Homebase

Homebase is my slang terminology for a dedicated space within my environment to conduct (non-flight) drone activities and for storage of my drone and all its related gear. It's the location where I make repairs, charge batteries, and carry out visual inspections after each assignment. This space continues to evolve over time as preferences change and my knowledge level grows.

Articles

Homebase, your drone’s repair-shop and everything else!

Introduction

Homebase is the place your drone resides when it is not out on an assignment. It should be a safe workspace dedicated to your drone and all the gear associated with it. Key observation: workspace productivity is based on organization. This is not up for debate. Similar to architecture, many designs or configurations are good solutions, but each one will have its own strengths and weakness overall. Your organization efforts should focus on the workflows and tasks that enable you to keep flying your drone.

My workspace is designed to meet the needs of three core workflows.

Inspection and service of the drone and related equipment.
Storage of the drone and related gear
Digital media storage and management

Inspection and Service

This is the most delicate workflow as it involves your drone and maintaining its flight worthiness. For me, this workflow centers around an old high school science table and a large cutting mat. I’ve made sure I have good lighting, too. Most of the time, my tasks here include inspections and cleaning the drone and equipment. I have come to realize over time that there are three well-defined states to this workflow.

Ready to Fly (figure 1)
Inspection and repair work in process (example: Replace body shell due to hairline cracks)
Logistical tasks in process (example: batteries recharging)

Figure 1: The drone in a Ready To Fly state. The backpack’s open front allows for visual review before assignment.

Storage

I believe it is worth the time to organize the storage area and set up behaviors that streamline the flying experience. For example, I aim to have my drone and related kit ready to fly as soon as possible once I return from assignment. When everything is packed and ready, I know I am good to go quickly next time. This is because I know the preflight inspection has already happened and service and repair have been completed if required. Batteries (100%) and controller (75%-100%) are charged and the drone has an empty secure SD card. The drone and all related gear are stored in a drone backpack that is used for transportation (figure 1).

I am lucky in that I have enough space to provide for a couple of cabinets for secondary storage for my related gear. And I have to admit to having one junk drawer where old/duplicate/previous gear is stored just in case I need it.

Also of note: If you are a certified FAA remote pilot in the United States, you are required to carry your certification and photo identification with you when you fly. I keep these documents in my wallet, so I should always have them.

Digital Media Management

More often than not, the results of our work will be digital files. At a minimum, it is good to review them to know if the goal of the assignment was achieved and to decide if the results are worth saving/archiving. When I first started taking photos, I felt a high percentage were simply not worth keeping. I was learning. And I still am, although I know more and keep more of my results. It’s all relative.

Even though I felt I had a high failure rate at the start of my drone flying, I focused on building a portfolio. My theory is that whatever percentage I had thought would be in the good to great category in reality is going to be less! Now I am just shy of a terabyte of images, with some duplication. My decision has been to have the drone output DNG files as well as the final jpeg images.

I have two external hard drives that I use for storage and backup, and a basic file structure to keep files organized. And that is as far along as my digital media management workflow is at this point in time. I need to apply automation to leverage more consistent results. Most of the panoramic images require some post-processing and even getting the media off the SD card could benefit from automation.

Conclusion

I know I need to improve my digital media management workflow. There are quite a few needs that must be addressed in the near future including simply being able to present the images in a timely manner. My anticipated workflow is going to require some discovery work to better understand how I can bring my best work into being. My two current workflows are manageable with small and incremental improvements over time.

Homebase

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