A drone inspection company spent more time on paperwork than in the air — airspace checks, pilot rosters, chasing deliverables. We put the whole mission lifecycle on rails, from automated clearance checks to portal delivery, doubling missions per pilot per week.
Typical results
25 min
Admin per mission
1 day
Flight to delivered survey
3%
Missions aborted on-site
Figures reflect typical results for this kind of automation.
The challenge
Each mission consumed about three hours of admin: checking airspace restrictions and weather windows manually, matching a certified pilot to the site, confirming with the client, then emailing gigabytes of imagery afterward. Pilots averaged just four missions a week, one flight in ten was aborted on-site over conditions someone should have caught, and deliverables took five days to reach clients.
Before and after
Missions per pilot per week
2×Admin time per mission
−86%Flight to delivered results
−80%The automation
We built an orchestration flow where every mission request automatically runs airspace and weather checks for the site and date, then assigns the nearest pilot with the right certification and sends the client a confirmation with the flight window. Rechecks run the day before, rescheduling proactively when a window closes. After landing, imagery uploads to a client portal automatically, packaged with a review-and-signoff flow that timestamps acceptance.
How it works
- 01
Request runs its own checks
Every mission request triggers automatic airspace and weather checks for the exact site and date.
- 02
Right pilot, automatically
Assignment matches certification, equipment and location — the closest qualified pilot gets the mission and the brief.
- 03
Client confirmed, window watched
Clients get instant confirmation; rechecks the day before reschedule proactively if the weather window closes.
- 04
Deliverables land in the portal
Post-flight imagery and reports upload automatically to the client portal — no more emailing gigabytes.
- 05
Sign-off closes the loop
A review-and-signoff flow timestamps client acceptance and triggers invoicing.
Starts from
- Mission requests
- Airspace & weather checks
Delivers
- Pilot assigned by cert & location
- Deliverables to client portal
- Review & sign-off flow
The impact
Pilots now fly eight missions a week instead of four — twice the billable output from the same team. Admin per mission fell from three hours to 25 minutes, on-site aborts dropped from 10% of flights to 3%, and clients receive their survey package within a day instead of five.
Questions about this automation
Which checks run when a mission is requested?
Each request triggers an airspace restriction lookup and a weather forecast check for the exact site and date. If either check fails, the request is flagged before a pilot is booked. The checks run again the day before the flight, and if the weather window closes, the client is offered a new date automatically.
How is a pilot chosen for each mission?
The automation compares each pilot's certifications, available equipment and distance from the site against the mission's requirements. The closest qualified pilot receives the mission brief and a calendar booking, and the client gets a confirmation with the flight window. A dispatcher can override the choice when needed.
How are survey deliverables handed to the client?
After the flight, imagery and reports upload to a client portal, so large files are never sent by email. The client reviews the package and signs off in the portal, the acceptance is timestamped, and that sign-off triggers the invoice. It is a multi-step build, usually rolled out in stages, starting with the pre-flight checks and pilot matching.