SkyDemon Forums

SkyDemon for photo flights

http://forums.skydemon.aero/Topic10021.aspx

By Joseph - 8/3/2013 3:45:29 PM

Hi,

I am studying the use of SD during photo flights. In photo flight it is important to see where the photo line is. In front of the crew there is a CDI accurate but that's all.

In recent 2 photo flights I was watching how SD looks in the air (stage 30 min...). Introduced 4 lines manually as custom area - not very efficient.
Yesterday I wrote a little program to create custom waypoints based on original flight planning output (IGI WinMP -> WGS WPT export). The idea came after studying BGA 2013 turning points' file structure, available for SD.
My program converts the set of WGS coordinates into *.gpx file that can be imported in on PC, then from PC saved to the cloud. My mobile device at this moment is an Android tablet (1 GB RAM).
Seems it works, but when on tablet I choose Open from Cloud, SD crashes. The only trick I manage the situation: uninstall tablet SD (v 2.7), install, Open from Cloud. Virgin installation needed...?

Is someone of you using SD during survey flights?

With regards,
Joseph

4 jpg-s attached
By Joseph - 8/12/2013 8:09:16 AM

Hi,

According to Tim some android tablets have memory issues when trying to show WPT GPX file content in a window. In case the 'show' is succesful SD will work fine with the WPT-s. If not - one can get rid of oversized WPT only by reinstalling SD (funy, but after reinstallation user can load 1 piece of 'huge' WPT file, but not later). No such problems with PC and iPad - this is the good piece of news. Seems the problem might be solved by SD programmers just by asking the users - do you want to view the listing of WPT-s or not?

After WPT-s I changed to creating airspace files in order to show photo lines.
Find enclosed 2 screenshots: photo lines are loaded as airspace (1st and last lines are connected - closed polygon is a must) and a moderate size WPT.GPX is also loaded.

If one prefers to have lines on screen as a route: airspace file can be converted to route file with some copy-pastes. Looks good, but the 1-2 second delay of the HSI needle made me doubts, do I really need it. The dedicated photo equipment has professional GPS and the position is extrapolated using known delays in position calculation.
But SD takes the biscuit as moving map: a photo aircraft has to cross all kind of ATC boxes and the situation awareness is a must.



With regards, Joseph