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A client told me my drone site surveys were missing key details
Honestly, I was just doing basic flyovers for progress shots on a small subdivision job. The project manager pulled me aside after the third week and said, 'David, these are pretty pictures, but I can't tell if the grade is right or where the water's pooling.' That hit hard. I spent the next weekend learning how to use the mapping mode on my DJI Phantom 4 Pro, setting up proper ground control points. Now I output actual topo maps and 3D models with a 2-inch accuracy. The extra 30 minutes of setup saves them hours of guesswork. Has anyone else had to totally switch up their drone workflow after getting specific feedback like that?
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brookeflores6mo ago
My first mapping job for a local farm just gave me pretty ortho photos. The owner asked where his soil erosion was worst and I had no real data to show him. That pushed me to learn Pix4D and start doing volumetric reports. Now I always plan for a full photogrammetry flight, not just pictures.
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robinson.jake5mo ago
brookeflores nailed it with that farm story. I think a lot of us start out thinking a drone is just a flying camera, and you really don't realize how much data you're leaving on the table until someone asks you a question you can't answer. Once a client asks "where's the water pooling?" or "how much dirt moved?" and you have nothing but a nice picture, it's a rough wake-up call. My game changer was realizing that something simple like adding more overlap in your flight settings can totally change what you can pull out of the data later. Now I set my flights for 80% front and side overlap automatically, takes maybe an extra 45 seconds in the app but the difference in the map quality is night and day. It is wild how that little bit of planning upfront saves you from those awkward conversations where you feel like you don't know what you're doing lmao.
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