Our drone mapping flight crashed into a power line yesterday

The pilot said the GPS signal got weak near the building. We had to stop work for two hours while we got a new one. Has anyone else had signal problems with drones on dense city sites?

3 comments

3 Comments

ray1366h ago

That's a rough way to lose a drone. Did the pilot have any kind of backup for the GPS, like visual positioning? I've heard tall buildings can really mess with the signals, bouncing them around or blocking them completely. Makes you wonder if the flight plan was set up to avoid those dead zones near the structure. What kind of drone were you using, one of the common mapping models?

the_amy4h ago

Oof, that's a brutal but classic city drone story. Honestly, weak GPS near a building is basically a guarantee, not an excuse. Tbh the pilot should've known the signal would drop and been ready to switch to manual control in a heartbeat. It's like flying blind into a known trap and then being shocked when it goes wrong. Those mapping drones aren't cheap either, so that's a seriously expensive lesson learned the hard way.

kaih363h ago

Classic. The one time you really need GPS, it decides to take a coffee break. Guess the power line was more reliable.