Quick Start guide

Welcome to Dronecloud

We want you to have the best possible experience getting started so please read the following carefully and remember you can contact support directly using the support function.  

Dronecloud allows you to plan and manage flights and approvals, access UTM services and manage your fleet, all in one place.

Please take a moment to look around the platform and familiarise yourself with the layout.

Dronecloud Map

The Dronecloud Map provides a view where you can quickly see all of your operations, other UAS operators flight reports that are shared via our UTM, and airspace and ground hazards on a map. 

Set Up

Dronecloud allows you to enter details about your fleet, equipment and pilots so that you can easily add them to your jobs and track them across the workflow.  

You can add aircraft, batteries and other equipment, incident logs and manage your maintenance schedules in the Fleet section (see Fleet help pages for more).

Create Operations

You can quickly plan an operation by selecting the Create Operation button in the menu.

• Navigate to your desired region using your mouse, or enter a postcode or address into the search box.  Note that when you zoom in, relevant air and ground hazard layers will be visible.  These can be controlled using the "layers" button above the zoom controls.
• Draw a flight area (polygon) or line using the map tools, or upload a kml (or do this after completing your flight details)
• Complete the mandatory sections on the Details tab

• On the Planning Tab, you can annotate your flight area, and add the date, time, duration, contingency buffer and altitude.  You can add multiple flight areas to one operation (depending on subscription level).
• The system will alert you if there is a direct conflict with other UTM users.
• You must then assign a Pilot and Aircraft to the operation.  If you've not already added an aircraft, do so in Organisation > Fleet.  Any user can be given the role of Pilot by an administrator, in Organisation  > Settings > Users .

• You can also view advisories and access key contact information about relevant authorities (e.g. FRZs, Police).
• You can add to this tab additional information if you wish,  such as supporting documents and (in advanced mode) Risk Assessments, Method Statements and Checklists. 
• Once Planning is complete, click "Complete Flight Plan" and your operation will be submitted to the UTM.
• Your flight plan area and time (but no identifying details) will now be visible to other users of the UTM for deconfliction.

For more help with creating a flight plan, see the Flight planning and approvals support pages. 

As a company owner, you can invite colleagues to collaborate with you in Dronecloud provided your subscription tier allows it. You can do this in the Settings area of the app. When setting up a flight, you then have the ability to add members of your team to jobs. 

You can upgrade or change your service plan from the Subscriptions page in the Settings area of the app. See support article here.

If you have any more questions, do Contact Us and we'll do our best to help!