The development of Drone Scene continues!

The option to submit flight reports using hand drawn polygon shapes, rather than circles, is only available for commercial-flight users and commands a further premium on the respective API licence fees. So we’ll not be offering that as a feature I’m afraid :blush:

When submitting a flight report we default to a 500m circle radius simply because that’s what the NATS app does and because it’s their assumed VLOS value.

I see no reason why we couldn’t give you the option to make it a smaller (or bigger) radius though. Is this something other people would use? :thinking: :man_shrugging:t2:

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If so, you know full well that we’ll build it for you :slight_smile:

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Personally its not likely to be something I would use , however I can see for some it would be useful and having it as an option may be nice for some…

if you are bored and want to do it then ok though :wink:

Vote?

I created a flight report in DroneScene for, I thought, 1150 for 1 hour. So, 1150 to 1250. On the map, if I clicked on the blue circle, it showed those times, but said “in Europe/Dublin”. In the list of Flight Reports in Drone Scene, the flight had already taken place because it was shown as 1050-1150.

This looks to me like an obvious timezone thing but the location is pinpointed correctly as Colchester in Essex and my laptop is on the correct time. What gives?


Screenshot 2021-05-24 at 12.57.08

Not sure what you’ve done

I just added a test for 1450 when I pick the kids up from school and it showing as fine

Submitted in DS , checked on NATS

Yes mine shows correctly on the Drone Scene MAP(and on Drone Assist) - it’s the list of Flight Reports that is incorrect. But also notice yours gives the time as Europe/Dublin. are you in Dublin…?

Now I’m on your bus, we’ll look into it

(Mine too)

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Hmmmm… :thinking:

We don’t actually store any of your flight reports in our database.

What you see on the screen there is data which we pull, in real time, from NATS.

I’ll add this to my list of issues for the next Drone Scene update @Avianskipdiver - it might be the case NATS are presenting us UTC (or GMT) timestamps and if so I can just factor in the +1 for British Summer Time.

I’m half way through something else on Drone Scene at the moment so it’ll be a few weeks before I can get to this one.

Thanks for reporting the issue :smiley:

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Yes that must be it. We’ve just been checking and everywhere from Portugal to Ireland is the same time zone. So “Dublin” is an odd way to characterise Colchester but is actually correct. It’s the pulled-in report that’s obviously showing UTC.

I had noticed this before, last week, but thought I must have miskeyed it when I set up the flight. Cheers.

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Yeah, confirmed, they give us “zero time” on the UTC time stamp they send us:

I’ll get it sorted, before the end of British Summer Time :rofl:

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Ah, thanks. It’s more than just getting the record straight: I first noticed it when I went to cancel a report, because I had to change plans and didn’t want to inconvenience anyone potentially - but couldn’t because it was in the past.

I’ve been able to put a fix in place for this now @Avianskipdiver as it didn’t affect any of the other areas of code I’m currently working in.

Give it a try please :slight_smile:

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leave it a few months and it will fix itself… like a car clock…

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The reports now have the correct times. Thank you, very quick service.

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A new version of Drone Scene has been released :tada:

What’s new since March? :thinking:

Wait…

What??

There hasn’t been a single update to Drone Scene since 25th March?! :scream:

Sadly, there hasn’t :pensive:

But that’s because I’ve been working on something amazing for you all which has taken me two months worth of evenings to build :tada:

Pull up a chair, get comfy, have a read :nerd_face:


New Feature

  • Local Authority lookup tool

Have a look at the buttons down the right hand side of the map, you’ll see a new “question mark” button.

Clicking on this will clear all your current layers off the map (don’t worry, we put them back again later!).

You can then click anywhere on the map to see which local authority is responsible for that area :clap:t2:

Not only that, but we also display their boundary on the map, in crazy-high detail :clap:t2: :clap:t2:

This part took forever.

I’ve added around 400 local authorities to the database and around quarter of a million lat/lng points to make up their boundaries.

Anyway!

NOT ONLY THAT(!) but if you then click on the displayed boundary you’ll get a popup info box that will tell you which local authority is responsible for this area :cool:

But wait!!

NOT ONLY THAT(!!!)

If you click on the “What do they know?” link in the info box as if by magic a new tab will open in your browser and you’ll be whisked over to the Freedom of Information (FOI) results for that actual council :scream:

But not just any old FOI results for that council.

Ohhh no… It will take you to the results of the FOIs that Simon Hawkins has been on a mission for recently :bowing_man:t2:

Why is this important?

Because different local authorities have different byelaws. A byelaw is a local law made by a local council requiring something to be done, or not done, in a specified area. They are accompanied by some sanction or penalty for their non-observance.

So before you go flying in an area, with just a couple of clicks you can now find out what the byelaws are in that area.

You might want to print that out and carry it with you, if it’s in your favour :blush:

Handy eh?

:dancer:t2: :man_dancing:t2:


Next new feature please!

  • TFRs now available in DJI GEO Zone layer

You can now see the DJI “Temporary Flight Restrictions” or TFRs as they also call them.

Heads up, these WILL prevent your DJI drone from taking off while in effect.

As ever, this data is live, in real time. If DJI add, update or remove these TFRs, you’ll see that instantly in Drone Scene.


Other stuff!


UI / UX Changes:

  • Force the Locations layer on if viewing a specific Location
    – Requested by @OzoneVibe
    – As Drone Scene now remembers your layer selections each time you visit it’s possible you have the Locations layer turned off
    – If you then click on an Location that another member has shared, the pin on the map is not displayed because, well, you have the Locations layer turned off
    –We now turn on the location layer for you, if and when you click a Location. Don’t worry, we turn if off again (if it was off in the first place) when you move away from it :slight_smile:

  • Removed the “Region” drop down list when adding a new Location to the map
    – When you add a new Location to the map for other members to view, we used to ask you which region it was in
    – We no longer do that and instead use some new magickery to locate the region on your behalf
    – We also ran some automated wizardry in the background to check all 800+ locations for regional accuracy and update any which needed it

  • Removed “Solar Panels” from the Ground Hazards layer
    – Reported by @Drumsagard back in February
    – This wasn’t a bug in Drone Scene but was an issue in the dataset we display from one of our content providers
    – Said provider still hasn’t resolved this issue yet (despite us reporting it on the day and chasing numerous times since) - so we’ve removed it at our end for the time being
    – It now looks like this :slight_smile:


Bug Fixes:


As ever, please continue to enjoy Drone Scene and please keep those feature requests coming!

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Rich - that is absofekkinlutely amazing. The addition of the local authority boundaries AND the FOI data is pure genius - just what drone pilots have been looking for - thank you for all your efforts - truly amazing :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

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Amazing job Rich! Local authority boundaries is a great addition :clap: :clap: :clap:

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Awesome update! :ok_hand:t2: thanks again @PingSpike this along with good2go will be a must use for any drone pilot. :+1:t2:

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Well, pluck my banjo and call me Cletus!.. This is brilliant. Didn’t think it could get better and then BOOm, knocked it out the park. Well done Rich, I doff my hat to you. :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

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@PingSpike I hope you’ve given yourself a Badge for all the BRILLIANT work you’re doing on our behalf. :ok_hand:

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