Dr. Nils C. Prieur

Dr. Nils C. Prieur

ML Engineer / Earth & Planetary Scientist

First Drone test: finding a location in the bay area is…. not easy!

1 minute read

Published:

Hey folks! Before I jump into fieldwork, I need to get comfortable with my new drone. That means finding a spot for a test flight—easier said than done in the Bay Area! Drones are only allowed in uncontrolled airspace (Class G), and with major airports like SF and Oakland nearby, plus a bunch of smaller ones, Class G airspace is as rare as a unicorn.

I scouted the hills southwest of Stanford, hoping for a quiet field. But between protected wildlife areas and private properties wrapped in barbed wire, my luck ran out. After a few car trips and a lot of Googling, I stumbled upon Baylands Park. Although it’s not technically in Class G and sits suspiciously close to SF airport, it came highly recommended by the drone community. Fingers crossed, I decided to give it a go. And wow, what an experience! After setting up on a big grassy field, I got the drone ready. Drawing a flight path on the controller screen was surprisingly intuitive. Once everything was set, I hit the magic button, and the drone took off, flew its route, and landed all by itself. Super smooth! I just had to keep an eye on the battery, which drains faster than you’d think, and make sure the drone stayed within range.

Next up: processing the images. Drones capture a ton of data, and I used Metashape Pro, a fantastic tool available in Mathieu’s lab, to stitch the images together into an orthoimage. These geo-referenced images can be imported straight into GIS software like QGIS—an absolute game-changer for my workflow.

Fieldwork is right around the corner, but before that, I’ll present my preliminary results at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in March. It’ll be great to get some feedback and fine-tune my process. Until then, peace out and take care! 😊

Drone 1 Caption: First time trying the drone in Baylands Park!

Drone 2 Caption: Just moment before the first test.

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