're going to fly at 50 ft. Uh, IMU calibration on speed. Not that fast. Um, I think we can do like 18 18 miles an hour. And I want a 35% side and a 65% front. And I'm going to add a 20 foot margin. Is that enough? That should be enough. Maybe I'll do like a 40 foot margin. Beautiful. Okay, there we go. That should satisfy this. Hit save. Let's just check one more time here. So, triple return RGB coloring on 150 ft. We can throw this up. 18 miles an hour. Course angle looks good to me. 35% side overlap, 65% front. And yeah, we are good. Okay. So, we'll hit save. Just going to make sure everything is locked in. Battery is good. Beautiful. Okay. And we should still be going here. Yep, we are still connected for RTK. And we've got beautiful accuracy here. So, we are good to go. RTH. I'm just going to bring it down uh to one Hello. 160ish. Hit next. Cool. Okay. Upload flight mission. Hit start. And we're now executing our flight. So that's going to take about 23 minutes honestly.

Oh, this is actually perfect timing. We are right at our 30 minute mark for that base station. Cool. Oh, one thing I forgot to uh failed to mention is I well I should have done my altitude check which I know my altitude is totally fine um given that it's completely flat out here and there is absolutely no nothing. I mean, we can go to the FPV view here so you can see what I'm talking about. Um, oh, all right. Hopefully you guys don't get mad at me, but I'm doing my calibration right over the road. That was that was an accident. Do apologize. Um, but it's fine. But yeah, we're sitting right at 150 ft. It looks like I'm way lower on this camera, but if I go to the FPV view, I'm I am plenty high enough. And you can see there are no obstructions anywhere. Um, so we are we are good to go here. I'm going to go to the side by side so you can take a look at what is going on here. This should only take maybe another 15 more seconds and then we'll go. Maybe. Maybe not. Okay, we are we are in action right now. It's actually about to come right over me. But if we look at our visible light view here, when it gets close to us, we should be able to see that aerial target that we laid down. And there she is right where I'm tapping on the screen. Beautiful. So, we're going to let this do its thing for the next 25ish minutes. As soon as that's done, we're going to go collect the targets. I'll I'll skip that point. Um, so you guys don't have to see that.

Okay, just got back out here to the emlid. I am going to make sure that I am connected to it and I'm going to show you guys how I pull the data off of it. I've done this before in the past. Um, but okay, connected Wi-Fi on Emlet Flow. Going to go to my receiver. We go to the logging. We can see that we've been logging for an hour and 21 minutes, which that is perfect. Uh, so I'm going to stop the logging here. We're going to go into the recorded logs and settings. And right now it is compressing. We can see it's 11%. So while it's compressing, I'm going to pack everything up right here to just throw. And almost done. 77%. Now we can download our file here. The reason it just went into float is I accidentally knocked over the emllet. So, it's downloading here. I'm just going to save this locally onto my phone so that when I get to the office, I can just quickly uh upload it. There we go. Okay. So, I'm just going to go to save the files here, and I'm just going to save it into my base. I'm going just call this uh Apollo. Missed an L. wall. Hit save. All right, we can now turn off our emblem and we are good to go. So, I will uh I'll see you guys at the office.

Okay. Uh back here in the office. It's actually been a little bit. Had a few phone calls I had to hop on to. Uh but to the side of me here is all the drones. Well, drone because I only brought one. The batteries and the L2. And I already have my SD card holder. This is literally my life. Uh, so all the photos that I took with the P1 are here. And then my LAR data is on this little tiny one. So I do need a converter here. There we go. So I'm going to plug this into the computer and I'm going to switch over to my screen here. So, if I go into the DCIM, there is our Apollo Walmart. So, I'm going to copy this folder and I'm going to go to my uh here we go, active lighter projects. We're going to call this Apollo Walmart. And I'm going to give it uh a raw folder, a working folder. I'm going to paste my raw into here. While that is transferring over, I am going to open up Emlid Flow. Here is my Apollo Walmart with all of the controls and checks that I set in. We're going to click on export. We'll do let's do a custom CSV and let's just get the name, the noring, easting elevation and description. Along with the coordinate system name. Just going to click on save and export. We will also save that to our active LAR here. We'll save. And the last thing that I need is the actual file. So, because I saved that to my files here, I am going to go select it. I'm going to share it. And I'm just going to share it to my NAS that I have here. So if I go onto my NAS, see my clients here. I'll wait this for this to open. And we'll call it stone. Why our and we'll give it a date. Today is the 18th of March. Okay. So, on my drive here, my clients redstone and we'll click select upload. This is taking forever to upload. Meanwhile, I'm going to go to Opus because that is the process that I do need to take this through. Um, here we go. So, as soon as it downloads onto Opus here, or not Opus, and as soon as my base file from the Mwood downloads, I'm going to extract it. I'm going to rename uh I don't think it's too big. Let me see. Maybe I might need to run it through Emlid Studio. Yeah, we'll do we'll do a convert to Rhinx here. All right, it should be fully uploaded here in about 5 seconds maybe. There it is. Okay. Going to extract it. Okay. Grab our Rhinx and we're going to just drop it into here. And we will give it I'm going to create a base folder. Well, let's see. Um interval 5 seconds is fine. Next 3.0. And we just need the GPS. Hit convert. Shouldn't take too long. Okay, there's the results. I'm going to rename this to Apollo nail. Okay. Now, all I got to do is go into Opus here. We're going to choose the file. By the way, I'm already getting into the workflow um for processing data. Where did it go? Um hello. So we'll just copy this and we'll paste it into this base here. Okay. So we'll click open. Uh we use the emllet reach RS3 and we were 2.134 meters above. We'll send it to my email address and extended. And we were under two hours. So it's rapid static. So we'll wait for this. But yeah, basically what I'm doing, we're already getting into the workflow. I'm just getting a few steps ahead. Um, cool. It's all sent. Um, basically I need to run my base observation file. So when I set up the emlet on that nail, which was this guy right here, this Humphre, um, it's just going to give me a new coordinate, an updated coordinate I should say, based on the project, uh, site. Um, from there I'll be able to import everything directly into LP3 because we're about to go through that entire workflow. I'm just making sure I'm getting all the files in there first. So, we'll copy this guy. Uh, Walmart, go into base again. And I'm just going to get the full file because we can see one is 20 megs and one's one megabyte. Okay. I think I think that's all I need. And then I have my control file here. So, let's actually clean this up. It opened up on this side. Name, easting, northing, elevation, description. Okay, I'm just going to delete these. Hit save. Cool. Um, and my email I should have maybe might take one more minute to get this uh this output here. But while we're waiting, I'm going to create a brand new file text document. Call this Apollo nail and open this up. Now, while we wait, let's go ahead and open up LP 360. Oh, I just got the email. Maybe, maybe I did. Oh, no. Um, okay. Let me bring over LP3. So, we are going to open up our startup dialogue. We're going to create a new project. Uh, well, sorry, we're going to import RAW missions into new project. Hit okay. and we're going to click the raw L1 L2. Click next. We're going to click on add flight and we'll go to Apollo Walmart. We meant to go to working. So I I did not copy this over. So let me paste this into working. It take like two seconds. Come on. Where's my Opus output? Almost done. I didn't realize it was a 10 gig file. Well, I'll have it pre-selected. So, the reason why I run everything through LP3 is it gives me strip alignment and that gives me higher accuracy um on my actual LAR data itself. And I'll show you what I mean. So, here we go. Select our data here. I want to switch this over to PPK mode. And for this mark, we need to wait a second, but I can put in my antenna. So, that's 2.134. Um, there is my opus. So, I'm going to copy the email that I got, which um looks kind of like this. It has all of this information here, but basically, we copy all of that onto a notepad. We'll click save and close that out. And then for our reference mark, we will click survey nail. We'll load from opus. We'll click on our text file and it loads in all this information for us. Name, we'll call it Apollo nail. Apollo nail. And I think it was hum freeze. I'm totally butchering the name, but it's okay. And the last thing that I want to have is my base observation file. So we'll go back into my active lighter projects Walmart base and we'll select the big base file. Beautiful. So now we click next. We are going to give it a folder to sit in. Click select folder and we'll do LP360 Apollo Walmart for our coordinate reference system. Um, we are going to do Florida west plus our geoid. Okay, and we will hit finish. Yes. Now it's importing all of this data into LP3 now. Jeez, I got all these photos I got to load. Oh, okay. While we wait here, I'm going to open up um my rock cloud. We will create a new project and we are going to go to Apollo Beach here and this is where the project is at. Let's call this Redstone Apollo Lar. And we're going to give it the date 1925. Continue. All right. So, now that this is waiting for us, we can now go into LP3. So, I'm going to run through all of the workflows here in LP3. So, we can get our output. We'll take that output. We'll then put it into um rock cloud. So let's see here. Okay, that looks good. So now let's do a trajectory processing. We want to once again make sure that we are doing PPK mode. We have our our reference mark and we have our base file. Okay. So we'll click on submit jobs. And now this is just a process of sitting and and waiting. This is going to process in um LP3's cloud for about 20 to 30 minutes. Um once that's done, it will uh it'll get sent back over to me and then uh we'll go through the rest of this workflow process here.

All right, this took a little bit longer than uh 20 to 30 minutes. We are sitting here about 42 minutes. It is almost done getting me the rest of my data that I need. Let's just take a look here. So, if I go to my internet, we can see that we are receiving 600 megs a second, which means we are downloading our processed uh trajectory from LP3. Obviously, it's a bit quicker to do this through DJI Terra. However, I personally like the results that I get straight through LP360 rather than running it through DJI Terra and and LP3. Um, okay. So, we'll see. I prefer running all of this through LP360 than DJI Terra because you're gonna see well you not you're not going to see it in this but um for whatever reason LP360 does a much better job at doing what's called bore sight alignment which means the RGB images the the L2 has since there's that um there's a 20 megapixel camera on there and then the actual LAR sensor itself for whatever reason Terra has like a two to four foot offset at least that's what I've seen from where the RGB images are and where the LAR data is the point cloud, but LP3, I guess, fixes that for whatever reason. So, and we'll see that whenever we do our uh ground control point alignment um once we bring it into Rock Cloud here. So, just I'm just waiting for this to finish and then I'll be able to dump it uh all straight into this project here. All right. So, once it finishes, we will select this ready. We will click complete job and then it's going to bring it directly into our LP3 project here which uh this is going to take just a second here to fully load it all in. This is a decent size LAR project. Um I'm not going to create flight lines just yet. I just want to show you what uh what came through. So let me click on close here. Let me hide Google hybrid here. And this is just our raw lighter data that we get. um straight off of the L2 that is processed directly in uh LP3 and it looks pretty good um to be honest. We can see this is where I was flying from. We can see there is my targets should be the other one right over here as well as the one that I placed. She's right here. So yeah, I this is a excellent excellent capture that I got of this entire site here. So super happy. Now the reason why I didn't get the rest of this area that's over here. Am I blocking it? I'm kind of blocking it a little bit. Reason I didn't get this area over here is well that just wasn't part of the project site. So anyways, let me close out of this. We're going to select our lighter layer here and we're going to do autocreate flight lines. We have this little compute. So um let's see deviation I think I think this is like supposed to be 50 and this is 150. Compute. That looks good. And I think I just need to delete this guy here. Anything else? Nope. That uh this all looks good to me. Okay. Oops. Yep. All of these flight lines look good to me. I don't think there's really anything else except Is it this one? That's not the one I want. Let me get the second one. Delete that guy. Perfect. Okay. Okay. So, once we're happy with that, we can click close. Um, now we can click on post-process and it's going to be these new flight lines here. So, we will click uh post-processing because what's going to happen, let me close out of this. Uh, if I click on this point source, this is all just one. So, we need to do a strip alignment to make this data more accurate. here and I'll show you exactly what I mean. Um, so we go here, we click on post-process. We will click run post-processing here. This should only take like a minute at most maybe, maybe a little bit longer. I just did a much smaller data set earlier today. So that is why uh I am getting off with my um with my estimates. Oh, come on. I can see my CPU has uh kicked in here. So, it's definitely definitely running now. Done. So, we can actually see we now have just hard edges on all the corners rather than these uh smooth or kind of rounded ones. We don't want those rounded ones because that's all noisy data. That's not good data that we want to uh retain. So from here, if I actually go and turn on our point source, we now have all the different strips um segmented out. And what I want to show you, let me just quickly find the road, which is right here, I believe. Yep. Okay, here's the road. And what I'm going to do is I'm going to grab just a segment of this road. We'll do uh 2/10 of a foot. And I'm going to switch this over to point source. So if I go right here in the middle, it may be kind of hard to see these points here. Um, but there is a misalignment um of all the data that we're looking at on here. Um, especially when we kind of get into the uh the ground, you can see the green is sitting just a little bit above the red. So, in order to fix that, what we're going to do is we'll select our post-processed and we will click strip alignment. We'll make sure that we have our post-process selected. I'm going to call this strip aligned uh L. We'll submit the job. We'll click yes. Click okay. In the job manager here, it is going to do all the computations. This this process actually doesn't really take that long, but once we're done here, we can export this out and then we'll bring it into RockCloud. So, speaking of that, let me just make sure my control book is set properly. So, yes, name easting northing elevation and on my rock cloud. Let me make sure we are set properly here. So, yep. Florida West foot US and Navd88 height foot US. We'll click on save. Perfect. Then if I bring in my ground control point data, we will make sure that we select our Apollo Walmart. Beautiful. And then we need to bring in uh here we go. 983 2011 Florida West foot US. Hit save. Cool. Okay, there is everything. Actually, I need to set the checks to checkpoints. Same with these two. Okay, and we'll save. Cool. So, now there's checkpoints and then there's uh ground ground control point. So, we've got that preset. We go back in here. Uh I think this will just take a few minutes. running correction. I think it's almost done here. Okay, there we go. So now my strip align, if I go into my point source, uh well, let me see intensity real quick. Okay, and we do the same thing. Do two10s. Uh yeah, that is so much tighter. So, if I go right on this segment right here, switch it back over just to our post-process. I can already tell it may be like almost indistinguishable for you guys, but I I can already tell it's much tighter, especially when we go over something like here. Yeah, that's a big difference. By the way, I only did three returns, so it's not going to be as fuzzy. Yep, there we go. Okay. So you'll see the green and red are in a line together where this one the green is sitting just slightly above the red. Um, and let's see what that deviation is here. So where's a good area? Let's just maybe use the road. It's probably the best. Huh? Let me go over more. So that's it's almost about tenth and a half. And this one is under a tenth. Beautiful. Okay. Sweet. And if we go back into our RGB view. Yep. Everything looks wonderful here. So what I will do now is go to my project here export wizard and we're going to export it as an L version 1.4 all the points and we will hit next. Let me go back and we have our coordinate system here. So NAT 83 Florida West foot US and then our height navd8 go 18 US feet which it's the same thing. Um cool. All right next we use the whole ladder area. Hit next and we are going to output it. I'm going to create an exports folder into here. And we'll call this Apollo uh post-processed point cloud. Hit save. And I don't want to insert it, but I will click finish. And then we'll just wait for this progress bar to go. Um, and it's going to dump it into this folder here. So, yep. Just heard my computer kick on maybe. Okay, there we go. There's our point cloud right there. L file. So, we can now go into RockCloud here. We're going to add project data and we're going to select our point cloud. And this should go pretty quick. I wonder if we can export in a um in LAZ. No, it doesn't look like it. Oh well, that's fine. Well, we are done in LP3. So, we can save this, close out of it, and we are done there. Um, we will just wait for this to finish uploading into Rock Cloud. We've already got everything uh dumped in here. So, it's just a matter of uh of waiting for it to visualize and then we can run it through the processing which all we're going to do is we're going to generate a topo of the site. That's all the client needed. Um I think I should be able to deliver everything by Friday to them. So once it is done uh visualizing we can click refresh and we will have our point cloud beautifully displayed in here. And it already looks like our points are pretty close to where they need to be. We will do a an alignment here very shortly. But yeah, I mean this looks uh this looks good to me. So, if we go into this RGB mode, obviously we have our RGB point cloud for all of our data. Yeah, this is this is beautiful. So, why don't we go ahead and do an alignment? I think I want to do this uh this one right here. So, this is CP1. So, what we'll do, we will click on our quick tools. We'll do this auto align. We'll select a custom point. And I've just remembered I need to switch this over to intensity gradient. And maybe we do actual just intensity here. Just pick a center point. Maybe uh maybe intensity gradient was the move here. Okay. Yeah. So I want to that looks that looks like the center point there. Okay. So uh we will move that to CP1. We'll click align. Moved it by 7 ft. So let's go check our other ground controls. That looks pretty in line. Looks like this check did not make it in, which that's okay. So, check four. I'll just have to remember to remove it. Oh, yeah. Butter, butter, butter. And because we did our strip alignment. Yeah, that's a pretty tight point cloud. Oh, I didn't even realize. Look at that. There is a gutter in the ground there. Very cool. Okay, so that one looks good. Let's look at these guys. Yep. Right on the tip. Right where it's supposed to be. Same with that guy. That one should be aligned. And finally, that one looks like it's in the ground just a little bit. So, we might need to do a little elevation adjustment. This one. This one looks good. So let me let me see here. Let me go back to this point. It was just in the ground just a little bit. So what I will do go like that. That should split the difference. So if I go back over to this point. Yep. That is sitting right on ground level. You should also be good except you're just a little little too high. So, right there. That looks good. Okay. This should also be Yep, that's right in alignment. You should be sitting Okay. All right. I am happy with that. So now we will click on the save icon. It's going to move our entire point cloud. We're basically aligning it to the ground control points that we set on site. Uh because well those were measured points in the real world. Um as for our LAR, we just needed to shift it to it. Once this is done, we can click on this process tab right here and we will just run it through the rock surveyor. What that's going to get me is a too. So, they're going to do a ground classification. They're going to get me contours. I'm going to do one foot contours. Um, and yeah, that's that's pretty much it. I'll be able to send all these all this data over to my client hopefully um within a few days. Although, this will take about a day or two for them to send me over all of this data. I could do this myself. Um, personally, I just I don't feel like it. And this is a great way to send data over to my client without me having to send them over some proprietary software and have them have to figure out, you know, how this all looks. Um, they can just do it right here, which is perfect. I mean, who doesn't want to look at data like this? So, we'll wait for this to finish up. Uh, and then I'll pop back on to pretty much wrap up this uh this video here, but I'll show you what the processing looks like.

All right, my translation just finished up. Now, what I want to do, let's go into our RGB view here. We're going to get a straight top down. I do want to edit one of these. And I think it's check four. Yeah, check four. Then I'm going to remove because well, it didn't end up in the aerial data. So, I'm going to remove that. We'll hit save. That shouldn't have changed too much. Cool. Then we're going to switch and back over to our RGB. Do a straight top down. And I'm going to reference the map here of what they want on this area. So, pretty much I'm just going to go across straight down, across, and up on that. Literally made no sense. Sorry. Um, so I'm just going to define the area. Just do this rock ground here. Click I agree. And it's about 300 bucks to process it, which is totally fine. Um, I already charged my client for it. So, I'll click order. I got to load some got to load some stuff into uh into here. So, let me Oh, sweet. All right. I already got everything loaded. Click pay. Okay, there we go. So, now um in about a day or two, this will be finished up. I will show you that right now. And we are now completed with uh the data processing. So, if I go here to the deliverables and let's just take a look at our accuracy report, we can see that we were 500s of a foot on the vertical accuracy. Uh, I mean that which is incredible. Um, and then with our checkpoints, we were a little over 600s of a foot, which this is exactly what my client was looking for. So, if I go here to our layers, and it looks like I need to just move my camera a bit, move it over here, and I will go into the roughest. Turn this up. Here is our contour map that was generated from raw cloud. So, you even got your uh stock pile right here. And I did this all one foot contours. Obviously, you saw that. Here's our retention ponds. You can see where the actual Walmart is going to be right here. another retention pawn in the back. So this is a very very simple data set here. Um, but I mean that's relatively how easy it can be to go out and gather LAR data like this for my clients. Um obviously I'm leveraging the power of Rock Cloud and their services to do some of the data processing. So some of the cost did get eaten out of what I actually charge my client. I charge them about 1,500 bucks. So, we'll call it like $300 worth of expense um that was taken out because of the processing that I ran through Ruck. However, it generates all of the data that I need and I don't have to worry about it. I go out, set my control, set the um the checkpoints, gather the data, process it, throw it into the cloud, and then it'll create all of the other deliverables that I need for it. It's can be just as easy as that. And I'm doing projects like this all the time. So relying on RockCl Cloud and not relying on having to send this off to my surveyors to go and process all this data because they're already bogged down with other projects, it just helps speed up that entire process. There's obviously so much more that I can extract out of the Rock Cloud. Um, so yeah, this is a service that I do pay for alongside with LP3 to get my actual good accuracy, my point cloud data itself. Um, but yeah, hopefully you enjoyed this episode uh of Drone Pilot Insider Uncut. Working on doing a lot of data acquisition for my client specifically for their Walmart site. I've got a lot more in store in terms of videos coming out here. So again, appreciate you watching this episode and we'll see you in the next one.

Hey guys, Dylan Gorman here. Welcome back to another episode of Drone Pilot Insider Uncut. And yes, you did hear that right. This is going to be another unfiltered, practically unedited video where you guys get to come alongside with me on some real world projects. Now, this is going to be a little bit different, actually a little bit closer to the first episode that I ever posted in this series where we're going to be taking a look at what it's like to fly for RAD. Now, if you've never heard of RAD before, that's okay because they're brand new to the market. Similar to Fly Guys or Drroners or Zite View, they're another drone provider network within the industry here in the United States. So, basically, if you are having issues or having trouble finding jobs, you can go and apply to be a contract pilot for one of these platforms and if there's projects or missions available in your area, they'll pop up on a job board or they'll just pop up and you can accept the mission or you can bid on it. Well, apparently RAD is doing something a little bit different. I had a unique opportunity. I saw five projects pop up in the northeast up in Maine. That's some basic mapping projects, but I wanted to just pretty much scratch my curiosity at what is RAD and what are they trying to do different? and are they actually a platform that you should join given well there are some that have come and gone and you know the perception around drone provider networks are pretty negative and uh well rather than you guys going out and trying it yourself I figured why not I'm going to go do it myself so obviously I am here in my office in Tampa Florida and well in this entire video here I'm going to take you step by step of taking a look at their platform understanding the missions that they have. We'll do some mission planning here at the office. And then over the next 48 hours, I'm actually going to be flying up to Maine. You guys will be joining alongside with me, seeing exactly how these projects go and really seeing if the pay is actually worth what I'm doing. Right. The one thing that they have said and that they've been pushing out in the industry is that they are trying to have more qualified pilots in their network to have more qualified and higher paying jobs. Now, we'll see if that's true, right? This is the first time I'm ever doing anything for them and uh well hopefully everything goes well. But with that being said, let's go ahead and just jump into what it is that we're doing and taking a look at the well equipment that I have that I'm going to be bringing with me, how I actually set up these missions before I get out onto the site itself, and how I'm tracking everything given that it's not just one project or one job that I'm doing for them. I had the opportunity to accept five uh solar fields that I'll be mapping. Uh I've got an M3T with me. I've got plenty of batteries. But uh let me actually show you what their platform looks like and how we actually accepted those jobs and the information that they give us rather than uh you know me trying to explain it here. So let me hop onto my desktop. Let's take a look at the RAD pilot dashboard and uh see exactly what it is that they want me to do on these sites.

So, welcome to the RAD pilot dashboard. Um, right now I am on the my missions tab and we can see that we have these five mapping projects that I'm going to be doing up in Maine uh over the next 48 hours of this video being produced here. And uh honestly, it's actually kind of nice. Uh it's it's way different compared to some of the other platforms that I've seen. Uh so, let's just go and take a look at this first project here. So, by clicking on it, it's going to show the rough area of where it's at, and it's going to tell me the pace scale. Let's actually take a look at what this mission is. So, all I have to do is click on view mission. And, uh, okay. So, some of the cool stuff on here is, well, we have an overview of it. So, what the mission name is, uh, how early they want the flight date to be, which obviously today is the 25th of May. So, uh, I'm kind of on the back end of the flight date that they want me to fly on. And, uh, they actually have a pretty cool, uh, site information in terms of the solar radiance, uh, or radiation that's going to be on there. Uh, given that I am flying with a, uh, Mavic 3, uh, T Enterprise, uh, they want to have the radiometric uh, information from the thermal camera that I'll be collecting the data on. And what's really cool is they built this whole API on basically when the best time of day to collect the data would be. Uh so today is Sunday, May the 25th. Uh tomorrow is May 26th, Memorial Day. Um I'm only going to be mapping one site tomorrow and then four sites on Tuesday, May 27th. And we can see with this graphic here, if uh actually I zoom in, we can see that on the 26, we're going to have uh actually pretty high uh optimal score in terms of when I'll be able to gather the data. And then on the 27th, uh they have here the optimal flight window. Uh given that there's been some shifts in terms of when I'm actually going out there, uh they kind of shifted these optimal flight windows to these two days. Uh, so I'll probably have to ask them to shift one of them over to Monday, but we can see with the solar radiation, obviously during the summer time of the year, um, it's going to be much higher, um, given that we have, well, more sunlight throughout the day. Scrolling down, uh, we have a basic location of where it's at. Now, if we go and look on the requirements, it's going to tell us that this is a mapping and surveying job. So, meaning I'm just going to be flying an automated mission here. Um the deliverables, they just want the JPEGs off of the drone. Um they gave me a 6 cm per pixel GSD. The RTK is not required, although I will be flying with RTK. I just prefer doing that. For my frontal overlap, I'll have 80% side 50%. And then it'll tell me the required payload. So a thermal camera and an RGB camera. Given that the M3T has both of those, I am well qualified to to fly this mission here. As for the resources, uh, we can actually visualize where we're going to be flying. So, obviously, it just drops a pin, but that doesn't really give me much information. So, they have the actual KML of the site. If I click on it, it gives me an outline. So, obviously, where this pin was is not where the solar fields are at. So, this is a boundary of where I will be flying. Uh what's great is I can actually download the full KML, which I will be doing that uh here shortly to bring onto the controller for the M3T and doing my mission plan on there. And doing my mission plan on there. And I typically like to always do my mission plan at the office or well in advance before I actually get out to the site. That way I have an offline version of it loaded on my controller in case there's no cellular connectivity out there. Um, that way, you know, I don't have to deal with weird airspace and just weird errors, right? I like to have all the missions planned here. That way, I can make the adjustments out in the field if I need to. As for the weather radar, um, there's no weather there right now. Um, but actually, yeah, if we go south of where it's at, we can see um, you know, a little bit of uh, rain going on there um, here on Sunday. Scrolling down some more, they actually have a few more notes. So yes, they already told me about the 6 centimeter per pixel uh ground sampling distance that they want uh for the images, the frontal and side. They gave me the speed and then the shutter for uh one and a half seconds. And then they also gave me the shooting angle. So I'll make sure to uh maintain uh parallel to the main path. And okay, great. Oh, and given that this is a solar mapping project, um some of the solar fields I believe are on trackers. So, I'll have to adjust the panels uh5° either to the east or to the west depending on what time of day for solar noon. Um which they do actually give me that information here on the overview. That's what this uh site information, weather information is here for. So, this will give me the best information in terms of what direction I need to have those uh trackers at when I'm mapping out. Oh, and then the last important camera setting on here is for the radiometric camera or the uh infrared camera is to have it on the white hot pallet. Okay, that's pretty straightforward. Yeah, each one of these is $700 for the mapping. So, why don't we actually take a look at how big these areas are? Um, what I've gone ahead and already done, uh, in terms of like tracking all this stuff, I've built a RAD solar mission board here on monday.com. Um, if you guys actually want resources or access to all the resources that I use to really help me keep track of what I'm doing on site, yes, I can use the RAD dashboard here, but this is more of I'm very anal when it comes to if I'm doing more than just one project. I like to just track everything on a on a dashboard. Um, so what I've actually done on here is given the location name, the status of it, estimated data capture, the actual location of it, and I've uploaded the KML file. Um, estimated time of collection. We're actually about to figure this out ourselves here shortly, and then order of capture, and then number of acres. Um, let's actually do one of them live together. So, I have Pittsfield, uh, Manmouth, um, Harmony, Augusta. I believe the last one I need to bring in is this Baldwin site. So, let's take a look at where this is at. Obviously, I want to look at the view mission. We'll go to the resources and we'll throw the KML up. Okay. So, obviously, yeah, that pin was a little bit south of it, but good thing we have this KML. So, we'll open up um Google Earth here. And uh it looks like I already had the KML pulled on here. So, let's uh let's actually go ahead and add this Baldwin into my uh dashboard here. So, what I'll do is I'll go here and I will type in Baldwin and uh we'll say mission accepted. This one I'll be capturing on the 27th. And let's actually get the location of it. So, the way that I'll do that is I'll just drop a pin. I'll just throw this here. And then I'm just going to grab the latitude of it. We'll go on Google Maps, paste, and then we'll grab the longitude. Enter. Okay, cool. Oh, look at that. Perfect. So, then we'll just copy this address here and we will throw it onto location. Oops. And then we'll upload the KML for Baldwin, which is right there. Beautiful. And then I'll have this as the fourth. Now, how many Let's see how many acres this actual site is. So, if I right click on it, we can see it's I'll call it 48 acres. I'll round up. 48 acres. Now, we got to figure out what the estimated time of collection is. So, what I'm going to do is I'm actually going to go and grab the smart controller and upload this um onto the smart controller and put in all the mission plan uh so we can see exactly uh how long it's going to take. That way, we can put this in here. And then this will actually allow me to better plan my route given that I only have two days there. And actually, on my second day, I fly out. Um I have a like seven I think a 700 p.m. flight. So, I want to make sure that I have enough time to get back to the airport. Um given that I am flying directly into Boston Logan airport, um that was the only direct flight that I could find uh that got me enough time out um in Maine. So obviously I got to fly into uh Massachusetts and then drive up into Maine. Um so let me go ahead and actually pull this uh KML. What I'm going to do is just download it and put it onto an SD card and then pop that SD card into the smart controller so we can do the actual mission planning itself. So let me uh let me go ahead and do that.

All right, I've now successfully uh inputed all of the missions here onto my controller. I do want to show you something that I actually ended up changing. Now, rather than flying, let me see here. It's uh Augusta. Let me show you what Augusta looks like um on the actual KML. Now, if you actually look at this site here, it's actually three individual sites that are split by quite a bit of just like nothingness in terms of fields. So, what I ended up doing, if we look at the actual mission plans here on the controller, I created three separate mission plans for Augusta. So, the way that I split it up is based off of the orientation in terms of the cardinal plane of where uh each one of these solar fields in the master solar field is located. Um, I did basically an Augusta West on the west side that you can see. So, here's the Augusta West, here is Augusta Central, and then Augusta East. So what I'll end up doing in the actual upload or data collection is I'll fly each mission plan themselves. So each one is about three to well two of them are about 4 minutes long and then the longest one is about 10 minutes. So it's still about 18 minutes of flight. But this actually makes my flight way more efficient. Um rather than capturing extra data that doesn't really encompass the solar panels at all. Um, meaning I would have captured probably about 40 minutes of flight and a lot of extra photos that I wouldn't really need and that the CL end client wouldn't really need. Um, I'm only segmenting it down to where the solar panels actually are. Therefore, it makes the flight way more efficient. It actually cuts 20 minutes of flight time out of it. Cuz the name of the game is well, one, efficiency. And yes, I am altering the mission plan itself, but I'm not cutting out non-critical data. So the non-critical data would just be the vegetation that's around and it's only focusing on the actual solar panels themselves. Now when I'm actually out on site, I will confirm uh with my field op specialist uh to make sure that I'm gathering what I need to gather and then assuming with the in their uh interactive uh KML upload area uh in terms of like the data that I upload, it's probably going to look off and that I didn't gather the right data. But just from what I understand for this client,

They are only concerned about the solar panels. They're not concerned about the field or the trees or anything else that's on site. So, as long as I'm gathering the solar panels based off of the spec, which is that 6 cm uh GSD per pixel, then we're good. And um actually zooming out here, uh we'll look at some of the other flight missions that I have on here.

So, Harmony is going to take about I'll call it 34 minutes. Hoping I can get it done on one single battery. Um, like I said, Augusta is going to take about 18 minutes once I combine all three of those flights together. Uh, Menmouth is going to take about 30 minutes. Um, I did alter this one and the flight actually went way far north up into where I'm tapping here on the screen. Um, as well as down south into where we can see this uh, snow patch is as well as just over all of these trees here. That's not where any of the solar panels are, so I cut it down. I went from about a 50-minute flight down to a 30-minute flight. So again, hoping I can get this done in one single battery.

And now for this pitsfield, you're going to notice um I'm actually doing terrain following on this one. Now, it doesn't specify uh for me to not use terrain following. It's actually not a requirement uh just like RTK is not a requirement, but given that both on the satellite imagery here on the controller as well as what I have on Google Earth, it's not up to date. So, I assume that there are solar panels here, but I just don't know. So, I want to fly as safe as I can. Therefore, I'm going to be using terrain following. Um, I brought in just a terrain map from wherever DJI Pilot pulls it in. Uh, but I will be monitoring this out in the field. You'll actually we'll be doing it together. So, you'll see me monitoring the actual flight to make sure that it's not going to crash into anything. This is a 40-minute flight, so I probably will have to do a battery swap on uh this specific mission here. Um this is actually going to be the first flight uh of all five missions that we'll be doing. Um so that's the only reason why we see the different colorization in terms of the mission plan itself is well because it's going to be mission or it's going to be terrain following. Um and then our last one is this Baldwin. Uh this is a very easy site. I didn't split it up like I did with Augusta. I think Augusta was really the more unique site that uh I think it made more sense to cut it up into smaller mission plans than therefore when I upload all the data, I'll upload it all as one um entire data set for the site.

Um, but that's pretty much it in terms of like the mission planning itself. Um looking back here on my Monday dashboard, um what I ended up doing, and I'm just going to switch this over real quick. We can see here's all of my mission plans. There's the dates that I'll be doing it, the locations, the KMLs, there's the estimated flight time on there. So, you can see with um that Augusta, it's 18 minutes there. I put the order of capture that I'll be doing it in. How many acres, that's the max acres. Obviously, it's smaller now. And then this distance from last site, this is in minutes. So, it's how many minutes it is from the next site. So, on uh day one, I'm only doing one site, but on day two, I'm doing four sites. So on Google Maps, I basically mapped out how far um each one of uh these solar fields are from each other and then I put that on here. So in total, I'll be driving for about 4 and 1/2 hours between all the sites. Uh which is not bad given that I think the longest flight that I'll have is that uh like 39 minutes, but that's on the first day, so I'm not really too concerned.

Now, in terms of what I'm actually bringing, here is all of my equipment. So, obviously, I have the uh M3T in here. There's already battery in here. Um I'm actually going to be bringing seven batteries with me. So, we can see I have them both on uh chargers here. Uh they are all already full. So, I will be uh Oh, there we go. Okay. Yep. So, all of these are full plus the one that's in here. Um, I have a case full of uh a bunch of extra SD cards. Uh, well, this is obvious just for data storage. And then for all my data backups, I actually have uh two SSDs. Um, these are both two terabytes from Samsung. They're really fast. I also have two hotspots. So, a little hack is uh well, this guy that I have right here, this is a T-Mobile home internet. And uh I actually have T-Mobile as my cellular provider. So I do get a discount. It's 35 bucks a month uh for it. And there's no throttling at all. So if you're used to mobile hotspots like uh this second backup one that I have right here, they typically have a data cap of like 50 gigs or 100 gigs. Well, there's no data cap on that T-Mobile one. So I'll actually have internet the entire time that I'm out in the field with this T-Mobile uh home internet situation. And it's actually pretty fast. So, let me just uh actually like show you uh how quick this is. So, we're just going to be doing a new speed test. My uh my MacBook here is already connected to my T-Mobile hotspot. You can see it says uh T-Mobile right there. And for our download speeds, we're getting about 300 megabytes it looks like uh a second, which is uh which is plenty fast for being out in the field. And then for my upload, uh, this will fluctuate obviously, but I'm getting about 50 60 megabyte upload. Obviously, the upload speed is dependent on how close to the towers that you are. Um, but that is honestly an essential tool in my tool bag. I always have some kind of external internet, whether it's Starlink, whether it is this T-Mobile home internet, or I actually have a second backup right here. Uh, so this is a Netgear Nighthawk M1. And I actually recently found out about this uh this SIM base uh card that I have right here. It is a global SIM card. It's a data only SIM, but what's actually really interesting is how relatively cheap it is. Now, I'm not going to be using this for data upload. It's more of just a backup. But uh ultimately, it actually connects to all three carriers here in the US. And there's also options to connect to other carriers around the world. But in the US, the three major uh carriers that we have are is uh T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon. And what's cool about that SIM card right there is I can actually connect to all three of them, not all at the same time. It's going to automatically connect me to the fastest one. And to have that active, I think it's like two pennies a day uh to keep it active. And then for every megabyte of data that I use, it's also two pennies. Um, so really cheap. I actually have those in almost all of my mobile devices. So I've got one in or I've got multiple in uh all of my emids. Um, I also have them on my M4E and my uh M350 smart controller cuz I have the cellular dongle on those. So um, again, this is just a very easy data sim. Um, all the resources that I'm talking about right now, I'm going to put them in the description. Uh so you guys can just see kind of my tool bag and how I operate and how I'm able to, you know, have redundancy because uh the name of the game is to have redundancy. You don't want to be left dry, especially when I'm traveling uh pretty far uh to be able to get this done.

And then honestly, my last silver bullet that I have is uh this guy right here. This is a 300 watt charger. There are, you can see uh on here there's four USBC ports and a regular uh USB port on there. And it's a fast charger. Uh meaning I can get things charged quickly. Again, it's a 300 watt uh charger, so I can have my laptop charged. I can have my all my batteries charged. I can have multiple devices plugged in. And uh it's a great way, especially when you're traveling and bouncing from sight to sight to just have things constantly charging, but at a fast speed. You want fast charging. That's really important. Where most other chargers are like 35 watt or 65 watt, this is 300 watt. But, uh, that's everything that I have and I'm going to be traveling with, um, in my tool bag. Uh, again, I'm going to put links to literally everything that I have here. Oh, and the last and most important thing given that I am gathering uh, data, especially uh, infrared data for solar panels. I have a solar power meter here. Uh, basically, it's going to tell me the strength of well, the radiation from the sun. The value on here needs to be at 600. So, given that I'm inside right now, this is uh showing uh three. But if we go outside here, just going to go just outside of my office. Uh right now, I believe it's like 4:00 in the afternoon. Yep. Very, very bright. And uh well, it's overcast right now, so we can see. Okay, now the sun is starting to come out. If I uh There it is. Now, now that the sun fully came out, we're looking at pretty high values. 800, 850, 900, 1,000. Yep. So, I'll have this uh this power meter, the solar power meter with me because also on the spec, I need to have at least 600. This value needs to be at 600. So, when it's overcast, I'm probably going to have to pause the drone. I'll have to keep my finger on the drone um while this is out given that if I don't hit those values, it's not going to be able to give the right information for the deliverables to the client. But with all that prep being done, all that's left for me to do is well pack all of this stuff up and uh head to the airport and I will uh see you guys pretty much on the way out there and out in the field to well do these projects for uh for RAD. I'm a little skeptical again. I've never done any projects for RAD, so this will be a very unique experience to see what it's like to be a pilot for them. So, hopefully everything goes well, and there's really only one way to find out, and that's by uh well, you guys joining me on this journey. So, I'll uh I'll see you guys in Maine.

All right, it is the next day here in Maine. Um actually didn't realize the night that I was going to have last night after landing at uh Boston Logan Airport at around 10:00. took me about 30 minutes to get to my rental car. Uh, which that kind of sucked. And then, um, well, given that the schedule changed a bit, uh, from when I was initially planning, I actually was able to get a second site scheduled for today, which we're actually going to that site um, right now. Uh, I switched my hotels around, so I ended up driving for almost 4 hours last night. Didn't get to, uh, my hotel until pretty late um, in the morning. Uh, but one great thing about being up in the Northeast during the summer is well, sunrise. Sunrise was at 5:00 this morning. Actually 4:56 this morning, which means I'm going to have a ton of sunlight for the day, which is perfect. So, I've got an hour drive to get to this first site. Um, I picked the hotel that was uh closest to the site and it just so happened to be an hour away. Um, so I'm heading over there and I am hoping that I don't have to adjust the trackers for this site because uh the field tech that I'm meeting up with tomorrow, he's actually going to be able to get me access to three other sites um for tomorrow so that I can mess with the trackers and get them to the angle that they need to be in order for me to have an effective data collection. But with uh the sun almost being straight up in in in in the sky right now, um and it's only 9:40, which is actually crazy. Um I think I'll be able to hit two sites today, which will make my data collection for tomorrow even more efficient. Uh one thing I was a little scared about was not having enough time to do all four sites tomorrow. Um which I mean I came out all this way. Uh I took a three-hour flight plus driving for 4 hours to my hotel. So, I want to make sure I can get everything done. So, with that being said, um I actually did have to stop into Walmart. Um I made the uh the bad assumption that the car that I rented was going to have uh a regular 110 uh or 120 outlet. That was not the case. So, I actually couldn't use my T-Mobile hotspot um that I brought with me. So, I ended up buying So, I ended up buying um this uh power inverter and I got some road snacks. So, um we'll be fed. We'll be happy. But, uh, let's go ahead and get to this first site so we can start doing some data collection.

All right, after our hour drive to our first site here, I am now on the access road. See right here? So, just going to make my way up the road. So, before I actually throw the drone up in the air, I am just going to do a very quick sight walk, um, I'm just going to walk around the perimeter. The reason why I want to walk around the perimeter is I just want to find any anomalies such as tall trees, maybe some power lines. There's actually, uh, you can kind of see there's one. Nope, that's not it. There's one right here. Uh, but given the altitude that I'll be flying at, at 150 ft, I don't think I'll run into anything. Um, I definitely will be doing a terrain following mission out here. Um, so I do have two bars, which is perfect. And that is enough for my T-Mobile hotspot as well. Um, so let me go ahead and get on my H High Viz vest. We're going to do a sitewalk just to well make sure that uh there's no issues or there's not going to be any issues for our flight here. Honestly, I should be able to do this in one battery. Um I'm not really seeing Yeah, I'm not really seeing much here that's going to mess up the flight. And there is practically no wind today, so I don't have to deal with any head or tailwind on the drone. Um but yeah, let's go and uh let's go do our sitewalk. I will say uh as a drone operator, it is always important to wear a high viz vest. That way when you're in unfamiliar territory like where I'm at today, people don't question you as to uh why are you flying a drone and all these other things. Uh but I think with the site that I'm at right now, I should be totally fine given that I did have to drive up an access road. Let me get my car keys here and We're on our way here. So, I would usually have uh the site access right now, but given that today is Memorial Day, um the uh the field tech was not available. Uh but again, I wanted to make uh efficient use of my time while I'm out here. So, given that this was the furthest site away um and was not going to be one that the field tech could meet me at, I figured I'd do this one. These ones are on tractor, so I will probably have to wait a little bit um to make sure that these are all at the right angle. Um and I will be able to check that here uh very shortly. But yeah, so the first part of the site assessment is well to do a walk. Again, I would be driving in here, but it is a holiday. So I'm just going to walk around the perimeter um on this site. And then the second thing that I'm going to do is I'm going to be flying the drone um up at the desired altitude for uh where I'll be doing the data collection and just checking with the drone first before I actually throw it into an automated uh flight path. And uh there's actually the tracker controls uh right behind me here. Uh but I don't I don't really think there's going to be any issues with this site here. It's actually relatively accessible uh given given the environment that I'm in right now. Uh now I am on the back of well just about I don't know uh about 500 ft. There are other people's properties right there but yeah, I shouldn't shouldn't really have any issues getting around this site here. Yeah, this this does look pretty clear. So, as you can see, I'm on the back side of just the solar panels here. And uh yeah, it is it is nice and clear. But I'm going to quickly walk around. If I find anything that sticks out, I will let you know. Uh otherwise, we'll uh be taking a look at the drone's view first to well make sure that there is nothing in the sky that I have to worry about. Um given that this will be a fully automated flight, I don't think there's going to be much that I'm going to have to uh really do other than just monitor the actual drone itself. Uh so should be pretty straightforward here.

All right, so given that I am early here, right, we just finished up the sitewalk. I didn't find anything that stood out. Uh granted, I did only fly about half the site, but uh what I'm now going to do is I'm just going to pop the drone up to make sure there's nothing that I uh I couldn't see from the ground level here. So, uh this is actually one of the nice things about bringing multiple batteries is uh that you can use a few batteries to burn in terms of uh well being able to check for safety reasons. And I do this on every site. You've seen this from several other episodes that I've done. You saw this from the very first episode that I did. I don't typically put the drone up first. That's actually one of the more later steps in my full walkthrough inspection cuz at the end of the day, it's all about safety. You want to make sure that you can confidently and comfortably fly your site without putting your drone into a situation that's going to well cause you to crash it. So, uh that's exactly what I'm doing here, right? I did my sitewalk. I already knew what I was driving to, but I just I don't know what the environment looks like given for well the information that I have from Google Maps, it looks flat. But well, clearly this is not a flat site. I mean, you can even see the elevation difference just on the camera here. I've got the drone booted up. Let me go ahead and get my screen recording going here. And uh we're just going to go into the camera view. Uh we're not going to fly with RTK right now uh cuz I don't need to. Actually, let me take my sunglasses off so I can see this a little bit better. We'll go ahead and take off here. And what we're going to do is we're just going to uh well fly the site here. So, oh yeah, this is going to be very easy. So, let's just go up to the altitude of that 150 ft. I'm in meters. All right. So, let me drop it down to 45 meters. Okay. Oh, yeah. So, I'm not going to run into anything. And uh let's see here. I think this is the I guess I got to change the controls on here a little bit, but let's put this to 0 degrees on the gimbal. Okay. Actually, this is a relatively uh flat site. So, let me go all the way to the other other end of the site where I'll be uh doing the main data collection at. What's also great about these uh Enterprise drones is they have this feature here. So, I can monitor, you know, any obstacles that may be in front of the drone. Yeah, I can I can still clearly see it where it's at. So, we'll be totally fine to fly this entire site. I'm not seeing any towers. I'm not really seeing anything that's going to obstruct um the drone. I think this is going to be perfectly fine. Now, if we're pointing it straight down 90°, let's actually go into a little bit more. So, this is pretty much going to be our view right here. If we do the side by side. Okay. Yeah, I can I can see what they're uh what they're going to be achieving here. Oh, it looks like I'm on a zoom right here. Let me go out. There we go. Okay. So, yeah, this will be the 6 cm uh per pixel GSC that they're getting. This is on the white hot setting that they did put in there. Okay. Yeah, I'm not going to have any issues. Yeah, there's there's nothing that this drone is going to hit. So, let me let me just go ahead and bring it back home right now. Um, really the only thing I have to wait for is the optimal angle uh for these panels that need to be pitched at about 15°. I do have a uh a level on here. Obviously, it's not perfect like a real level. It's a digital level on my iPhone. So, just kind of looking at the angle that they're at right now. They're all at about a 20ish degree. So, I did use a mobile app, an AR app to show me the position of the sun. I got to wait about another, I would say, 30 minutes until the sun is at an optimal uh optimal height or not height, but angle where all of these solar panels are. Once it's well basically noon, uh all of these panels will be tilted uh at about that 15 degree angle, which is what I need to what they need to be at. Um again, I don't have the full access to this site. I can't go and change the tracker uh angle, even though I can literally see the panel right there. I just I can't get into this site. Um, so we're going to let the drone land and then we're going to wait here for another well 30 minutes until it's noon so that I can go ahead and get this flight done. But, uh, while we're waiting, while this lands, I don't really think I need to do terrain following to be honest. But, let's just let's just take a look at what this is going to be. So, we're going to be flying this Harmony flight here. You can actually see where I've already flown. And, uh, let me go into the edit. Here I am already connected to the internet. Uh, let's go to this AGL. We will download one from the internet. Okay. I mean it looks like it'll follow it the way it's supposed to follow it. So we'll um we'll keep it at these values right now. I guess we'll make a game time decision come uh come 12:00. So, I'll uh I'll just save this for now. We'll we'll hang out in the car and um we'll actually go through the RAD dashboard one more time uh because I actually need to start the mission in there uh once I get here to the site. There's a few prompts that I'll have to go through. I actually haven't done it yet. So, we're actually going to be doing it live together for the first time. Um, but yeah, we'll uh we'll start we'll start the project on there and we'll go through all the prompts that it gives me. That way I can well document that I'm doing the data collection here properly.

All right, it's about uh well, we can see 15 minutes until 12:00 here and I have been watching these panels and they have been shifting. They're actually at the optimal angle that we need right now. Um and given that it's going to be a 30-minute flight, we have plenty of time to do our data collection uh out here. So here I've actually got my harmony mission pulled up. We'll click on the view mission. Uh again, we'll just quickly go through the overview. So we're actually at a very optimal score right this second. We can see on the actual score map right here. So this is actually the perfect time to be doing our data collection. All we got to do is click on the start mission here. We will click start. Now all we have to do is well one get a SD card in the drone itself and do our flight. So uh we're done here on uh the desktop. All I'll have to do is just come back on here and do the uh mission complete and then we'll do a live upload. I might have to drive over to the other site first, uh, which is not too far from where I'm at here to do the upload, given I only have like one or two bars of, uh, cell cellular connectivity, given I am kind of somewhat in the middle of nowhere. Uh, but anyways, let's uh let's get an SD card in the drone, which I've got my tech pack right here with all of my SD cards. I'm going to put a fresh one in there. I've got 128 gig cards. That'll be more than enough uh space for all the images that we'll be gathering here. All right. And I'm going to get a fresh battery for the drone. That way, we're able to uh do our full data collection. So, let me let me go swap out the battery. All right. And actually, let's get an SD card in here first. Plug this guy in. Okay. And a fresh battery. Let's get it booted on. Let me grab the controller. So, before we actually do our data collection with the drone, we need to make sure that we are hitting our figure. And as we can see, we're sitting at almost a,00 900. There it is a thousand. So we're actually at our rate and I'm pointing at the direction that all of these panels are roughly facing. So if I just, you know, slightly tilt in multiple different directions. I'm still hitting about a,000. It dips down to 850, but it's above the 600 value that we need in order to do our proper data collection. So with this properly verified here, which you can see the values that we're hitting, I still think it's about a,000 850. We are we're actually flying OP and there's no clouds out which is uh actually perfect even though the uh the radar said uh or the weather uh said otherwise here um on my on my weather app. Uh yeah, all that's left is to well send the drone off. So we are going to hit the play button here um and we'll set the RTH to uh 50 m given that I'm flying 45. Click next. Yep, this is totally fine. And upload start. Okay. And we will let the drone get to its first starting point. I'm just going to monitor it uh while it gets to its spot. And I wish I had my sunglasses on right now. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. Okay. So, uh now we let it do its thing for the next 33 minutes. We've got about looks like we're actually getting a lot of uh time in this um about 39 minutes of uh flight time available on the actual system itself with uh well 33 minutes left. So, I think we'll be absolutely golden for doing all of our data collection in one single battery. If anything comes up, I will pop back on here and let you know. But, uh, now it's time to just play well, babysitter, uh, with the drone, making sure that, you know, we're doing our optimal, uh, data collection. And, uh, yeah. So, I'll pop back on here if there's anything that I got to update you with. Other than that, carry on with this flight and, uh, we'll show you what it looks like to close it out within the RAD dashboard.

Okay, now that we're out of the sun and all the bugs, I don't know if you noticed, but they are literally everywhere. Crawling in my ear, my nose. Not fun, but hey, it's part of the job. Um, we're going to get the SD card out, which I just pulled out of the drone here. Be very careful with this cuz I just spent the last 40 minutes flying. And uh let me get my laptop out here so that one we can confirm that we completed our data collection. Um I'm also let's see let's get my SD card converter here first. Let's um let's actually take a look at the SD card here. There are multiple um folders here and we should see a radiometric and an RGB in succession with each other. Excellent. Okay. Um, well, first things first, let's get my SSD so we can immediately back up all of this data. I'm going to make a new folder called RAD. And this will be Harmony. And in here, we will take uh what is this folder here? Think I accidentally just hit the button, but that's fine. We'll take all of this. So, it's a total of well 15 and a half gigs. So, um I will definitely not be able to upload all this uh out here in the field. And I guess in the meantime, we'll just go ahead and click um mark flight complete. Uh we do need to go to the upload. And uh I'll have to do this at the other site uh once I actually have some proper internet connectivity here because yeah, this is going to take about 40 minutes and I think it's about a 40. Okay, there we go. Much faster now. Um I think we're about like 30 minutes from the other site that I'm supposed to fly for today, which the other site that we're going to, those are not on trackers at all. Uh which means they're all fixed. So we're at an actually we're at an optimal time of day today to fly.

Okay, we are now here at the second site here in Pittsfield. We can actually see we do have a little bit of overcast. It's honestly just this one big cloud that's going over. So obviously my uh solar radiance levels of the 600 will not be met right this second. However, what I will do just like I did on the other site is I'm going to just pop the drone up and um you know double check this entire area making sure that well there's no anomalies. Um I do see a little bit of taller trees but they look like the same species of trees from the other site. So I don't really think I'm going to run into any issues on that front. One thing I did notice when I got here though is uh you can see there's some solar panels right here. I'm not sure if they've actually been added into this well boundary that I've uploaded. So, I'm actually going to show you a little trick uh that I like to do on sites. Well, because given the Google saddle imagery is not up to date, this literally just looks like trees, like a ton of trees around. Um and so obviously I'm basing my entire mission plan based off of what the client gave me. So, to ensure that the drone will be flying within well the boundary that was given to me, I'm going to manually pop the drone up. And what's really cool is on the DJI Pilot 2 app, when you do a manual flight, it's going to put white lines in terms of where the drone flew the trajectory uh path. So, I'm going to fly to each corner of this entire site here and then I will pop into the actual mission plan and then see if well the corners that I fly to correlate to the actual area that encompasses the solar panels out here. By doing that, it'll also give me a bit of time to let these uh clouds pass over to give me a little bit more well solar radiance. Uh this actually was expected. I was actually more so expecting these clouds to be at the other site, but I actually had no clouds the entire time. Um, but anyways, let me go ahead and get the drone up. We'll do a quick little check. I'll show you exactly how that works. And, um, yeah, from there, we'll be doing another automated mission, which should be pretty easy. Here, let's uh, let's take her off. And I am going to fly off to this first section over here. We'll go up to that 45 meters. Close enough. I'm actually just going to fly around the perimeter a little bit higher. And I'm not doing this perfect. I just want to create one basic flight path that goes around the entire site here. And uh this site is actually really not that big at all. Excellent. So, we'll now let this return home. Basically, I'm just going to let it uh land by itself. But what we're going to do is we're going to go out. We're going to go into our flight route, and we are going to go into Pittsfield right here. Oh, wow. Okay. So, you can see the actual flight path that I flew in the white. I am going to make some adjustments to this mission plan so that well I don't have to actually cover as far out as it goes. It actually looks like it's just eating up a lot more. So I can go in and actually adjust this a little bit which I will. So let me just bring this out to here. This was fine. Bring this down a little bit and save. There we go. Okay. Um, and now let's uh actually I'm going to put a brand new battery in, but let's also check the solar ariance. Um, oh, perfect. Okay, all the clouds are going this way, and there's no clouds behind me right now. So, let me grab my meter real quick. Okay, and while the drone boots on, we'll turn this on and let's see. Oh, yeah, we're sitting at about a thousand, it should say. Let me see here. Yep. We're sitting at about a thousand. Perfect. And all of these solar panels, let's see what direction they're facing. They're kind of like this. So, they're actually getting about 700 800 right now, which is perfect. Okay, that is all set. So, now all that's left is to uh send the drone off. We'll hit next. Yes, this is totally fine. and start another successful data collection. Man, I really wish I had access to those other sites today uh for the trackers. Although that's not going to be the case because the next set I think is about like an hour and a half away. Um and the sun is not going to be in a position where I can rely on the automated uh trackers to be in the position that I want them to be in. But um yeah, I'll see you at the hotel to get all of this stuff uploaded and then show you how I prepare for multiple days of flying. What I do at the hotel to ensure that I am ready to go from the sites that will be hitting the next day. Um so I'll uh I'll see you there shortly.

Just got my hotel. I am breaking everything out so that I can get all my stuff charging. That way I have full batteries for tomorrow, not with just the drone, but also the controller. Um, I'm also going to upload all of the data that we collected today. Um, like I said, I've already dumped everything to this uh portable SSD that I have right here. It's a two terbte pretty fast. And uh, well, we can see here on the rad missions. Here's Harmony and then Pittsfield what I just flew. So, if we go in here, here are all of our images. So, the way that we want to, I believe, get this all uploaded properly. First, start with Harmony, which we did this morning. Click on the view mission and upload. Go to the browse files here. And let's make sure that we have the right. All right, we'll do this first folder here. We'll hit open. We will add more photos. I will do the second folder. And we'll do one more for that fix that we did. Okay. Um over 3,000 photos. Uh nice. That's a lot of data. Click upload. This is going to take some time. So, we are just going to let it do its thing here. Opening this up. Let's go ahead and pull out controller. And actually, a little system that I did here to u categorize which batteries I used versus which ones I didn't use. If you take a look here, you can see I actually put all of these in backwards. This one is facing the right way. So, that's full. This one was used. That one was used. That one was used. And that one was used. This one, I believe, is still full. And then I also put a fresh battery in here. But we'll take out all of these used ones, including both triple chargers. We can close this guy. And with the 300 watt inverter already plugged in, since both of these DJI chargers are 100 watts, I'll be able to maximize the top and bottom. And then same thing with our controller. And these will all actually be able to do fast charge. So, if I plug the controller in, we will notice that it is doing the fast charge. Whenever the indicator lights here blinking really fast, like what we see here, that's fast charge. You will also notice the same thing with these batteries here. When we plug these in, these will also do fast charge. Very effective way to get uh at least two batteries at a time charging. Perfect. So, now I've got batteries charging, controller charging, and my computer charging all with one device here. I'm going to be letting these uh photos upload. It's going to it's going to take some time. So, I'll just let this upload in the background. I am going to go get some lobster rolls cuz one, I'm hungry. It's uh 4:30 and the only thing I've had to eat today was uh three Incrustables. So, I need to do a little bit better with uh nourishing myself.

All right, good morning. It is the next day. Uh I have already actually met with the field tech uh out at one of their solar fields. Um but instead of doing this one this morning cuz it's only 6:22, I do want the sun to come up just a little bit more um so that I can actually gather, you know, enough solar radiance on these solar panels. One thing I did find out is that I actually don't have to set these trackers manually. Um Dave just gave me a contact the field tech that I was just with uh to basically a remote operated control center uh that is going to manually uh change over the pitch of all of the panels for me. So I actually don't have to do it myself. Um they already actually know that I'm heading to a different site. I'm going about 35 minutes north to the furthest north site that I'll be flying for today. Um, and I'm actually gonna make really really good time today. Beautiful day as well. There's no not a single cloud in the sky. So, uh, I'm I'm actually I'm actually pretty excited about uh about this. From what I heard, I was actually supposed to be out here the previous week not during Memorial Day holiday. Um, but it has rained a lot here apparently and these two days have been so clear. Well, it's the start of the second day right now, but um it's been so clear, it's been beautiful, and it's been perfect weather to do the data collection. So, that is, you know, one of the things with doing data collection um for solar panels as well. You need sun. It's not like regular mapping projects where I can do it on overcast days. um given that we need a certain solar radiance level in order to properly, you know, capture the production levels of what these panels are doing.

All right, just arrived to our site that's furthest north. Going to go ahead and open up this fence here so I can get in. Let me just put the code in that he gave me. Given that this is the site that I broke up into three individual flights, what I'm going to do is I'm actually going to put myself uh well, I'm going to essentially locate myself um in between all three of these sites. That way I can well maintain visual line of sight of the drone the entire time. I was given a number to call um cuz I don't actually have to manually do the trackers. Actually, before I do that, let me get out my solar radiance meter here and let's actually go and take a look at what the levels are reading right now. If I point it at the direction of where the sun is. Okay, actually we are getting some good values right now. But I think the panels need to be kind of like this. So reading at that level, we can kind of see uh let's see here. Actually, we we are hitting decent levels. We can see Hold on. It's kind of hard to see what this is spitting out, but at about a 15° angle, it's going to look at something like this. So, what are we getting on the readings? 570ish. Yep. So, we'll probably wait another 20 or 30 minutes for the sun to move a little bit more. I'll pull this back out, but in the meantime, let me go ahead and get the panels all set in position.

>> On the block, this is Andrew.

>> Hey, Andrew. This is Dylan, the drone pilot.

>> Um, are you able to set the panels to about 15 degrees to the east?

>> Yeah. Let me take a look here. You said 15° east.

>> Yep.

>> All right. They should be moving.

>> Yep, they are. Awesome. I appreciate it. I will give you a call um as soon as I'm done so you guys can get back to production.

>> Perfect. Sounds good.

>> All right. Appreciate it. Bye.

>> Talk to you later. No problem. Bye.

>> Look at that. There they go. All of them are moving. This is pretty cool. And off our drone goes. So, at this point, given that we don't have any clouds in the sky, I don't have to have my hand on the pause button. I just need to make sure the drone's not going to crash anything, which it's not because we already did our site check. Basically, this is just a rinse and repeat of yesterday just at three new sites. So, we'll let the drone do its thing. I'm going to monitor it. I'm going to have my coffee now and we should uh we should be done by around noon today, which I'm stoked about.

All right, just finished up with the last flight here. So now we get to bring the drone back home. So now all that's left is to give believe Andrew is his name a call to let him know that we are all done here. This is Andrew.

>> Hey, Andrew. It's Dylan. I am all wrapped up here at Augusta.

>> All right, perfect. I'll send it back to auto.

>> All right, I appreciate it. I'll be uh heading over to uh Monmouth. Um so I'll be giving you a call in about like 354 minutes or so.

>> Perfect. Sounds good. We'll talk to you then.

>> All right. Chat then.

>> All right. Yeah.

>> Let's see these things in action here. Oh, look at that. Already going. That's so cool. I'll let this do its thing. Uh I just I think it's so cool that they could just remotely do that. I have no idea where these guys are stationed at. So, the fact that I don't even know how many panels are out here. Um that they can just change them on a dime. Pretty cool. But anyways, let me uh I got to wrap up here. I got to go 35 minutes back south to that first site that I was at that I met up with David and then uh then I got one more site for the day. But I'm not really going to drag you guys on for the rest of this. What I'll do is I'm going to just get all this stuff done. Um I would say overall um as I'm just halfway through doing all the projects, this has actually been pretty easy and typically some of the other platforms that I've worked on jobs this easy. I mean, okay, I shouldn't say that easy. Obviously, I have to have the right equipment. So, you know, having an M3T or an M4T is about a $7 to $10,000 investment. So, obviously, you have to have that equipment in hand before you can even get qualified to do this job, plus have a little bit of mapping um experience.

So, it's relatively easy compared to a lot of the other projects that I've done for some of the other platforms where even a site like this on one platform in specific, they would probably pay a max of like 200 bucks. These are $700 a site. They're all about the same amount of work. I would say that this has been like the shortest amount of time for flight given that it was about 20 or so minutes of flight. The other two or four sites that I'm going to be doing, um the two that I did yesterday and the two that I have left for today are also about 40-minute flights. And then obviously there's the time in between. And yes, I know there's other expenses in terms of my flights, my hotel. Um, but again, given that this was an opportunity that I wanted to take to see, hey, what is the workflow look like and is it worth the pay, I would say so far, yeah.

I mean, $700 a site for, you know, really not too much work. Just making sure that the drone is operating properly, gathering the data, right, making sure that we're following the right protocols and and and procedures that they had set over to us, uh, basically the SOP. It's it's it's not that difficult. And I do appreciate the precedent that they are trying to set when it comes to equal pay or not just equal pay but valued pay. Right? A lot of the other platforms do not have valued pay. They just will get the lowest the lowest number. um usually always wins because well that's what the client wants to pay. But that in turn creates a lot of wishy-washy uh pilots that come in that don't really know what they're doing and providing bad data to their clients which then makes the clients not trust that the company is doing the data collection properly. Right? So it's it's this whole like negative feedback loop of if you don't get the right person for the right job, you're just going to keep cycling through people until you eventually get it right. that costs a lot of money where instead of just paying the right price for the right service, for the right deliverables the first time, you know, I I think I think what RAD is doing is uh I appreciate the effort that they're putting into this and I'm excited to see what this future looks like uh with more projects, more missions coming online. And I think of actually last night I was looking at the dashboard and there's probably about 40 or 50 new projects that have popped up over the last 48 hours um since a lot of this stuff went live. So super stoked to just see the longevity of it. But so far this has been very very smooth sailing. I have honestly no complaints um so far. But let me finish up here. Hey. Hey. Hey.

So, to keep this video from going much longer than it needs to be, um, I finished up all of the projects out in the field. You were obviously with me for most of it. I just cut out a lot of the boring parts, aka me babysitting the drone. But, uh, I really just wanted to close out this video and give you my honest opinions about the RAD platform from accepting the missions to actually receiving the SOPs and what I actually need to do in the field to actually getting out there and doing the projects myself. I would say just as a TLDDR, I think RAD is headed in a fantastic direction and I'm not being paid to say that. This is my honest opinion, there are many different drone provider networks that exist out there and they all have their different way of doing things. Now, they also have a lot of things that I don't agree with either. They're not perfect by any means and it also depends on which side of the spectrum that you get to work with them. Some of them are just more I would say consumer style projects where they're 75 bucks, 100, 150 bucks where if you're able to get onto their enterprise services such as doing solar fields like what I did in this video or maybe doing large mapping projects that you've seen in some of the other episodes or even just some of the overall videos that I've done on my channel, then you're going to be sitting in a very good position.

Now, this is why I think RAD is going to actually be a superstar here in the short future is they are having very competitive pay and rates for the actual desired services that are being provided to well the clients that are on their platform. As a drone service provider myself, I would say that these prices are pretty fair. Like you saw all of the projects that I did within this episode here, they were $700 a piece. And yes, I already mentioned that there are other expenses, but I'm writing those off as just an expense on my part. I really wanted to throw myself out there and put myself in the shoes of other drone service providers that are looking to having different streams of income. And this is one of those that can also be in your streams of income in terms of being able to provide services. Now, back to RAD, right? I think overall, yes, they are a very young company. They still have a long way to go when it comes to the platform that they're building out. I think a lot of the tools that they already have on there are actually incredible. Some stuff that I actually have not seen before. A lot of these other drone provider networks just give you a PDF or just basically like a bullet point list in an email of, hey, we need you to do this, this, and that. Whereas with RAD, yes, they have that on terms in terms of what you need to do on the project site, but they have it laid out in a very clean and easy to understand interface. I also like their interactive map where it throws on the KML, the boundary of where you're going to be flying. This is obviously more specific for automated mapping projects like what I did within this video, but I think overall with a lot of the interactive and intuitive interfaces and tabs that they have built on for each mission, honestly, I love it. As someone who is very detail orientated, I I would say that anybody that has never done complex projects can easily jump on, be able to interpret and understand everything that is required of them and be able to deliver every single time. And not only is that a good thing for you as the drone pilot or the contract pilot that's working for RAD, but it's also good for RAD to be able to demonstrate that to their clients and can maybe even also help you organize for your specific clientele if you have certain clients that you work with, you're going after, right? I think this entire ecosystem of what RAD has built out, what they're building out, and what they're aiming to achieve for really the long-term growth of their company, I think is fantastic. And I think they have more than just two legs to stand on. I think they're going to be a real competitor within the drone provider network space where they're able to provide very high quality deliverables to any and all clients that they bring onto their platform as well as be able to pay the pilots properly. the guys that are actually out in the field, that are using their equipment, that are driving, flying, do going to these properties physically and being able to actually deliver on what needs to be delivered the first time, not the second, third, fourth, or fifth time like the lower paying jobs in terms of it's you pay what you get for or you get what you pay for as that saying goes. And again, 700 bucks I think is pretty fair for we'll call it about an hour's worth of work. I am totally taking out the travel time uh involved with it. Again, if I lived in Maine, the expenses would be very minimal, but that's beside the point. Overall, I think RAD is headed in a great direction. If you guys want to check out RAD, again, I'm not being paid for this. You can go check out the link down below to learn more about RAD, see what they're doing, and become a pilot for them. It's totally free just like all the other provider networks as well as all of the resources to all the equipment that I use within this video. I think a lot of them are necessities when it comes to being uh proficient out in the field, such as having these SSDs and multiple different hotspots and just everything that I brought with me allows me to be super efficient and proficient out in the field. So, I have links to all of that down below. If you want to see more style videos like this, I have several other episodes that are live. I have more episodes that are coming here um in the future. Be sure to become a member on the channel or become a member on the Pilot Bite platform. But with that being said, if you guys enjoyed this video, please be sure to give it a like. I'd love to hear your thoughts about RAD, maybe some of the concerns that you guys may have so that we can have a conversation about it. And if you want to see more from me in the future, be sure to subscribe. With that being said, I will see you guys in the next one.

Hey guys, welcome back to another Drone Pilot Insider Uncut. In this video, or I should say this episode, we actually have a pretty uh simple project. Uh I am here in central Florida only doing a small 7 acre LAR data collection except uh I'm going to be showing you a few I guess different workflows that I like to go through especially when we come to well some thick vegetation. Well this is grass but really what I have behind me here it's kind of hard to see. Well my truck is in the way. Let me move over here. Uh basically the rest of the lot is behind here. And as we can see, very, very thick vegetation back here. So, there's a few things that we actually need to do before we can actually fly. And what that consists of is getting ground control points set in here. So, the goal is to, I think, get five ground control points set. So, I'm going to set uh four of them here primarily on this property. And then I actually have to go around on the back side. Uh there's a small access road that I'll be able to go to and set a control point over there. Uh once those are set, I can throw the drone up in the air and really just go through those simple workflows. But, um I actually did bring a weed whacker with me today because as you can see, this is uh really thick grass. So, I need to get it cut down to the ground level, which is why it's called the ground control point, so that I can get an accurate measurement and accurately tie the LAR data to the surface. So, the first thing is, well, we got to shave the top of the grass. So, I actually ended up uh bringing my weed eater, or I should say, my weed whacker, which I do have right here. So, I'm going to clear a few different spots. I'm going to be clearing a two foot by two foot patch. Um, one because that's the size of the aerial targets that I'll be using. Uh, actually I'm make it a little bit bigger. Um, but two because I need that target to sit as flush with the ground as possible. And the only way to do that is to well trim this this really tall grass here. Now, as much as I want to get into the corners of the properties, I can't really do that because, well, you can see there's there's trees here. So, I'm gonna get as close to these corners of the property as I can. Now, given that I'm in central Florida, we there's no hills um specifically where I'm at. I mean, the biggest elevation change that there is are these uh ditches um uh for just storm water. Um, so I don't really have to think too much in terms of precisely where these uh these ground control points go, but I do need to make them, you know, spread evenly across the property. So, here I'm going to pick a spot uh just past where I'm at right now. We'll do this. Right here actually is a good spot. So, let's uh So, here you can see here is my twoft by two foot small patch. And if we take a look, if I come in here, look at this difference here. Right? If I were to place my target up above, we'd be sitting a good five, six, even seven inches above of where this actual ground level is at. Right? So, by clearing this entire area, I'm going to be placing the ground control point right here. It's just going to be a 5/8 rod. But look, look at that difference, especially with this really tall grass right here. And an issue that I see or a mistake that I see a lot of uh drone pilots that first start out by placing ground control points if a client asks them to do it is they don't make it flush. Right? It's in the name a ground control point. It needs to be on the ground. It can't be floating above on the vegetation here. Which is why we need to make it as flush as possible. Ideally, what I could even do is go and pretty much cut and kill all that grass right there and make it as flat as possible. Ultimately, what's going to be developed here, apparently, it's going to be like a little condo uh complex um or condominium complex. But, you know, with that being said, I need to tie the data to the ground. That's why we give it a very nice buzz cut. Um so, I'm going to do a few more of these. That way we have all of our spots that are evenly cut for our ground control points to precisely sit flat on the ground. We'll then put our 5/8 rods in and then we'll gather the points. So, let me get a few more of these spots cut out and uh we'll uh we'll keep going from here. Hey, you can see how thick this grass is over here. So, it's really good that we're cutting this out. All right. So, I just found the uh the last spot that I'm going to be putting a ground control point on. You can already see I've got my Emlid Reach set up on it. Just waiting for it to boot up. um had to go onto basically the outskirts of the property. I mean, you can see we've got this uh man-made lake that's right behind me here, but the reason I had to go on the outskirts is cuz there is nowhere else that I can actually place uh a ground control point within the property. I mean, it's really thick vegetation. Look, let me show you here. Like all all of this here and then it goes back pretty far that direction as well. like I cannot get in there. And this property line for where I'm gathering pretty much ends right where this lake here, well pond I should say, uh starts. So I am having to set a ground control point just on the outskirts of the property. I'm going to fly just a little bit more than uh what the client is asking for just so that I can actually get this target in here. Um given that this is the furthest target out that I can actually well gather on the site. Um, all this vegetation here is the primary reason why we're using LAR. Cannot use photoggramometry to figure out what the ground or what the topography looks like here. So, I think this guy is done booting up. Let me go ahead and just connect directly to it. Let me just turn my truck off so that my phone is stops connecting to it. Uh, looks like I've already joined my emlet here. So, let's go into the emllet flow application. All right. Let's uh go into the mlid. We will be using end as our correction input. I'm going to be using the rock base network. I believe there is something close by. Reason it's not working is because I need to make sure that my hotspot is booted on. So, let's see here. I'm using the uh SIM base um uh data SIM in here. Basically, it connects to whatever the closest cellular tower is and whatever the the fastest cellular provider is. Typically, it always uses uh T-Mobile from my experience here, but I've enabled it to connect to uh Verizon and AT&T if needed, but uh this one, as you can see, it likes to use T-Mobile. So, this usually takes about like a minute or two for it to decide to start working, but once it's working, it it works great. So, I'm just going to keep playing around with these until I actually get a a connection here. I guess while we wait for that, what I'm going to do is I'm going to set up our actual survey project. So, I'm going to click I'm going to go to the survey tab here. Click the plus button. And this is Saint Cloud, the actual property. All right, 495 Orange A. I'll just do this. 495 Orange A. And our coordinate system, we're on the east side of Florida. So I need to do Florida east. So there NAT 83 2011 Florida east US survey feet. And then we're going to be using J818 for our height. Um linear units US survey feet. Beautiful. So hit save on that. Now that we've created this Oh, that map is uh not correct there. So let me go back here to the mobile data. Let's see if we can get this working now. Okay, finally got it working. uh took me a little bit longer. Just had to basically reboot the emlid and now it's working. So we can see in the top lefthand corner it says LTE which means I'm connected. So if I back out of here and I go into our end trip corrections um we should theoretically here in a few seconds start receiving corrections. See what's going on here. It shows I've got internet but um me boot it off. boot it back on. Maybe I've got internet. It's showing I do. Okay, there we go. So, now it says fix and we can hear that it is connected. And we're actually not too far away from a base station. We're only about 5 and a half kilometers away. So, if I scroll out of here and I go into our survey tab, I'll go to our St. Cloud. And if I scroll out, we can see, yep, actually, it's not too far away. Um, so yeah, about 5 and a half km away is the base station that we're connected to. And we're actually going to be flying RTK for this flight as well. And when I do my PPK processing, which we'll do later on in this episode, I'm just going to pull a file from that base station. That way I don't have to have my emllet running, which is very nice. So now that we've got this uh set up here, let's go ahead and start actually collecting this data point right here, or this ground control point. So the first thing we're going to do is hit the plus button. We're going to change my average time over to uh 3 minutes. That is what I typically always do. Drop this down. We'll save only on fix. Let's save. And we already have our pole height. So, this is a standard 2 m pole. 2 m converted into feet is 6.562 ft. So, we've got that uh set up properly. Let's check our POP. Perfect. Our POP is 1.3. Beautiful. Uh, this is talking to 32 satellites. Our base station is talking to 29 satellites. So, everything here looks great. So, all we have to do, we're going to call this GCP one description. Uh, we'll do we'll do lake or pond, whatever, pond. Um, and I'll call it temp because I've got a feeling that uh the neighbor across the street right now is looking at me and he's been staring at me for the last uh 15 minutes that I've been here. So, he may or may not tear this up. So, click done and uh we'll click measure. So, now we wait 3 minutes to gather this point. Um, I'm not going to let this run on for 3 minutes. So, I'll go ahead and just meet you at the other uh points or other ground control points that we'll set. This one, like I said, there's I've got a neighbor across the street, so I kind of put my truck in the way. Um, just so that I'm not bothered. Uh, so I'll go and film those other ones of setting in the 5/8 rod and putting the cap on and kind of showing you my process um on on how I do that. So, I'll let this run here and I'll meet you at the other ground control points that we set.

Okay, so now that we just finished gathering our point, we can now take off the emlid off of the point and we'll set our aerial target. So, the key here is to get the center of this target placed on well, the center of where the point was marked. So, I've got it set there. Go ahead and get one of these stakes here in the ground. And then I like to go onto the opposite corner here. Oh, that one went in very smooth. This guy in. And then I like to put one right here in the center just to flatten out this point. That way it's not bulging up. So that way it sits perfectly flush like what we can see right here. So yeah. Now let me go set the other four and then we'll be ready to fly here very shortly. Now, this uh orange tape that I have here, use this so that I can easily identify it if I ever need to come back out here or if anybody else needs to come and maybe reshoot these targets in, or I should say these ground control points just go like that. And then we'll just finish pounding this all the way in so that it is flush with the ground that we can see here. So going to do this three more times to finish out and then we'll gather these points with our emlid.

Okay, so now that all of the ground control points are set up, the aerial targets are placed on them. I actually did one extra thing and I did a few check marks. Uh, well, I did a few ground checks. So, this entire driveway that we can see right here, I think I did five uh driveway checkpoints. And then I also did I think 10 or 11 in the grass around me here. And the main reason for that is just it's a way to help validate the actual vertical accuracy of the data that we are collecting out here. Yes, I have the ground control points to actually anchor the lighter data to well the ground, but all these checkpoints are just in place to help validate that where the actual points in the point cloud are sitting are representative of where they're actually supposed to be sitting in the real world. So all these check marks that I set, which are about 15, they're not actually being used to anchor the lighter data. They're being used to help validate the actual X, Y, and Z, mostly the Z position on all of the control points themselves. So, it is 9:45 right now. Um, I'm actually going to be doing something a little bit more experimental on this site. The first data collection that I do will be the most accurate form, but the other I think I'm going to do either two or three flights. the other the second and the third flight uh will be well the second one's going to be a cross-hatch. So I'm actually going to be flying let's just say north um and and south and then east and west flight. East and west flight will be the second flight. The third flight I want to try something a little bit different. Um rather than shooting straight nadier with the L2 lighter sensor that I'm going to be using. Um for the third flight I am actually going to be putting it at either like a 75° angle. The reason why I want to shoot a little bit oblique is well, this is really thick vegetation. So, I'm curious if I'm able to actually give a different angle of attack with that third flight that I'm able to actually get better vegetation penetration. Now, this is a complete test. Um, I've actually never done a flight like that before. Theoretically, it should work, but we're going to put it to the test. And given that this is a really small site, it's not going to be that long of a flight. So, I actually have a little bit of extra time to play and I don't have to deal with afternoon showers until well this afternoon, which I should be back in Tampa uh at my office um around the time when the showers start, which I'll be using that time for data processing. Uh but with that being said, let me go ahead and just get our system fully set up here and uh I'll walk you through the mission planning that I'm going to be doing.

All right, got the controller out. So, I am just going to put this case down right here. Oh, there we go. All right. So, let's get the batteries in. I'm going to go ahead and get the controller booted up. Now, one cool thing is I recently did buy the cellular dongle for the RC Plus controller here that I have for my M350. The reason I did that is so that I don't have to rely on a hotspot such as the one on my phone or the T-Mobile or Starlink. I actually just get straight LTE connectivity straight on the controller here. So, actually, if I swipe down here and I turn my screen recording on and I think it's booting up. Yep. So, if we see here in the top right hand corner, maybe kind of hard to see. Let me go to the home screen here. If we see in the top right hand corner, it says T-Mobile 4G. So, right now I am connected to the internet. And to validate that, we can go to Firefox. And it looks like it's loading a YouTube video of a light that I was looking at. So, just like that. Perfect. But anyways, I'm going to close out of this. Um, I'm just going to keep this on for a second. Let me go ahead and get uh batteries in. Now, here on the controller, while I get connected, let me just do a little bit of organizing right here. Uh, because again, I do have an internet connection on the controller itself. Um, I will be able to load the map here. So, all right. It looks like I'm already connected. Let me go into the flight route right here. We're going to create a new route area route. And there we go. Okay, we're loaded in. So, the property I'm actually going to make it just a bit bigger because I do have that aerial target that I placed um in the top right hand corner here. Okay, that should suffice here. And it already has my lighter payload in. I do want to do a penta return. I typically like flying a tropal return, but because of how thick this vegetation is, I will be flying with a penta. We will click okay. Obviously, I do want to drop this down. I think I'm only going to fly I'm going to do a 130 foot flight. I don't There's no towers around here. I do have tall trees, but the tallest tree is about I think like 70 feet right here. Um, so I don't really have to worry about anything else other than that. We'll call this um I'll call this east west. Um, let's see here. East West Saint Cloud. Cool. Okay. And then for our overlap setting, yes, I do want IMU calibration. I do want to slow this flight down though. Um, we're going to fly at 20. Yeah, 20 miles an hour. Actually, a little bit slower. Let's do like let's do like 12. What does 12 look like? Okay, 7 and 12 minutes. Perfect. Advanced settings. I do want to fly a minimum of 40% side overlap primarily because of just how thick this vegetation is right here. One little alteration. Whoops. Not that alteration, but one alteration I want to make is actually bringing these guys out a little bit further. Okay, that looks good. Um, what I don't like though, okay, perfect. All right, that that looks good now. So, it's going to be about a 10-minute flight. Everything else here looks good. What I'm actually going to do is I'm going to start uh the drone actually on the north side and have it finish out by me. Okay, that looks good. So now we will click save. Um RTK I do want to use the rock base network. So there it is. Um turn both of these on. I've got a fix already. Okay. Wow, that was very quick. Perfect. So I'm going to go out now. I am going to create a duplicate of this. Uh, but this one we're going to do a north south flight. So, let me just update the text here. Whoops. Do north south. And then we're going to change this orientation. We'll do 180. Beautiful. That looks good to me. All right. I'm not really sure where my uh camera shut out. It is very hot here in Florida, so um it actually overheated. But anyways, I'm just going to go ahead and execute these flights. Basically, what I did is I created a north south flight, an east west flight, and an oblique flight. The oblique flight is that 75° camera angle cuz I do just want to do a little bit of a test. Um but anyways, these flights are about 10 minutes each. They won't really take it that long. I've got plenty of battery life here, so I don't really have to do any extra charging. Um I do have the LTE already set up on my controller, so I don't need a hot spot. I already have RTK connected. All that's left is to execute the flight. So on here, I'm just going to hit the play button for the east west flight. And our RTH I'm just going to put at 150. Click next. We will upload the flight mission here. We'll click start. There we go. Wait. Of course, because I'm right next to it. Okay, there it goes. So, now we wait. We just babysit the drone and um we should be done here in about half an hour. But I'll check in if there's anything that comes up.

All right, quick uh battery swap and we are on for the very last flight. This will be the uh oblique flight that I want to do with the L2 pitched at a 75 degree angle. This should be pretty interesting. Um, I'm actually curious at how this data shows up um when we actually do the processing uh later on in this uh this episode here, but uh should be pretty interesting. So, all that's left is to hit the play button on here. There we go. As this last flight finishes up, wherever the drone is, uh, right there, we are done. Um, it's hot. It is very hot. I have been dripping sweat this entire time. But that is, uh, that's summers in Florida for you. It's not even Well, it's like 11:00 right now. Almost 11:00. And it's almost 100°. So, um I am glad to have pretty much finished this up. Once this drone lands, we will do a data dump um onto the computer, which it's on its way back right now. While it's doing the data dump, I am going to pick up all of the targets here. And then we'll transition and go and pick up that last target that is uh back behind here on the other property. and then we'll uh we'll be on our way to the office to get all this data processed and uh sent over to the client by uh tomorrow. So, I'm going to let uh let our drone land and we'll get to it here.

All right, let's do our system breakdown here and get our uh little SD card out. All righty. It is uh it is brutal this temperature right now. Oh man, everything is super hot right now. I should have put this in the shadeoo. By the way, uh have you guys seen the uh the announcement for the M400? It looks interesting, but I obviously can't draw any conclusions because I have not had hands-on with it just yet. At the time of filming this episode, uh, based off the conversations that I've had with my dealers, it's going to be about a month and a half until any actual units uh, hit the states. I am working on getting a demo unit in. So, where did I just put my cap? Did I just lose it? Shoot. Uh, let me just place this here. Um, anyways, yeah, I'm I'm trying to get a demo unit in so that I can do a full comparison from the M350 to the M400. One of the biggest changes that I see in the M400 is um, well, actually a few different changes. One, it's now a single battery. Though they do have hot swapping capabilities. The hot swapping comes in the form um of uh there's basically these uh what's it called? Um some cells uh within the actual M400 itself so that capacitors that's what it is. There's capacitors in the M400 itself so that when you pull out the massive 20 something 21,000 mAh battery. It keeps the drone powered for at least 45 seconds. That way you can do a hot swap. Now the drone is boasting to have up to an hour or just under an hour of flight time. That's even with a payload attached. We'll see um if that those numbers actually come close. As of right now, I'm getting about 30 to 35 minutes of flight time on my M350 with an L2. That's on like a very optimal day. So, you know, very low winds, maybe like 5 miles an hour winds um like near sea level. But I'm hoping, you know, with the enhancement um in the battery life on the M400 that I can actually get closer to like 40 to 45 minutes, maybe even 50 minutes of flight time with an L2 sensor. That'll be really interesting. I do know that there is an L3 coming out later this year. I don't really know what the specs are. It's probably just going to be another incremental uh enhancement or change from the L2, excuse me, to the L3. So, we'll see how that goes. Uh I obviously don't have one in my hands right now, but uh do expect a very in-depth evaluation uh and review just like what I did with the M4E when that came out. Um the other I guess big enhancement is that uh little LAR dome. It's a It's a MD or it's a mid 360 uh little LAR dome. It's basically made for like millimeter wave for detecting really tiny like fine wires. So, think like think like the power lines that I have behind me, guy wires um on uh like telecom towers and even power lines for transmission and distribution. Um so, there is a bunch of enhancements on that. Again, I don't have hands-on with it. We'll see if it's worth it. I mean, it's the same cost in terms of like the actual system itself. It's coming out $11,000 just for the drone. Batteries are about 1,800 bucks and the charging case is I think just about $2,000. So, it'll roughly cost just about the same as an M350 with extra batteries and whatnot. Um, so I don't know. We'll see. Obviously, if you're buying a brand new, you know, medium lift uh drone, then that's the one to go buy. But obviously, I can't draw any conclusions right now since the system's not out. But now that I'm done packing up, let me uh throw these cases in there and then we'll do the offload onto uh my SSD in the truck so I can go pick up the aerial targets.

Okay, we can escape this heat for a little bit. Let me just find a place to put you guys. I don't really need to uh record my screen here on my MacBook. Literally all I'm going to do is just drag the three folders that are on the uh SD card that I have right here onto my SSD. I literally always do this. I mean, you've seen some of my other episodes and if you haven't, please go check them out. Um, but this is something it's a standard workflow that I always do. I've lost data before in the past. It really sucked um because it was really expensive data to go get. So I will never make that mistake ever again. I always like to have at least two backups of it. One locally on the SD card itself and then one on my SSD um before I ever leave the actual project site. Right there is that. Here's the SD card. And there are our three flights. and we'll just drag and drop it. All right. Uh about 14 gigs of data. Please start transferring. All that transfers. I'm going to go and get It's not transferring. Why? There it goes. Okay, transferring. Let me go get the aerial targets cuz I really want to get out of here. It's ridiculously hot.

All right, we are back uh at the office. It is It was so hot. Um let's go ahead and start processing this data. The first things first is well, we need to actually get this data off of the SSD and onto the computer. So, I've already opened up uh all of our files right here, and I'm just going to open up a new tab. And what we'll do, um, oh wow, there must have been a very long power outage. So, that's not good. Um, I'm going to wait a second actually because my uh I guess the power went out here at the office and my server is offline right now. So, uh, I need to get that back up and running and then we'll pop back on here again.

Okay, we are back online. So, what I'm going to do is I'm going to go to my clients folder here. This is actually for a buddy of mine. He usually hires me for projects, typically lighter projects. Um, so we're going to call this I think it's 425 orange a. Let me see if that's right. Or 495. I was close. Orange A. All right. And as always, we are going to create a folder called raw data. And we will copy all of these guys here. While that copyy's over, I am going to open up DJI Terra. And with Terra open, we're going to create a brand new project here. We'll call this 5 Orange A. And we'll call this uh crosshatch because I want to be able to bring in the north, south, and east, west flights in together. So, here we'll click okay. Um, let's do this. So, we'll select the folders that we want. I'm just going to back out into our clients folder and I'm going to bring in this folder and this folder. There we go. So we can actually see both. Actually, one thing I I want to do beforehand is I actually want to pull the observation file. So I want to do a PPK processing for this LAR data set because we can see it's doing RTK. Well, actually it is pulling from this guy over here. Yeah, it should be the same spot. Okay, cool. So actually we don't need to do that. It will do a PPK. Um, it actually already brought in the file that we need. For our parameters though, I'm going to turn the 2D map off. For our point cloud, I'm going to do by percentage. We'll do 100%. And then I need to make sure that I turn both of these guys off because we're going to do the rest of our data processing within LP3. So now, now that this is set here, I'm going to just click start processing and we'll click okay. And we'll just let this run in the background. Um, once it's done, we uh will bring all of this data into LP3 and do the rest of our data processing. All right. All right.

So, now that it has finished up, I'm just going to click okay here. And we can see well all of our lighter data, which looks really good here. Uh, but obviously all the magic is going to be done within the LP3 application so that we can do our strip alignment, clean up the data, and well, just make it that much better. Um, but I mean this does look pretty cool. And I did again do a penta return on this entire data set here. So should be looking pretty pretty good. But um anyways, like I said, we are going to now bring this into LP3. So I can actually just close out entirely uh from DJI Terra. And I'm going to open up LP 360 here. Okay. So first things first, let's do this guy here. We are going to import raw missions into a new project. And we're going to do a processed L1 L2. We're going to add our folder here, which should be uh Yep. This one right here. We'll select the folder. Give it a second. While that is going, what I do want to do is create um let's see here. I'm going to create a folder 195 orange a. We'll call this LP 360. Sweet. So, I'm just going to keep everything in the default coordinate reference system because we'll do the reprojection in um RockCl Cloud later on. So, I'm going to click next here. We're going to change the destination folder into here and we'll call this 495 Orange AP 360. and we'll click on finish. Yes. So now it's just going to import all this data into LP3 and then we'll just go through the dialogues um of what we need to do here uh for the L2 data. There is the first flight and then the second one should pull in right now. Excellent. So now we're going to create our flight lines for both. I'm actually going to close out of this window here. Just going to turn off the Google hybrid for a second and we'll compute. So um let's see see if this separated it properly. No, it did not. So let me run it one more time here. Let's do this. How about now? Nope. Um, let's do this. No. Basically just playing with these values until I get an output that I like, which this is actually pretty close. Almost there. You know what? I think I think this will be good enough. So, we'll click next here. and uh we'll click on close. So now what's going to happen if I go oops to our DJI tab here, job manager. All right, we can select both. We'll click on complete job and we've already created the flight line. So now we're just going to run it through the postprocessing. Let me make sure. Okay, it did. So, we'll click on post-processing here. I can close out of the job menu. Come on. And we're going to turn both of these into just a single. Actually, I think it's going to create two different Yeah, it's going to create two different ones. So, wait for this to run through. Okay. Now, all that's left to do, close out of this guy just to help validate um that it actually ran through what we needed to run through. Let's see. Here's our post process. I'm going to go into the point source for this guy and the point source for this guy. So, we should see everything pretty much split out into their own colors, each flight line into its own colors. All that's left is to do a strip alignment and we're going to select this one and this one because these are the postprocess that we can see where it says PP and we'll call this uh lees strip aligned submit. Yes. Hit okay. And we'll just wait for this to run. And basically it's going to combine both of those flights into a single point cloud while doing the strip alignment. basically making sure that all the flight lines are where they're supposed to be in terms of where the convergence are for the overlap on both the north, south, and east and west flights. So, this will take about uh I think like fiveish 10 minutes. So, okay, I'm just going to let this run uh so that we can finish it up here.

Now that the strip alignment has been completed, we just click on complete job. We'll click yes. And if I pull up my task manager here, we can see that it's now going to start working and combining all that data and spitting it out here into the viewer. While that's working, what I'm going to do is I'm going to open up the rock uh cloud here. Just going to log in real quick and we will get our project started. It's almost done. Okay. So, we're just going to go ahead and get our project started here in the Rock Cloud. So, on here, I'm just going to put the address. There we go. That was Oh, I didn't type that in right. 495 Orange A. Maybe. Maybe I'll just scroll over to it. Um I am over here and the property is um somewhere somewhere around here. Let me um Is

That not the right address? Oh, I guess I got to be more specific here. 495 St. Cloud. There we go. Okay.

So, we'll click create project here and we'll define the coordinate reference system and it should bring in the recommended which is WGS84 UTM zone 17 north and then just ellipsoid. Excellent.

So, now let me just open up LP3 here. Close. And we're just going to view. Let me turn off the trajectory tracks here. Uh we should just have one full point cloud. Um see here. Oh yeah, perfect. There we go. So now we just have one point cloud from the full strip alignment, which this does look uh this looks good. All that's uh all that's left to do here is to export it.

So go to the project. We're going to do the export wizard, and we're just going to export all of the points. Make sure that it's still in the WGSC4 coordinate system. going to click um the input points filter which we're just going to make sure that we select all of the points. So all point systems refresh and it should be okay. Hold on one sec. This thing's just being a little annoying. Give me one second here.

So we should now be able to hit the export and we'll make sure that it's all the point systems. Hit refresh. And we have just under a million point. just under 750,000 points. So, we'll click okay. We'll click next. The entire point cloud layer and we're going to dump it into this folder, but we're going to create an export folder here. And we'll call this five orange a. And it's going to save it as an L. Click save. don't want to export it back into the project because we already have it. So, I'll click finish. And there we go. Okay.

So, now we can actually close out of LP3. So, I'm just going to save the project. And now we can add project data. I'm just going to go like this. So, 7 and 12 gigs. Shouldn't take too long. I do have uh pretty fast internet here that we can see. Uploading almost at a gig a second. There it goes.

While that is downloading, what I actually want to bring over now is our ground control points. So, here we go. So, here's our project. That looks excellent to me. So, we're going to click on the export and I'm going to save it as the pens pen z. So that is the point name, the easting, northing, elevation, and the description of that point. So I'm going to click export. I'm going to go to our project folder here. Um, and we'll call this uh control with save. Great. So that got brought in. Wait for this to upload and we'll click save.

So now all we got to do is just wait for it to process in the cloud. Um and then we're going to do a reprojection. What we'll do here, it's going to be grayed out, but basically we'll repro it into the state plane coordinate system so that it matches what we have here that we can actually see right above my camera. So that it's Florida east, US survey feet, and nav88 for our height. And uh you can actually see here's all the checkpoints that I actually set um on this uh this site here. So I did some ground checks. I might need to remove ground check six uh because I think I parked my truck right here. But if I parked on top of ground check six, then I got to remove it. Um but yeah, so we have all of our ground control points. Uh even with the one that I placed out way over here. Ideally, I would have liked to place some where the trees were in this specific segment right here, but I just I couldn't get in there and there was no open spots for the lighter to be able to actually see the ground in there. Um, so we're doing the best that we can. That's ultimately why we're using a LAR. And the main reason why I use the cross-hatch version, uh not version, but the crosshatch pattern is to give the LAR data a second angle of attack. Um, that way I wasn't relying on just one direction of the lighter coming through for let's say the north and south. I gave it that east and west. That way we just had more data to work with because ultimately we're trying to find the ground and trying to penetrate through all that thick vegetation so that we can actually generate a a topo map um of this site here. But uh anyways, we're going to have to wait for a little bit to wait for this to visualize. Um so I'll wait until this is uh completed.

All right. Now that it has uh well reproed here into the rock cloud, first thing we need to do is do our reprojection here. Uh we're going to go to feet and it should give us a suggestion here. And we should be doing this Florida east that we have right here. And we're going to be doing the Navd88 height. We go. Click on save. Now it's just going to go through the reprojection again. So this should take uh a few minutes. And then I'll import the ground control points.

Now we can finally bring in the ground control points. So what we're going to do here is upload that CSV file, which I should have right here. Ah, that's right. Um, I need to actually do a little finagling with it. So open it up. Um, ah, okay. I'm actually going to bring in the whole control file here. So, let me open this up. We are going to save all of these. We'll open up a new. Actually, I'll just open up this guy. Paste it. And we will delete this column here. Save. Actually, need to save it as a It is already saved as CSV. Let me try that. Yes. Close it out. Okay, now let's try this again. Beautiful.

So now I need to set these all as checkpoints except for the ground control points. Beautiful. And then we need to change this over to Florida east. So I need to just type it in. Oh man. top one. Perfect. So, we'll click save and we should see the control points get uh pulled directly into here. There they are. Um, quickly, I need to just do an alignment on these ground control points. So, what I typically like to do is I will switch um our material type into an intensity gradient here. And we can see that it's actually wow it uh almost lined up perfectly. So we'll just make a small adjustment. And that adjustment we to just make sure that we are dead center. And we are actually already close. Let me just go and validate these other controls here. This one looks like it's pretty much dead center as well. Let's look at this guy. This guy is pretty much dead center as well. Uh, actually, it's sitting up just a little bit above the target. So, what I'm actually going to do, let me just make this a little bit more drastic. Okay. Um, so I'm going to click on this quick tool. Can you see it? No, my camera's in the way. Let me just move this here. We're going to click on the quick tool. We'll do an auto align. This is GCP2. So, we'll click on a custom point. Believe it's this point right here. Maybe that one. And we'll do GCP2. We'll do align. And it should only do a very tiny shift. Yeah. So we can see two hundreds on the X, a tenth on the Y, and a tenth on the Z, which means everything else should theoretically line up. Um, let's see here. I'm going to go and Oops, wrong way. That should be more in alignment with the center of those targets. Let me see this guy. Yeah, that looks better there. All my checks also look pretty good. Again, these are just checkpoints. None of my data is getting aligned to it. Although it is sitting a little bit below, but that's okay. Um, let me go check this guy here. This guy is shifted way out. So, might have to just do some little tiny adjustments. Should be good. And we'll also uh increase the height. That should bring us in line. Let me go check this ground control point that's over here. Yeah, it's little too much. Okay, just change the alignment on this guy a little bit as well. Okay, that looks good to me.

So now all we will do is we'll click on the save button here. What's going to happen is the entire point cloud is now going to shift by 500s of a foot on the X. Looks like my offset on the Y I actually didn't really need to do an offset. And then on the Z uh 500s um of a foot on the elevation as well. So really just a micro adjustment. I mean this just shows how accurate our data collection was. Um now this data is actually a little bit more noisier than I typically like given that I had to fly with a penta return. The main reason we did the pent return flight was because of well just how thick this vegetation is. But if we go underneath, we can see we actually did get some good penetration through this vegetation here. Um, and that was primarily because I did do that second flight just to create that crosshatch because we we did need that extra data. This was really thick. It's a whole lot thicker than what I typically fly uh for my clients. Um, but yep, there we go. It's already moved. So, we'll click reload here. And really all that's left to uh process here is uh we're going to run it through the rock surveyor. I'm going to do a 1 foot contour. And here we go. So we're going to have the building uh outline on there with the footprints high vegetation classification. And we agree. So I'm just going to pay for it. All right. Cool. So, in a few days, uh, I will have a finalized data set of this entire point cloud that we have right here. Um, shouldn't take really too long. Honestly, I should have it by, I would say, this weekend. Um, and then they'll finalize it for me, uh, by Monday morning. Today is Thursday. So, yeah. But, um, overall, I mean, that's pretty much it for this simple LAR data collection. In total to set all the ground control points, it took me about an hour and I'd say 15 minutes. Um, given I did have to drive around to the other side of the site. Um, and then for our actual light lighter collection, our it only took about 20 minutes. I did do that third flight. Obviously, I didn't include it into this one. That was that 75 degree um, uh, oblique capture that I did. Um, I'm just going to do some testing on the back end just so I can mess around and see how that data comes out. But in total, I charged my client uh $1,750 for this. Uh material cost, I did have to go buy brand new uh 5/8 rod and some new caps. Um so in total, it cost me about like 115 bucks for all that plus uh the mileage to to go out there. So we'll call it like 40 bucks um in gas. Uh maybe a little bit less than that. Um and then another 100 bucks for the data processing. Um, so I think in total I profited about 1,500 bucks for we'll call it three hours worth of work. Um, yeah, really not that bad. But, uh, yeah, if you want to see more projects like this in the future, um, obviously keep watching, keep, uh, staying tuned in to the Drone Pilot Insider Uncut series. Um, I've honestly really been enjoying this whole series that I've been doing. It's it's actually been really insightful, you know, to make sure that I'm actually following the steps properly, you know, identifying issues that come up. Obviously, that one project that I did, I completely messed up, and that's because, well, I didn't see the uh the notes that my client had sent over while I was out on site, but stuff happens, right? Um, if you want to attend workshops here in the future for LA workshops, given that you guys are part of this series, you can take advantage of $150 discount. um not just only for the actual workshops themselves, but if uh you just want to get the online course, you can get 150 bucks off of the online course. Just use 150 off for either the workshops or the course. If you attend the workshop, you get the lighter course for free. Um not trying to upsell you, just giving you guys an offer, just a just a thank you. But with that being said, hopefully you guys enjoyed this episode and we'll see you in the next episode of Drone Pilot Insider Uncut.

>> Hey guys, Dylan here. Welcome back to another episode of Drone Pilot Insider Uncut. This one's actually uh a little bit different. I'm not doing anything with mapping. I'm not doing LAR. I'm not even doing thermal. Uh this project that uh I got asked to be a part of is actually has nothing to do with mapping or data collection. In fact, it has to do with uh this guy right here. This is the DJI S1. It's their Spotlight One. uh recently came out for the M300 and M350. And uh typically this payload is used for search and rescue at night. Um but this project that I'm going to be working on actually has to do with a film set. Uh they are doing some kind of production uh in Clearwater, which is about like 354 minutes from where I am on the west coast here of Florida. And um can't really disclose too much about it. I'm not really sure how much I can actually show within this video. Uh but I wanted to show you guys something a little bit unconventional compared to what I typically get paid to do for my drone projects. Um this one actually comes from my previous occupation before I was doing drone mapping and really anything with drones in the construction, the surveying, really any of that other stuff. My full background is actually in video production. uh well kind of hence why I have this whole studio back behind me here which even before that uh if you guys have seen any of my stuff from the last few years I shot a lot of the stuff in my bedroom but anyways yeah my back my full background is in video production. and I used to shoot TV shows and music videos and did a bit of directing. And so one of my old friends, old buddies from the industry actually reached out to me um where they really were looking for somebody that had a drone that could hold a powerful light to do some video production at night in a mobile location. And they didn't want to have any light stands or any video production uh lights kind of like what I have in here. I mean, you can kind of see um a standard light that I have right here is pretty big and you have to get power to it. There's all kinds of stuff that you got to do in order to actually well make a system like that work. So, what I have right here, uh was actually very fortunate to be able to get this in in time. Uh if I pull this out, you can even see that it's a demo unit. If it wants to focus. Yeah. So, this is a demo unit um from DJI. But if we take a look here, we can see that this light is uh is pretty big. And for a comparison, let me quickly just grab my L2. So, if we take a look at the DJI L2 that I have, you can kind of see that it's almost the same footprint, like almost even kind of the the same housing. Let me get it a little bit closer here. But uh yeah, very very interesting what we have here. But anyways, this light that I have is going to be used for well lighting up our subject um on the beach. And what's great is since the drone's not really going to be moving, it's going to be hovering in a single spot, I'll have plenty of battery life. I've got three sets of batteries. So, in total, I'll have about 40 minutes of flight time um for each set of battery. So, what that's going to get me 120 minutes uh 2 hours of flight time, which is perfect. I'm also going to have my truck with me. Uh so, if I need to do any charging, I've got my truck since it has the built-in generator. But right now, all I'm going to be doing is some very basic prep. meaning I'm gonna make sure that my drone is up to date with the firmware. Given that this is a demo unit, I need to make sure that well everything is is functioning properly. Um, I actually did already do some testing before with this. Uh, I'll actually throw this up here on the screen right next to me just so you can kind of take a look. I threw it on LinkedIn and uh got some uh cool good feedback from it. Um, so that was pretty cool. Some good engagement. Uh, again, this is something that I actually have never really done. The last time I did anything that had to do with a production with a drone was honestly like six, seven years ago for some music videos that I shot. Like I said, my previous occupation, I used to be in the video production industry. Um, and use drones in a creative manner. Now it's all for surveying and mapping and really, you know, 3D modeling and all that other stuff. So, yeah, this will be really cool. I'm only charging an hourly rate plus travel to get out there. Um, and what's actually really interesting about this whole thing is it's being done at night, which obviously I've got the light here. So, my call time, uh, which in the production world is what time I needed to actually be there for a whole call sheet. They have everything on there. I need to be there at 8:00 p.m. uh, this evening, and the production is supposed to take place from 11 uh, p.m. until about 1 to 2:00 a.m. So, it's going to be a pretty late night. Um, but it should be interesting and I'm hoping that I'll be able to actually show what this looks like out on set without obviously the the production happening. Um, I'll walk you guys through it. But yeah, so anyways, I keep blabbing on here. I'm going to make sure that everything is all set to go with the drone itself. I'm going to make sure that all my batteries are fully charged and that I have any extra accessories with me. Um, which there's really nothing else that I need to have uh outside of the the permits and whatnot. And this drone already has the beacon on it, so I'll be able to fly at night. They've already gotten the permits done for me. So, it's just a matter of showing up and having a drone just hover for however long they needed to hover for. But yeah, I just wanted to bring you guys along. This is a little bit different compared to what I typically do, but also I'm still making money from it. And uh I really want to show you guys that you don't have to make money by doing mapping and lighter and all this other stuff. There's many different ways to make money with your drone. So, I just got the uh M350 batteries plugged up here, making sure they're fully charged. Given that they were sitting here for uh a little bit, they have depleted to about 50%. And I did just have some batteries in my hand. Here they are. Um that is the one thing about drone batteries is doesn't matter if you keep them charged all the time, they will always deplete, which we can see here. But I'm just going to use these to plug into the drone. Um, so that I can go ahead and run any updates that I need to run. Lock this in place. And let me actually plug in the spotlight itself. And it goes in just like any other. Yep, I got the mount out. Goes in just like any other DJI proprietary payload. And it's on a three-axxis gimbal, so I can position it wherever I want. And the last thing I need is the controller, which is in the box over there. So, turn the controller on. We'll get the drone on. There really shouldn't be anything else that I need to do other than just to check if there is an update, which let's see here. Got this pulled up. And we've got it's all up to date. Oh. Oh, it's checking it again. Am I connected to the internet? I am. Okay. Oh, wait. There is an update. Yeah. Okay. So, just a just a quick update here. Cool. So, we'll update all devices. And since I'm connected to the Wi-Fi, it's going to it's just going to download directly from the Wi-Fi. But this is really all I need to do to uh make sure that the drone is fully operational. Again, I want to do this here before I step foot on site. Which actually reminds me, I did just run a workshop this weekend and my uh M4E was asking for some updates. So, let me go and grab that and also get that updated, too. Um, but anyways, I'm just going to let this run. This looks fine.

All right. Uh, check this out. This is pretty cool. So, everything is fully up to date on here. I'm just going to quickly go into the drone itself so we can see. And typically on like the bottom like right hand corner here, there would be like a an additional view if I had the L2, if I had a P1, if I had an H20T on there. Uh, but this one just shows PSDK, which is obviously the S1 light on there. So, if I click on it, it gives me controls for it. And all I got to do is if I turn it on, you can see that it's on now. So, if I put this down and I rotate it towards us. Oh my god, that thing is warm. Like instantly I can feel warmth coming off of it. That's crazy. Whoa. And it's only at 40% right now, too. Like you can you can see how bright this is here. I'll kind of point it at my face. Yep. That's actually crazy. Like I can feel I can feel heat coming off of this light right now. Um, so this should be pretty um should be pretty interesting later on today or tonight I should say. But anyways uh everything is is fully up to date on here. Uh I am going to turn this off because I didn't realize that it was putting out heat. and we'll uh we'll get the batteries charged and we'll be on site at 8:00, which here in Florida since it is summer right now, sun doesn't set until like 8:30. So, it'll be it'll still be pretty bright um when I'm out there. And actually, we'll hopefully get a sunset, which uh sunsets here in Florida during the summer. Amazing. Anyways, I'll meet you guys out on site here very shortly.

>> Hey, James. Yes, of course. Just got the drone fully set up uh here. Back with our nice big trusty light. They uh just met with the crew. They're getting everything set up here on the beach. Well, you can see right behind me here. So, should be a a pretty cool shoot um overall and first time ever putting this light into full production. Um but pretty excited. Now, as for where I'm going to be launching, because I am on the beach here, it did just rain for a good like hour or so. So, it is hard packed, but I'm going to be using the bed here of my truck to take off and land. Given that we're pretty close, so I don't have to run over to the parking lot and do any of the battery swaps over there. Plus, I can also use my truck to uh keep batteries charged. I do get about 40 minutes of flight time uh with this setup here. So, honestly shouldn't be having to constantly swap out batteries uh given that we're out here and mosquitoes are fully out in full force right now. So, I need to go get some bug spray.

>> Just take a peek to get the drone. Seems so cool. I'm Taylor.

>> Dylan.

>> Dylan. Nice to meet you.

>> Nice to meet you, too.

>> Wow, it's huge.

>> This is like actually one of my smaller ones.

>> Is it? Oh my god. They used to like the little ones.

>> I have a bunch. I mean, those are all in my office right now, but these are

>> very cool. I love it. I'm gonna get some photos of it. Oh, yeah. It's awesome.

>> Thank you so much for being here.

>> Oh my god. Absolutely. I'm I'm actually in Tampa, so I'm I'm local. Yeah, I'm local. Yeah.

>> Yeah. All of us are Tampa. Yeah.

>> It's been so long since I've been on a on a production.

>> Oh, really?

>> I used to do that.

>> What do you do now?

>> Um I run a a tech company.

>> Okay.

>> Um

>> with drones.

>> I see.

>> I I used drones before to do a bunch of cinematography. So, I used to shoot um uh music videos and TV shows.

>> Oh, yeah.

>> But that's been like >> four or five years now.

>> One of my friends um

>> reached out cuz she knows that I'm I'm the drone person. She's like, "Hey, do you have this?" I'm like,

>> "Let me see what I can pull up." And like I was telling uh the other Dylan uh that there's only like two or three of these in the US right now.

>> Really?

>> The light specifically. So, I had to pull some strings and it got here literally a few days ago.

>> Oh my god, that's so awesome. Yeah, we appreciate it so much. I'm glad that all that worked out.

>> Oh, me too.

>> Welcome back to production.

>> Hopefully many more.

>> Yeah,

>> I love this. This is always This is always fun.

>> Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's great.

>> Yeah, I'm being attacked.

>> Oh, me too. I I really need to go find some.

>> Um I put the bug spray over there. Need it. You're welcome.

>> I'm going to go grab it.

>> Like 30 people like one can of

>> Oh, goodness. Well, good thing there's a CVS not too far.

>> He's our main subject, right?

>> So, we'll always try to keep the light kind of like centered up on him, right?

>> Okay. Um, and then I'm going to try to throw haze on the beach so we see the light.

>> Oh, it's so good.

>> That's just 10%. Yeah.

>> Turn I'm going to go get the light meter, but I think you can turn it up. I know you got Is it Does it waste your battery or is it

>> Oh, no. We We can fly for about 40 to 45 minutes.

>> Okay.

>> Per battery.

>> This is about 20%.

>> Okay. Now, do your again.

>> Ow. So, the first gag that we're going to do is like he's he walks out there and then like that thing turns on, you know? Yep. So, he's Chris, look up like where's the light? And then it's going to like light him up. Yep. So, that that'll be the first one is try to work on that, right?

>> Yeah.

>> Let me get some um

>> I think it's like you go out to the water and you come back to him. Turn around, Chris. So, this one he's going to go to the water, right? I don't know. I forget if he's leaving you or if he's just checking the water out. You like fly out to the water. You're like, "Oh man." And then you come back to him and then then right away you come back to him. Yep.

>> Yep. And then stop on him. Yep. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. Y.

>> And then the other gag is you just move off him a little bit and then he gets pissed and he's like, "Come back." And then it comes back to him.

>> Yep. Then

>> there you go. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

>> So, why does it go closer to him? Does it tighten up?

>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like that. That's probably the This is the distance right here.

>> I like that tightness. See, we're out of frame still, right?

>> Yeah.

>> And And it's blowing the wind. That's it.

>> So, this is only 20%.

>> All right. Let me go look at my lightning.

>> So, we got we have a lot of room to play with. It's only 20%.

>> Yeah.

>> It's bright watering back.

>> Oh, yeah. Hold on. Let me um

>> There you go.

>> So, I have another mode I can do that's a more focused beam. I can go much higher up so that it's not pushing this. You want to try it?

>> I like the wind on him, but let's try Yeah. Okay.

>> Does that feel better?

>> That's good. Y

>> I'm gonna I'm gonna turn it off.

>> Tilt down a little bit.

>> Just a little tilt.

>> Don't have them look up cuz this light is pretty bright.

>> Don't look up. Don't look at the light. It's going to get real bright.

>> Let me turn up the percentage on this one. I'll let you know.

>> So, this one's the more focused. This one's more focused beam, but it looks like has a green tint to it.

>> Yeah, you're right. I like the other one better.

>> Yeah, me too.

>> Right there, Bobby.

>> We do this.

>> Yeah, I got uh about 25 minutes of flight. I I can pop new batteries in and it'll give us 40 minutes.

>> Um

>> it won't take long. It takes It's quick. You want me to

>> pop in a new battery right now?

>> I can do that.

>> Yeah. Yeah. Why don't we do that real quick?

>> Hey, we're going to pop it in the battery. So, we have a 40-minute flight and then we're going to do the takes. All right.

>> And I realize you won't be able to test it, but let's do it on the light a little bit

>> up

>> the intensity.

>> Yep.

>> A little closer to him.

>> This is 45.

>> Okay.

>> Okay. Let's just start with you talking to it. You're just talking to him. Run through your dialogue. You have this in your head. Yeah. Turn it off. And turn it on. There he is. Less reaction this time cuz you know it's coming. This is your time. Turn it off. Action. Yeah. This is your time, baby. Talking. Yep. Yeah. Pointing around the beach. D. Go out to the water and we come back. Yep. And then come back. Come back. Come back. Sick. That was sick. Okay, start creeping to the right off the pin. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. And come back. Go. Keep talking. Keep talking. Keep talking. Point. Look at him. Look at him. And cover your eyes. Like shield your eyes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

>> Yeah. It is a boat.

>> Let's cut. I don't mind the boat, but let's quickly get the frames. Stand by.

>> Yeah. All right. We got We got I mean, I could point it at them for a second and make them move. We're fine. They're just curious what the hell's going on.

>> We're We're cut for a second. Chris, just wait. All right, Chris. Ready? Here we go. I'm going to turn it on. Okay. And react. All right. Lights off.

>> Oh, sorry.

>> And action. Shield your eyes. Shield your eyes. Yeah. Yeah. Do that again. Okay. And all in one action. Lights off. Okay. And action. Yeah, that's great. Yeah, that's great. Talking a little bit. Hop in the water and back. Okay. And go to the side. Go to the right. Yep. Keep going. And back.

>> Sorry.

>> All right. That works. Try it again. Okay. Go to the right and back. Y. All right, Chris. This one. Act like you're floating up. Okay. Act like you're floating up. We're going to cut. We're going to cut it out. You're floating up in the air. Hands are waving a little bit. Hands are waving. Yeah, you're floating in the air. Yeah, you got it. You got it. You're floating in the air. Yep. Floating. Hands. Yep. Floating. Got a straight. Okay, perfect. Now, step out for me. I'm going to get a plate. Walk out. Come over here. Come over here. Come over here.

>> Pretty cool.

>> This is the first time I've ever done this.

>> Talking about this scene for like weeks now, wondering how exactly we're going to do it.

>> Well, hopefully it's everything

>> beyond our wildest dreams. Sweet how this is going to work. We were like, "Oh, just put a link with a stand on a light." Like, this is so Might have to tell my contact to Hey, I lost it in shipping.

>> It's my light now.

>> This is awesome.

>> There's a lot you can do with this.

>> Oh, I know. I'm getting a ton of ideas now.

>> It was made for law enforcement is what it was for.

>> Perfect.

>> Okay, that's a wrap for drone, guys. Look at that. Right. No big deal, man. Good work, dude. Good work.

>> All right, so that is a wrap. Let me turn this uh beam off here.

>> Couldn't show everything given that this is a closed set, but I think everything went really well. Uh given just how really on the spot this was. Uh we literally just did one very simple practice and went from there. But uh the actual flight time that I was getting out of this system with it hovering was showing about 48 minutes, which is actually really impressive. Now granted, I'm not flying far. I'm not doing a mapping mission, so you know, there wasn't really going to be much battery burn outside of me taking off from the truck here um and then putting the drone over the talent. But man, this thing is actually really, really cool. I'm going to have to see if my uh dealer will let me keep this uh this light. um cuz I'm sure you might have overheard that there's several other opportunities um that they would potentially want to take advantage of um with this light itself. Um so yeah, again, this had nothing to do with mapping, had nothing to do with lighter, had nothing to do with thermal. This was just a light on a big drone. Granted, I know the drone, you know, 10 grand plus about $2,000 for the light, but I mean, you saw that I mean, I made I made 200 bucks just doing that. Yes. Like, I came out here a little bit earlier and actually they only needed me for like it's it's been about an hour. Um, so yeah, really cool. I'm going to finish wrapping up here. Um, but yeah, super quick uh super quick video. There's really no data processing that needs to be done. I'm actually just going to hang out here. These people are really cool.