Hivemapper Network seeking Phantom 3/4 pilots for aerial mapping projects

[bryan.hivemapper]

Greetings Phantom Pilots Community!

My name is Bryan and I work at Hivemapper.com - we specialize in creating 3D “Living Maps” that show changes using video footage without the need for expensive cameras, aircrafts, or satellites.

The network of mappers is made up of folks just like you who collect aerial (drone) or street level (dash cam) video footage and upload it to our network to create cost-effective and intelligent mapping solutions for use in a variety of projects.

Our maps update in nearly real-time, unlike the large gaps of time from other mapping companies where sometimes the information is several years old.
Check out this blog article which goes into detail on what we’re about and how we’re changing the landscape of the industry and giving you the power to create up-to-date and detailed maps without a million dollar satellite:

How we are scaling the future of mapping

Mapping has stagnated — it’s time for a different approach

bit.ly

If you're interested in working with us please reach out for more information.

 

[bryan.hivemapper]

I posted a similar message on Mavic Pilots forum, and a user there had some questions I thought I would repost the answers to in this thread as well.

Hi Bryan,

I believe I saw your site a long time ago and it has probably changed a lot since then. I just looked over the various pages and have a few questions that may also interest other pilots here:

• How quickly and when would you be adding gold and silver tiles to the map? I am making the assumption that large metropolitan areas would be getting more of those as opposed to open plains with nothing but grass and cows. For instance I just looked at downtown Philadelphia and there are zero gold tiles there. It is hardly worth the effort of making the missions if there are not any high-value tiles there.
  I did see the form to request tile additions but that can be a hassle to do every time. How long would it take from form submission?
• I see that you normally map at an altitude of 110 meters. How are you handling big cities with skyscrapers? Again I will use Philadelphia as an example, with the tallest buildings topping out at over 1,100 feet AGL. Is there any manual flight mode for those of us with the experience (and Part 107 certification) to fly missions in these areas?
• Again when flying in major cities, is there a manual mode so that we can fly missions and still stay legal per FAA regulations regarding VLOS, flying over people, etc? Flying manually I can fly such missions in a big city, but with an autonomous flight there are no controls to keep the flight legal.
• I may have missed this in the pilot mapper details but how payments made to the pilots? Check? PayPal?
• I see a few mentions of a grid tile being "owned" by the pilot that shoots it. What exactly does that mean? Does it mean that no other pilot would be paid to map that same tile? How often do you pay a pilot to re-map the same grid tile? You make a point of saying on your main page that the big advantage of your project is how dynamic and up-to-date the map is. Wouldn't this require frequent and regularly scheduled remapping missions?

THANKS in advance for your response!

Hey there and thanks for reaching out.

• We can add gold tiles to high value areas very quickly. I can even add a few near where folks live to get them started on the workflow if they aren't in a major metro area. If you live in a remote area, I can't guarantee an abundance of gold tiles. That said, we're interested in mapping rural industrial infrastructure, oil and gas sites/pipelines, stone quarries, etc. This type of thing. Aside from this, you are right and that a majority of gold tiles are for major metro areas such as Philly. Speaking of Philly, it's on the list for a large amount of gold - so no need to worry too much about that regarding Philly specifically. You can always reach out to us and request gold tiles, we'll take a look at the area, and if it meets some of our criteria for "high value" we'll place gold down for you.
• You can map tall buildings with manual flight, yes. Technically you can fly 400 feet above the prevailing object below you, aka 400 feet above a tall building. You may have to raise an on-board limiter on your drone if any through the drone's native operation app (most DJI products top out at 1500 ft I believe).
• If you're mapping in tricky areas with a lot of obstacles/buildings, you can absolutely map manually. We have youtube videos to demonstrate the best way to do this. If you're flying an automated waypoint mission, switching your drone to "sport mode" gives you manual control at the flip of a switch.
• Currently we pay through Paypal, but will be opening up other payment methods in the future.
• When a tile is "owned" another pilot may not be paid for it until the tile is reactivated (then any pilot can reclaim it). Keeping the map "up to date" would require reactivating tiles, yes. Right now our main goal is a large base map to work from and update. That said, we may reactivate certain priority tiles more often than others so each area is a little different in terms of priority for reactivation. Examples of this include: completion of major construction projects, showing weather patterns/storm damage, major changes in terrain.
• To be clear, anyone can update the map as often as they like for their own projects. You just can't be paid multiple times on the same tile unless it's reactivated.

Hope this helps and if you or anyone else would like to get in on one of our orientation webinars we have them weekly on:

Wednesdays at 10:00 a.m. PDT / 1:00 p.m. EST
Thursdays at 5:00 p.m. PDT / 8:00 p.m. EST

We go over the full workflow, payment details, flying tips and answer your questions at the end.

Feel free to email [email protected] and we can schedule one for you.

 

[Thanohano44]

Greetings Phantom Pilots Community!

My name is Bryan and I work at Hivemapper.com - we specialize in creating 3D “Living Maps” that show changes using video footage without the need for expensive cameras, aircrafts, or satellites.

The network of mappers is made up of folks just like you who collect aerial (drone) or street level (dash cam) video footage and upload it to our network to create cost-effective and intelligent mapping solutions for use in a variety of projects.

Our maps update in nearly real-time, unlike the large gaps of time from other mapping companies where sometimes the information is several years old.
Check out this blog article which goes into detail on what we’re about and how we’re changing the landscape of the industry and giving you the power to create up-to-date and detailed maps without a million dollar satellite:

How we are scaling the future of mapping

Mapping has stagnated — it’s time for a different approach

bit.ly

If you're interested in working with us please reach out for more information.

Nice