Benefits One of the greatest benefits derived from using the Flight application is the amount of time saved. The pilots can access the application from their desktop instead of commuting to the airport hangar. The need for visual orientation of the flight path is no longer necessary because of the availability of the longitude and latitude points and their onboard GPS equipment. Less flying time generates savings in aircraft fuel costs and the pilots and photographer can accomplish more flight runs in a flight session. Users report the Flight application very easy to operate.
Flight planning is now a less tedious process.
The longitude and latitude points generated by the GIS are more accurate than those previously obtained from the county maps and the Yeoman digitizer board. The proven accuracy of the data has made the starting and stopping of the camera more reliant on the GPS readout than on physical landmarks on the ground. Less time has been spent on repeating flight sessions due to errors in locating flight paths. The availability of parallel flight planning has made the photographing of large areas easier to accomplish due to knowing the exact coordinates of each flight path in the series. A new version of the Flight application is currently being developed.