Blog Post by Roy de RuiterBest Tools for Flying Drones

“Best Tools for Flying Drones” video transcript

Hi guys, it’s Roy from Ungraded, and today I want to be showing you some tools that we’d like to use for our drone pre-flight planning, I’m not going to give instructions on how to use the tools, but I’m just going to show you what’s possible with them.

Google Earth Studio

So the first one is Google Earth Studios and we don’t use it a lot, but it can be good for important shoots where you can give the directors some more information about how the shots are going to look like before going out to shoot. Here you can make screenshots and video exports to show the maximum height and maximum distance from the pilot. In this way you can show the director on what’s possible and you won’t have to disappoint them on the day of the shoot.

PhotoPills

PhotoPills is actually a photography planning app. It helps you plan your photos ahead of time, so you’re always at the right place at the right time to capture the best photo possible. It also has an option so you can see where the sun goes down and goes up. We think it’s also good for drone film and photography, since it shows you the exact time of sunset or sunrise at a specific location.

Weather and Radar App

So while making drone footage, you mainly want to have the sun out, and that’s what Weather and Radar App comes in handy. You can scroll through the time line to see if it’s going to rain, be cloudy or if it’s a clear sky. So we really love to shoot the sunset and with this free up you know if it’s going to be worth it to go out and shoot.

UAV Forecast

Last, but not least UAV Forecast. I think this is the most popular. On the top, you can type in the location that you want to fly in and it shows you weather information like temperature, wind speed and visibility. But you can also select the KP index and lock satellites. If you select an item, for example wind speed, you can type in the maximum speed of your drone. Make sure to look at the manual of your own drone to see what the maximum wind speed is. In this way you exactly know if it’s good to fly or not. The free version only shows you a 24 hour forecast, the yearly paid version is €27 and shows you a seven-day forecasts. If we missed any tools on drone, film and photography, please let us know in the comments we would love to hear when I thank you guys for watching and see next time.