5 Apps Every Drone Pilot Should Consider

There are a bunch of apps out there for drone pilots, but with so much choice it’s hard to know what’s worth your time and money. We thought we’d feature a few that might help improve your flying experience.

Hover

Hover is essentially like having a wise, veteran pilot with a supportive arm around your shoulder – but in app form.

The app comes with regularly updated International No-Fly zones, so you can check whether it’s legal to take-off before you do so. Hover is also geared toward safety in terms of flight conditions. Hover pulls information from the FAA, National Parks and the U.S. Military. You can also get live weather data, including local current and forecasted weather conditions, along with drone-specific information on wind speed and wind direction.

Through the app you can also connect to the latest news from the drone industry and record flight logs. Individuals and teams can seamlessly track, log, and maintain their drone fleet, helping to manage drones, equipment, and personnel.

Dan Held, co-founder at Hover, told us that “Over 70,000 recreational and commercial pilots use Hover to fly safely and legally.  We were the first app on the App Store to have no-fly zone maps, and we’re continually working on making the app even more enjoyable for our pilots.”

Available on: iOS only

Price: Free

Related apps: B4UFLY (US Only), RCFlyMaps, UAV Forecast

DJI+Discover

DJI+Discover is DJI’s answer to a common problem faced by drone enthusiasts. Sure, flying is fun, but getting started can be daunting, and it’s much more fun in a group of like-minded pilots. With DJI+Discover it doesn’t have to be a solo thing.

DJI+Discover gives drone pilots a way to find and connect with their peers, as well as hosting a marketplace platform for people looking to find or advertise drone services. On launching the app, you’ll see a map of the surrounding area and pins representing other users. There are three toggles along the top: All, Social and Professional – which allow you to specify which sort of drone owner you’re looking for. There are also markers which indicate good flying spots and other users’ best photos.

“Drone pilots like to get together to fly, learn from each other and share experiences with like-minded people. In the same way, people want an easy way to find trustworthy professional aerial service providers nearby,” said Paul Guo, Director of E-Commerce at DJI. “DJI+ Discover lets people in the same area connect socially and professionally in a way that will bind the drone community even tighter together.”

Available on: iOS & Android

Price: Free

Related apps: Drone Zones (UK only)

Autonomous Flight

We’ve chosen to include three apps in this section, and that’s partly because we feel that each offers a different level of detail and usability. As you might expect, one often comes at the expense of the other.

Airnest

In terms of ease of use, Airnest appears well ahead of the competition. The interface is sharp and intuitive, while the features are all straightforward and easily accessible to beginners. But that’s not to say that the features themselves are simplistic. Just as with its competitors, Airnest offers pre-flight planning, waypoints and points of focus.

The difference comes with how these options are input. The route your drone will take can be drawn with a swipe of your finger, and each point of interest is added by dropping a pin on the map.

Airnest also comes with a ‘Motion Camera’ feature, which allows you to control your drone’s camera just by panning and tilting the connected iOS device.

Airnest will soon launch an update that looks set to put its features on a par with its more complex competitors. The new ‘Plan’ mode, which has been likened to the “Photoshop of flight planning”, includes smooth transitions between multiple points of interest, along with several other Photoshop-inspired tools. It’s open for beta testers now if you want to give it a go.

We spoke to co-founder Justin Miller, and asked why drone pilots should consider the Airnest app. He said, “Airnest’s greatest strength is it’s design and ease of use. We really take a use case approach to app design. For instance, rather than throwing a bunch of features at a user and expecting them to spend a ton of their own time learning how to use those features, we take a different approach and really think around what the user wants to accomplish with their drone and with the app.

“The initial release of Airnest was really about just getting smooth shots in as easy a way as possible, we feel that we accomplished that. With the new updates coming online soon, we are now adding additional abilities to allow for really dynamic shots and meticulous planning, but we continue our focus on the interface being as easy to use and intuitive as possible. New drone users will make great use of the easy to use Path tool, and when they are ready for something a little more dynamic, the Plan tool will be there for them.”

Available on: iOS

Price: $19.99

Compatibility: The entire DJI Phantom 3 range, the Phantom 4, the Inspire 1 and the Inspire 1 Pro

Related apps: Litchie, AutoPilot

Litchi

Litchi is one of the most popular autonomous flight apps on the market. With a few simple clicks and taps users can set up flight plans that go way beyond a simple waypoint mission engine. Features include your standard Panorama, Orbit and Follow me, but you can also use select Focus mode, where Litchi assists you by taking control of both the gimbal and the drone’s yaw axis, freeing you up to concentrate on horizontal movement.

Lichie also comes with a tracking mode, which its makers say relies on “state of the art computer vision algorithms”. It’ll keep the object or person you select in the frame while you fly or during an autonomous mission.

One last thing. Handily, Litchi creates readable flight logs for each and every flight, before automatically uploading them to your HealthyDrones account. This is a great feature for pilots keen on instant post-flight analysis.

Available on: iOS & Android

Price: $19.99

Compatibility: Phantom 4, the Phantom 3 range, Inspire 1, Inspire 1 Pro/Raw and Matrice 100

Related apps: DroneDeploy, Airnest, Autopilot

Autopilot

Autopilot, from Autoflight, is at first glance a pretty in-depth, complex app that is in no way designed to have you up in the air seconds after you open it up. But that’s not really the point, and neither is it a bad thing. Using the built-in ‘flight school’, you’ll soon get your head around the vast array of features, and it won’t be long until you’re developing complex flight plans.

In short, this is an app that will please serious prosumers. It’s for those that really like to get into the detail of flight plans and have control over everything. There are also a number of interesting features you won’t find elsewhere, including gesture controls, a Zipline tool, Apple Watch support and built-in flight checklists. For a full list of Autopilot features, click here.

We spoke to Autoflight founder Jim McAndrew, for a little more insight into why Autopilot might be the right app for you.

He said, “Autopilot is all about capturing smooth, perfectly framed, and visually stunning imagery. With autonomous and semi-autonomous flight modes, Autopilot enables you to execute flight and camera control sequences that were previously too difficult or impossible to perform manually.

Our app is designed around a Custom Flight Controller that was purpose-built with smooth and safe autonomous flight control as its primary function. By using a Custom Flight Controller, Autopilot is able to offer unique functionality that cannot be found in other apps.”

Available on: Android and iOS

Price: $29.99

Compatibility: The entire DJI Phantom 3 range, the Phantom 4, the Inspire 1 and the Inspire 1 Pro

Related apps: Drone Deploy, Litchie

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