Dronedesk
Dronedesk case study
survey company
How Drone Evolution are growing their business with Dronedesk
100 drone flights a month.
That's a lot of flights. But that's just an average month for Drone Evolution. And when you're putting drones into the air that many times, you need slick, easy-to-repeat processes that keep your pilots flying and keep your flight data organised.
Which is exactly what Drone Evolution found in Dronedesk.
What is Drone Evolution?
Drone Evolution was founded in 2018 to provide drone services to businesses across the UK. Drone Evolution's pilots conduct inspection flights for key infrastructure such as telecommunication masts, roof inspections, topographical surveys, coal tips and more.
A central planning team organises each flight and assigns it to a pilot, as well as securing any necessary permissions. The pilots plan their individual flights, and then send the data back to the central office. It's a system that works well for Drone Evolution, leaving the pilot with as little admin as possible so they can concentrate on flying.
"Our goal is to have a simplistic model. And that simplistic model is the pilot gets in a van, goes to the site, gets the data the client wants and gets it back to the client."
Unfortunately, that wasn't the situation in 2019. Toby and the rest of the team were using a platform that didn't quite meet their needs. Organising and planning the flights was cumbersome and slow, and there was a risk that the team would start drowning in paperwork.
"The system we were using had some limitations, especially around things like flight planning. A lot of that flight planning was being done kind of manually with spreadsheets and that kind of stuff. It took a lot of time. And time is of the essence for a pilot if they have six flights that day."
Toby needed a drone flight planning platform that could help him and his team handle the sheer volume of flights they wanted to fly. Which is where Dronedesk came in.
Making planning easier
Toby had two key concerns he needed Dronedesk to address: straightforward data management for the central office, and easy flight planning for the pilots.
Because arranging an average of 100 flights a month means assigning each of those flights to a pilot, seeking permissions, and monitoring the activity. If Toby had to do all of that with spreadsheets and paper, he wouldn't be doing anything else. So he was pretty pleased that Dronedesk puts all of those tools in one place, and makes them easy to use.
"We can see what work we've got outstanding, where the pilots are going to be on any given day, and which flights are completed so we can map our invoicing. That's all really important from a business perspective."
Toby also doesn't have to worry about storing all the flight data for auditing purposes. Dronedesk is keeping all the logs in one place, so he and his team can see it all for any flight, any time. And should the auditors come knocking, Toby has all the information they'd need at his fingertips.
"It gets us the data. You've got to be able to log into a system that tells you who is conducting which flights today. You've got to have a record for the CAA (Civil Aviation Authority). You've got to have somewhere a repository for the records of the flights, the drones that are being used, the serial numbers and all that kind of stuff."
Out in the field, Toby's biggest concern is that his pilots can get on with their jobs instead of spending time on flight planning. He wants them to be able to turn up, fly the drone, and then move on to the next site. So he was pleased to see how easy flight planning is with Dronedesk.
"The planning has been made so much easier. You can produce the RAMS with a click of the button. You can see the map of the flight and it tells you what permissions you need. It takes the hard work away."
Toby's had first-hand experience of how easy it is to conduct a flight with Dronedesk. In December 2022, Drone Evolution found themselves with an amazing 200+ flights to conduct. It was all hands on deck, and Toby even found himself out in the field, where Dronedesk helped him keep his drone in the air.
"Dronedesk is a lot easier to use in the field. The Tuesday before Christmas I was flying in Oxford Street, and there was a problem with the permissions that morning. But I was able to sort it all out in part thanks to Dronedesk because I had all the data I needed at my fingertips."
Saving time and money
Toby has been able to help grow Drone Evolution without worrying about the arduous admin of drone flight planning holding him back. And not only is Dronedesk helping him take on more work, but it's also saving him money.
"If you didn't have something like Dronedesk, you'd be doing all of this by hand in various spreadsheets, which would get messy and you'd have to worry about where you store all those records. You'd need to hire a full-time person to manage that. So Dronedesk doesn't just allow us to do as many flights as we do, but it saves us money too."
And, as ever, we're always pleased to say that Toby has been delighted with the level of service that he receives. Because it was important to us that we didn't just build an all-in-one drone flight planning tool: we wanted to offer the best service in the market too.
"The service has been really good. If there are ever any problems, Dorian sorts it out really quickly. It's been fantastic."
If flight planning is holding you back from taking on more flights and growing your business, try Dronedesk. We offer a free trial to all new users, so you can see for yourself just how much time you can save today.
All quotes are from Toby Townrow - Business Development Director at Drone Evolution
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