suppose I’m going to fly one of DJI drones somewhere in the UK. Apart from DJI FLY or DJI GO4 which I obviously need to control my drone what other “must have” apps would you suggest I install on my Android phone?
I currently have “Drone Assist” to look for permanent and temporary flight restrictions. Is it the best app for the purpose? What other apps should I sensibly have? I have also tried “Air Map” but “Drone Assist” somehow looks more useful.
I found this bit in another forum thread interesting, so it indeed possible to do this with an app? Is there a “drone scene” app?
The only must-have is an app to fly the drone with.
You might want to look at Litchi, or anything else that’s better than DJI’s own apps and don’t send all your data to China and God only knows what else they’re doing in the background of your Android, there are plenty of alternatives to choose from.
That very much depends on what you are wanting to know?
If we know what you’re looking for it will help you get useful app recommendations
Drone Scene is one of only three safety apps approved by CAA. It’ll let you submit flight reports and covers your flight restrictions. It does 101 other things too, go check it out, there’s a video on the /About page that covers some of it.
I’m not a fan of weather apps, too inaccurate. If several million quids worth of Met Office supercomputer can’t predict the weather on the ground then a £5 quid Android app certainly can’t predict it at 400ft above your head.
You’ll soon get a feel for the weather and know if it’s safe or a risk.
First create an Altitude Angel account once done open drone scene as described above and then click on the three lines (burger menu) and click flight reports follow the onscreen instructions to link your Altitude Angel account with drone scene once linked you can just click the menu and click flight reports directly from drone scene fill in the small form and click post my flight report and this will create a flight report for your intended flight. hope this helps
the only app I use is the DJI fly app (on a dedicated drone phone (my old phone after an upgrade of my contract phone, my contract upgrade is due I get a new phone my old one becomes my new drone phone repeat))
the only other thing I use or need is my actual phone that has a data connection to access drone scene via a short cut on my home screen as described above. Drone scene has everything I need in one place.
Local user submitted locations of places to fly all the airspace restrictions, even has a measurement tool to tell me how far away from my intended subject.
even has National trust boundaries so I can make sure I’m off their land for over flying.
That great to know, thx! I’m still somewhat confused about “Drone Scene” being referred to as an “App”. It is not actually an app, it is a website right?
Nothing wrong with it, I like plain old websites a lot better than apps actually. I’m just trying to get things straight in my head. To me an “app” is something I install on my phone via “Google Play”. A website is what I visit via my browser.
Thx, this helps. Is “Altitude Angel” another name for NATS? “Drone Assist” is published under that name on Google Play.
Drone scene is whats called a web app. and if you create a shortcut on your home screen it preforms the exact same as an app you install from google play or the app store.
yes NATS drone assist is Altitude Angels app and is only one of the many data sets that drone scene uses. The FRZs and Airspace restrictions layers on drone scene is the exact same data set as Altitude Angel. drone scene pulls the data in from Altitude Angel and displays it as a layer drone scene has many different layer settings including National trust boundaries and the Made up flight restrictions that DJI impose on their drones to name a couple.
hope this makes sense lol
also with NATS Drone assist the Class D layer is turned on by default, this means that most locations you look at will be in a red zone and will cause confusion as Class D airspace doesn’t effect drone flights as Class D restrictions start at 500ft, 100ft above a drones legal height. So if you look at NATS it will seem like you can’t fly there but if you check drone scene the class D layer is off and show it safe to fly.
in a nutshell drone scene is just miles better use drone scene
I’d recommend Ventusky (free) for wind speeds and gusts, it’s great for getting a current direction, I find UAV Forecast shows the same direction over a whole week! Regardless of what the reality is.
Thanks to GADC for helping me back into my original ID! As you can see, I gave it a shot and it worked seamlessly!
Another app for weather i use is Windy. There is free and paid versions. I use the free. You can use it for different activities, and as a bonus for me living on the coast it has tide times, heights and swells, so i know if i can get onto the beach or not.
For air sports
Thx a bunch for all useful info. As a new pilot and forum member I’d like to share a bit of feedback on my journey, and maybe somebody can figure out how to it less painful for newcomers. My story:
it is also possible to submit flight reports via Drone Assist - I did honestly try before but I didn’t know which icon to click
you might be able to draw a geometrical shape and get a PDF confirming your submission there
Separately it took me serious effort to understand that “GADC” means “grey arrows drone club”.
Great many thanks for all those who created all this and to those who helped me understand. On the other hand it seems terribly inefficient to explain some of these things to each newcomer separately.
To me the above seems like a “must-see” FAQ that each new drone pilot in the UK should be made aware of. But sadly I don’t know how to reduce this communication inefficiency and make this info more easily available to newcomers.
P.S. all of the weather apps mentioned in this thread probably deserve a honourable mention on that hypothetic FAQ somewhere in small print
