Best drone capture setting for 3D of model cliff below takeoff

Unfortunately I would have to recommend Litchi for this, but this example is a special scenario that is going to be more art than mapping. Litchi has very good terrain following and you can manipulate every characteristic of every waypoint. A disclaimer is that terrain following is according to the Google Earth SRTM and because it is 10m accurate at best the model will not capture a straight vertical cliff absolutely accurately. You’ll have to make sure to stay far enough away (at least 30m) so that the drone has time and clearance to rise. Also when doing terrain following it only changes its altitude at each way point so you will need multiple waypoints when traversing a steep incline or decline.

This may be hard to explain verbally so I will try my best. If I were doing this I would start the mission over the water moving inland so as I finish the flight and the battery gets low I limit the possibility of failure in the water.

Notes:

  • Heading is perpendicular to the face of the cliff and can remain so throughout the flight
  • Gimble pitch is -50d from waypoint (wp) 1-11 to map vertically
  • Gimbal pitch goes down to -90 at wp12 and stays there through wp24 to map normally
  • AGL is set to 200ft and note the second box reporting elevation referenced from the first waypoint. The cliff is about 600ft above the water so 200ft above is about 800ft. You are not at 800ft AGL.

There are other program that do vertical scanning, but they require subscriptions and their vertical is more for buildings and like structures. I recommend that every pilot have Litchi because of its versatility and granular control of the flight. Progress pictures and Videos are amazing as well.

Hope this makes some sense!