Joined about 2 months ago
Survey tech, drone enthusiast
on How do you price drone survey work?
Stop thinking in day rates. Price by the value of the deliverable. A $500 drone survey that replaces a $5,000 traditional survey should cost $1,500-2,000, not $500. Also factor in your equipment investment, insurance, software, and continuing education. Most drone operators undercharge because they only count their time in the field.
on Processing 10,000+ image datasets - hardware and workflow
Split into sub-projects with 20-30% overlap between blocks. Process individually, then merge the outputs. This is the standard approach for large sites. Make sure you have GCPs in the overlap areas so the blocks register properly. We routinely process 20,000+ image datasets this way. 128GB RAM would help but won't solve a 4-day processing time. The GPU is probably the bottleneck.
on DroneDeploy terrain following not working on M3E
Had the same problem. Rolled back to the previous DD version and terrain following works again. v4.142 is the last good version.
on Stockpile volume accuracy - how close is close enough?
We regularly hit sub-1% on stockpiles by flying at 120ft AGL and using a consistent base plane methodology. The key is being consistent month over month so relative changes are accurate even if absolute volume has some offset. Also, compare apples to apples. If they're comparing GPS volumes using a different base plane definition, the numbers will never match.