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A typical job

Check the weather and the airspace the night before, and request authorization if the site sits near an airport. Arrive early, walk the area, find the takeoff point and look for people, wires and trees. Brief anyone on site. Then the flight itself: often an automated grid for a mapping job, or manual flying for a film shot, in twenty minute battery blocks with swaps between. Log everything. The rest of the day is at a computer processing images into a map, a model or an edited clip, which usually takes longer than the flying did.