Mission Planning

Feature availability

Mission Planning is a powerful tool in AirData that can be used to create better workflows for drone operations, data collection, and safety and compliance.

Mission Planning provides the ability to:

• Set and communicate mission location data;

• Check airspace information;

• Assign participants and aircraft;

• Collaborate with built-in chat and email notifications;

• Attach mission-specific checklists and documents.
  

This article will cover a basic mission planning workflow.

For LAANC authorization, see: Applying for LAANC Authorization with Mission Planning

Mission Planning is separated into six tabs.

1. Details
2. Location
3. Participants
4. Equipment
5. Checklist
6. Approvals

Add a Mission

1. To start creating a mission, navigate to PLAN -> MISSIONS

2. Hit the “+ Add Mission” button in the top left

Details Tab

The first page of the Mission Planning module is the Details tab.

Required fields will be marked with an asterisk (*). Not all fields are required to proceed.

Please note: You can change the date format and units of measure from My Account -> Units.

Linking Flights to Missions

Auto-link relevant flights is an option to automatically attach flights to the planned missions when all of the following conditions are met.

• "Auto-link relevant flights" is enabled.

• The start of the flight(s) is during the mission time – we will also auto link if the flight(s) occurs up to 30 minutes before and 30 minutes after the mission.

• The flight(s) takeoff location is within or up to 500 meters beyond the mission area. Screenshot for clarity: https://media.airdata.com/um1CCh

• The drone used is on the "Equipment" tab of the created mission. 

Flights can also be manually assigned to missions using the “Actions” dropdown menu on the Flight Overview page.

Location Tab

The Location tab allows you to select a flight operations area using an address bar and map.

Locations can be entered in street address format, or with latitude and longitude coordinates.

Airspace classes, restrictions, and LAANC eligibility are shown on the right of the screen.

You have the option to move the mission area, resize it, add markers to the map, and draw custom shapes. You can also upload a KML/KMZ file to pre-populate this map data.

You can also select your pilot certification status on this page.

Please note: Before selecting commercial status, you must first enter your registration information for your pilot account.

You can access these settings via:

A) My Account -> Personal Info

B) My Account -> Users/Pilots

C) MANAGE -> PILOTS -> “Edit Pilot”

Participants Tab

The Participants tab allows you to add Users on your account in different roles. Participants can also be added at a later time, after the mission is created.

Equipment Tab

The Equipment tab allows you to specify which drones will be used on this mission. Specifying a drone is not required to move on to the next step. As with Participants, you can add drones to a created mission.

Checklist Tab

The Checklist tab contains a risk assessment checklist for the mission. This is customizable by the user, and will generate a weighted mission risk score.

Account Admins can disable the risk assessment checklist, or make it skippable by the user, from My Account -> Mission Settings.

Approvals Tab

The Approvals tab will allow you to request approvals or defer the request for later.

You can also upload mission documents on this page.

The Approvals process will be different depending on the configuration of your settings page under My Account -> Mission Approvals.

If you are planning a mission with LAANC eligibility, you will be able to select “Proceed to LAANC Authorization” on this page. This will take you to the Airbus UTM page to complete the LAANC approval process. Link to “Applying for LAANC Authorization”. Please note: If you are attempting to apply for LAANC authorization with parameters outside what are allowed by the FAA, you will not be able to proceed to the Airbus UTM LAANC authorization page.

If your mission does not require LAANC approval, you can hit “Finish” and the mission will populate on the left hand side of the page.