How to Prep Your Site Before a Flight

Good news: prep is light. A drone maps the property as it is, so you don't need to stage anything. But a few small things make the flight faster and the final maps cleaner.

The essentials

1. Sort out access. Make sure we can get through every gate that borders the area we're mapping. Share gate codes or leave them open, and give us a ground contact we can reach on the day.
2. Give people a heads-up. Let staff, tenants, crews, or guests know a drone will be overhead for a few hours. Nothing more is needed — it just avoids surprised phone calls.
3. Flag hazards you know about. Power lines, cell towers, guy-wires, ziplines, cables, tall coasters or towers — anything vertical we should plan around. Tell us the tallest structures on the property. This is about flight safety and getting the angled passes right.

Timing that helps your data

1. Pick a window that fits your goal. For construction progress or stockpile counts, fly before a big move of material so the record matches reality. For seasonal marketing, pick when the property looks its best.
2. For venues, plan a closed or low-crowd window. Flying over crowds is restricted, so fully-closed hours or early-AM before guests arrive is ideal. Let us know what's realistic.
3. Weather is a partner, not an enemy. We'll monitor it and reschedule if conditions would hurt the result. Steady light and low wind win.

Small things that make maps cleaner

None of these are required — do what's practical:

• Move what you don't want frozen in time. Vehicles, equipment, or trailers parked in the mapped area will appear in the map exactly where they sat. If a clean 'as-built' matters, tidy the key areas.
• Open the spaces that matter. If you want a stockpile, pad, or feature measured cleanly, clear obvious clutter around it.
• Leave ground control markers alone. If your package includes accuracy control, we place precisely measured targets on the ground. Please don't move or cover them until we've finished flying — they're how we lock and grade the map's accuracy.
• Know that heavy tree cover hides the ground. A standard photo map sees the canopy, not the dirt beneath it. If you need the bare earth under brush (for terrain, drainage, or volumes), that's what a LiDAR scan is for — make sure it's in your package.

Areas you want kept private

Have back-of-house, cash-handling, security, or ride-control areas you don't want in a public version of the map? Tell us before the flight. We can plan for redaction zones — persisted blurred regions on the shared map — so sensitive areas stay covered for everyone who opens the public link.

Tip: Not sure whether something matters? Over-share. A two-line note about 'the north gate is locked, tallest thing on site is the water tower, and please keep the maintenance yard out of the public map' saves everyone time on the day.

Quick pre-flight checklist

• [ ] Gate access / codes confirmed, ground contact shared
• [ ] Staff, tenants, or guests notified
• [ ] Known hazards and tallest structures flagged
• [ ] Timing chosen (closed window for venues; before/after key changes)
• [ ] Key areas tidied if a clean as-built matters
• [ ] Any private / back-of-house areas identified for redaction
• [ ] Ground control targets left undisturbed (if in your package)