Free Flight mission manual - PIX4Dcapture

Warning : The free flight mission is recommended for advanced users to map more difficult objects (e.g. sides of houses, towers, pylons, bridges, etc). It requires piloting the drone and understanding how to fly an optimal flight path.

To do a free flight mission:

Step 1. Prepare a free flight mission
Step 2. Start a free flight mission

Step 1. Prepare a free flight mission⤴

1. Open the app.
2. In the home screen, select Free Flight Mission.
The map view is loaded.

Tip :

If internet connection is established, a background map is displayed.
The mission can also be prepared in the office. The displayed map is cached in memory and will be available when starting the mission in an area without the Internet connection: (Android, iOS) How to plan and fly a mission without Internet in the field.

3. (optional) On the left of the screen, change the settings of the free flight (horizontal and vertical image spacing).

Note: By default, the horizontal and vertical image spacing are set to 5 meters (Android) or 3 meters (iOS) and 3 meters respectively. This is well suited to reconstruct an object at a distance of approximately 20m. It is recommended to choose the horizontal and vertical image spacing in such a way that there is enough overlap between the images. For more information about optimal flight plans: Step 1. Before Starting a Project > 1. Designing the Image Acquisition Plan > a. Selecting the Image Acquisition Plan Type.

4. Center the map on the area of interest: (iOS) Pix4Dcapture - Manual and Settings: Map view.

Step 2. Start a free flight mission⤴

Once the mission has been prepared, it can be started.

1. Place the drone in a clear area of at least 10 by 10 meters that can get easily GPS signal.
2. Turn on the remote controller.
3. Turn on the drone.
4. (DJI) Set the drone to be flown in manual mode by switching the corresponding button on the controller.

5. In the app, tap Start.

Note: The drone will not take off at this point.

6. Check that the app is connected to the drone. If yes, tap Next.

7. Verify that all security checks that are displayed are green. If yes, the drone can start taking pictures. If not, solve each security issue until it becomes green. For more information about how to solve the security issues: (Android) Takeoff checks fail.

8. Manually take off and fly towards the area to be mapped.
9. Tap on the button Take Pictures (Android) or Start (iOS) to start taking pictures.
10. Fly over the area of interest until images have been taken to cover the whole area.

Note: During the mission:

The map view displays the current position of the drone. It allows keeping track of the mission.
When the drone reaches the mission altitude, check that the camera is pointing towards the area of interest. It can happen that the gimbal is not properly initialized and that the camera is not looking in the correct direction. The gimbal can be manually changed during flight by going to the camera view and pressing the down arrow.
The signal to take a picture is sent from the app during the mission. If there is an issue with the app or the device, no images are taken and the mission has to be redone.

Don't fly too fast. If you fly too fast, the app will not be able to record the images at the requested intervals.
If pictures are missing over an area, fly back to that area. The app will record the missing pictures.

11. When the area has been covered, tap Stop (Android) or Abort (iOS) to end the image acquisition.

12. Land the drone and synchronize the images with the device and upload on the cloud following: Pix4Dcapture - Getting Started.