A new version of Drone Scene has been released 
(Missed the April update? Take a look here!)
What’s new in the September update? 
Get comfy, this is a big one!
UI / UX Change 
- SPEED
- SPEED…
- AND EVEN MORE SPEED!!!
– Ohhhhh are we FAST at loading map layers now
– Considering the amount of data we fetch on-demand and send to your device in real time, Drone Scene has always been relatively quick to load map layers in the past
– In more recent times, due to the size of the data sets - and the sheer number of them - things were starting to slow down a bit
– Sometimes, clicking on a location marker often prompted a“Loading…”message
– We weren’t happy with this
– After a LOT of time spent refactoring things, and a chunk of investment, we’ve now gone from
to 
– We won’t go in to the technical details of how we’ve achieved this performance increase because our competitors will only try and copy us
— They like trying to keep up with the Jones’
– Enjoy the seriously fast layer loading times:
New Feature 
- Mountains more data added to the National Trust layer
– Requested by @clinkadink and @D0c.Col and @Kirky and some other members too
– In the past we have only ever displayed Open Access and Limited Access land boundaries for National Trust
– This has led to some confusion in the past over which areas of land are managed by NT
– We have now expanded our National Trust layer to include all NT land boundaries
– We also now display a lot more information about the site
– We also updated the colours we use for the boundaries to reflect the same colours NT use on their web site
– A reminder of how Drone Scene used to look for National Trust (also note the minimalist popup content, and low-ish amount of polygons in the Mam Tor area) :
And here’s how the exact same area looks on Drone Scene right now (note all the extra polygons and all the additional content in the popup window):
And if the location has a web site / more info available, we also provide a link to that too:
New Feature
- Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) extended to Wales and Scotland
– When we introduced the SSSI layer to Drone Scene back in April it only covered England
– We have now extended this to cover Wales and Scotland too
— We hope to add Areas of Special Scientific Interest (ASSIs) for Northern Ireland in a future update
New Feature
- Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) now include links for more information
– People are often unsure why a site is of Special Scientific Interest
– Where possible, we now link to a source of more information
– In the example below you can see we link to the specific page on Natural England web site which in turn lists the reason
– This should save you guessing
— And save you a lot of searching for other information
– In this example below, the site isBiological
New Feature
- Include the restriction number for "red’ Airspace Restriction areas
– Requested by @BudgieUK and @ben-s
– Continuing our theme of “the more information, the better” we now display the name or number of the specific restricted area within the Category section of the popup
Eg:
And:
New Feature
- Additional information added to Danger, Prohibited and Restricted Areas
– Continuing our theme of “the more information, the better”, where known, we now display additional “Intermittent Airspace” times and additional “Remarks”
– These are supplied by some relevant authority and typically provide other airspace users with more detailed information about the timing, nature of hazard, type of restriction, and authority contact details.
– Example of Cardington
– And an example near Brackley
UI / UX Change
- Changed the “cluster icon” used for the DJI layer (only)
– The recommended locations to fly get clustered in to groups on the map when you zoom in or out
– The DJI map layer also clusters some of its contents
– It can look misleading due to people thinking there is a recommended location to fly when it’s actually a clustered set of DJI objects
– We now display a DJI logo over the top of these, instead of the regular green locations cluster icon
– Example before (with misleading cluster icon):
– Example after (confusion removed):
UI / UX Change
- Prevent overseas members from entering Competitions
– Our T&Cs state that our Competitions are only open to UK members
– A couple of overseas members have entered in the past
– Much as we appreciate the support, we don’t want to rip you off
– If you’re not in the UK you’ll now be automatically prevented from entering (sorry)
UI / UX Change
- Turned off base map “flying mode” for non-members
– When moving around the map or jumping between various locations we perform a nice animation that “flys” you out by dynamically zooming out, then it “flys” you back in again to the location you just chose
– This looks lovely but it’s quite expensive and was putting our Mapbox tile requests through the roof
– Which in turn led to increased operating costs
– Sorry non-members, but in order to reduce Mapbox tile loads (and our operational costs) we now just jump you directly to the location in question
— With no pretty animations
UI / UX Change
- You now need to zoom in closer before SSSI data will appear
– This is to reduce the size of the “payload” being sent to your device for this map layer
— And in turn, increase the performance of Drone Scene
– Don’t get caught out by thinking there is nothing in the locality
– Make sure you zoom in close enough to not see this message:
UI / UX Change
- Display the Elevation Tool heights in Metres and in Feet
– Requested by @BudgieUK
– Hopefully self-explanatory:
UI / UX Change
- Make the Elevation Tool easier to use when in a Restriction Zone
– Requested by @BudgieUK
– When you select the elevation tool, the cursor changes to a small cross, but as soon as you ‘enter’ a FRZ, it changes to a hand again
– You could clearly turn off the layers that are in the way but having to turn off four or five is tedious
– We now turn them all off for you!
— And we also turn them back on again when you exit the Elevation Tool
UI / UX Change
- Don’t zoom in so close when clicking “Zoom to my location”
– Requested by @BudgieUK
– By design, clicking on the Locate icon on the map zooms in to your precise location
– In reality, this level of zoom is too close
– People always then had to zoom out a few notches to see the surrounding area
– We now respect your personal space and we don’t zoom in too close
UI / UX Change
- SPEED
- SPEED…
- AND EVEN MORE SPEED!!!
– Did we mention how fast it is now?
Bug Fix 
- Map layers are being loaded twice
– Reported by @OzoneVibe
– On the first load of Drone Scene, all map layers would be loaded twice
– This resulted in a visual effect of some layers appearing to get darker
— Because there are now two of them
– This also resulted in us being charged twice by some service providers
– At certain zoom levels the same issue would occur
– Bug fixed
Bug Fix
- Broken links to some CAA pages on Good 2 Go
– Reported by @GreyDad and @gunja99
– Good 2 Go provides evidential links to a few CAA articles and pages
– CAA move these pages around from time to time, resulting in us carrying a broken link
– Bug fixed
Bug Fixes
- Overseas members cannot update their Profile to their correct regional information
– Reported by @cruachan and @SimpleSteeve
– A previous update to Drone Scene introduced a drop down list of countries to allow overseas members to select a country other than the UK
– The/profilepage was still trying to validate the Postcode and Mobile Number fields to the UK format of each, even when a different country was selected
– Meaning they can’t enter a five digit zip code for example, or a mobile number of variable length
– Bug fixed
Bug Fix
- Members were unable to add a location to the map if only posted in a single topic
– Reported by @chizmw
– Sorry about that
– Bug fixed
Other Random Stuff 
-
Minor changes to the formatting of the HTML emails we send
– To allow them to display better on mobile devices -
Create a nice onebox for the
/membershippage
– Because it used to only display a plain old text link when used on social media
— eg: https://dronescene.co.uk/membership
– It now displays a nice onebox on your social networks, like this:
We hope you find this level of release notes / details useful
But don’t forget!
In order to use all the features of Drone Scene, you need to be a Member of Grey Arrows Drone Club - and Membership is available from as little as £1.33 per month
As ever, please continue to enjoy Drone Scene and please keep those feature requests coming!
it thank you! 
Terribly sorry about that … Anyway docuvid out next week if I get to finish the damn editing! 
