G'day All,

I have been tasked with filming the construction of a new school. The process is going to take over 12 months from beginning to end. What I would like to do is film a path over the area, then go back a few months later and fly the same path with the same camera angle, and repeat again and again until done. Then when I edit the film together, flash back and forth through the construction before and afters before doing a final fly through and internal montage at the end.

So basically, can Spark do it? Is it possible to map a path or record a path and have Spark re-fly the exact path again and again? Do I need alternate software? Or is it just not possible?

Advice and suggestions on how I might be able to do this would be greatly appreciated.

Of course if you can wait 18 months I'll share the end result. :-)

Cheers All

Technically no and since this is a DJI forum they will say not to use 3rd party software.. but look into autopilot by hanger dot com. It will do what you want. Good idea by the way.

Auto pilot is really the only way so once you program it once you just have to save it and just continue to fly same mission, you could try by coordinates and much mathematics but for €25 Euro and some studying you should be home and dry.

LouisP Posted at 2017-12-20 15:25
Technically no and since this is a DJI forum they will say not to use 3rd party software.. but look into autopilot by hanger dot com. It will do what you want. Good idea by the way.

So DJI don't have a means to do this? Only via 3rd party?

Gixr.thou Posted at 2017-12-20 17:04
So DJI don't have a means to do this? Only via 3rd party?

Nope.  Sending an aircraft on autopilot across the nation's airspace is frowned upon.  The governments want hobbyists to do the flying.  Be there watching for rescue helicopters, or US Army Blackhawks, to come through and be able to avoid them.  A drone on a waypoint mission no good.

I think the Phantom can kinda do it but the pilot has to run the course first and the route is only available for that fight.

Gunship9 Posted at 2017-12-20 17:25
Nope.  Sending an aircraft on autopilot across the nation's airspace is frowned upon.  The governments want hobbyists to do the flying.  Be there watching for rescue helicopters, or US Army Blackhawks, to come through and be able to avoid them.  A drone on a waypoint mission no good.

I think the Phantom can kinda do it but the pilot has to run the course first and the route is only available for that fight.

I see what you are saying... if you CAN do it people WILL do it..   But the original intent was not to fly a waypoint mission illegally..   Even with autopilot you are still technically flying the drone. As long as he stays within visual sight and has the control handy to stop the automated flight it would be legal.
But, you are right... given the option there are those who would program a long flight way out of sight and expect the drone to fly it autonomously.  That would not be legal in most places.
Since autopilot does its work on the phone though, you really could not fly a waypoint mission any further away than you could fly the drone manually anyway.  

Spark does not have this option.
Mavic and phantom do.
Not sure about 3rd party apps, since the API from Spark does not have this feature (as far as I know)