Are you starting or growing a drone business? Protecting your operations doesn’t just mean risk management. It all starts with risk prevention. In this blog series, we will share best practices for ensuring safety across all key areas of your operations — including hardware, software, and UTM.
Drone registration
Before getting into the
Hardware pre-flight checklist
After ensuring that your drone registrations and pilot certifications are up to date, it’s time to focus on your pre-flight hardware checklist.
- Batteries
- Ensure that your batteries are fully charged. If your flights will be over a larger survey area, or might otherwise exceed 45 minutes in the air, make sure you have spare batteries on hand.
- Propellers
- Before any flight, it is critical to check that your propellers are intact and undamaged, and to inspect them for dirt, debris, or other foreign materials.
- Compass and GPS calibration
- To avoid flyaways, it’s essential to check if your drone’s compass and GPS systems are working optimally. It is recommended to keep them away from magnetic objects to avoid damage. If you’re using a DJI drone, this tutorial provides more information on calibrating your compass.
- Sense & Avoid
- If your drone has Sense & Avoid features, make sure they are turned on before starting any survey.
Communication between drone and base station
Even if you’re flying autonomous missions, it’s imperative that you set up and maintain reliable communication between your drone and base station throughout the duration of your flight. Check your environment and flight path for factors that could contribute to signal interference, such as cell phone towers, power lines, tall buildings and bodies of water.
If you have questions about protecting your commercial drone operations, reach out to our team at info@DroneInsurance.com. In the next installment of this blog series, we will share tips for leveraging software solutions to improve operational safety.
