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PSA: I burned $2,400 on a drone mapping setup for a 12 acre site and got nothing usable
I want to save somebody else the headache. Last spring I bought a drone, extra batteries, and a yearly plan on some mapping software for a 12 acre grading job outside of Amarillo, and I was sure I would fly it twice a week and hand the boss clean cut and fill numbers. The total came to about $2,400 with the case and the spare props. What I did not count on was the wind out there, which blew past 15 mph most mornings, and the software kept giving me garbage models with holes in them. I spent around 30 hours on processing and reflights over six weeks and still had to walk the site with a rod and level anyway. The part that really got me was the trees along the north fence line, which shredded my point cloud every single time. I am not saying the tech is fake, I am saying I bought it before I understood what it could actually do on a dusty flat site with no ground control. If you have made drone mapping work on a job like this, what did you change first, ground targets, flight time, or the software itself?
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josephmartin1mo ago
Blame yourself, not the gear, since you skipped ground control and flew in bad wind.
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