How to Plan a Drone Waypoint Mission From Your Phone — and Load the KMZ Onto Your Controller

Automated waypoint missions are how drones do real work — consistent altitude, consistent overlap, the same flight repeatable next month. But the traditional workflow requires desktop planning software, a laptop in the truck, and a wrestling match with file formats. Here's the whole job done from a phone, in four steps, ending with a mission file loaded on your controller.

Step 1 — Pick the Mission Type

Open AirPlot and choose what you're producing: an elevation survey, a 3D visual scan, an urban facade pass, or an object orbit. The mission type sets sensible defaults for everything downstream — altitude, overlap, and the flight pattern the job actually needs — which you can tune later.

Step 2 — Walk the Property

This is the part no desktop tool can do. Stand at your takeoff spot and set Home. Then walk the property line and tap Capture Boundary Point at each corner — the map draws your boundary live as you go. Your phone's GPS is the survey instrument; the readout at the top shows the fix quality so you know when to trust a tap. Three points make a mission; more points trace complex parcels.

Planning a site you're not standing on? Use the Map tab instead — tap any point to read its coordinates and build the boundary remotely.

Step 3 — Tune the Parameters

Altitude, speed, overlap, flight pattern (single grid, crosshatch, orbits, and more), gimbal behavior. The defaults are field-tested for each mission type — a first-timer can skip straight past this screen and get a correct mission. The interval tip tells you what to set your camera's timed-shot interval to, so photo spacing matches the plan.

Step 4 — Generate and Review

Tap Generate and read the mission before you commit to it: 346 photos, 10 minutes, 1 battery — and the live path preview showing the grid, the orbital ring, your boundary, home, start and end. If the numbers or the path aren't right, step back and adjust; nothing is locked until you download. When it reads right, tap Download Mission and AirPlot builds a flight-ready waypoint file (.kmz) — the industry-standard WPML format, generated server-side with a structure verified on real flights.

Loading the KMZ Onto Your Controller

Consumer flight apps don't have an import button — the trick is replacing the file of an existing mission. Five minutes, once:

• 1. Create a placeholder mission on your controller. In your flight app's waypoint mode, tap out any few points near your location and save it. This creates the folder structure your mission will live in.
• 2. Connect the controller to your computer with USB-C and choose File Transfer when the controller prompts.
• 3. Find the waypoint folder. On the controller's storage, browse to the flight app's waypoint directory — you'll see a folder named with a long ID for the placeholder mission you just made, containing a .kmz file.
• 4. Replace the file. Delete the placeholder's .kmz and copy your AirPlot download in, renamed to exactly the filename you deleted. The name must match; the contents are now your mission.
• 5. Restart and fly. Disconnect, power the controller off and on, open waypoint mode — the placeholder now shows your AirPlot route over your property. Review it on the map, check your surroundings and airspace, and launch.

One Thing Everyone Misses: The Mission Doesn't Fire the Shutter

A waypoint mission file controls where the drone flies and where the gimbal points — it does not command the camera to take photos. Photos come from your camera's own timed-interval shooting mode, which you set on the controller before takeoff (photo mode → timed shot / interval).

The two work together: the mission flies at a steady speed, and the interval timer fires at a steady rhythm, so photo spacing comes out even. AirPlot does the math for you — the interval tip on the parameters screen tells you exactly what interval to set for your speed and overlap (typically 1–2 seconds for mapping). Set it, start interval shooting as you launch the mission, and stop it after landing.

If you fly a mission and come home with an empty SD card — this is why. It's the single most common first-mission mistake, and it costs a re-flight.

Pre-Flight, Every Time

A generated mission is a plan, not a clearance. Before flying: verify airspace (AirPlot's FAA tab queries the live FAA facility-map grids, and B4UFLY is one tap away), keep obstacle avoidance on, confirm the route on your controller's map matches what you planned, and keep line of sight. The automation flies the pattern — you're still the pilot in command.