Decision Support Tools

Modified

November 12, 2026

A set of interactive tools to support pre-flight planning and risk assessment. These are aids for thinking through a mission systematically — they don’t replace a pilot’s judgment or your organization’s own safety procedures and regulatory compliance requirements.

UC Drones Toolset

  • UC Mission Risk Checker — Rate pilot, aircraft, location, flight plan, weather, ground crew, and organizational readiness to visualize an overall mission risk profile before flying.

  • Visual Line of Sight Estimator — Estimates the maximum distance at which a given drone model remains visible to the naked eye, based on aircraft size and standard visual acuity thresholds.

  • Standoff Distance for Operations over Buildings — Calculates the minimum safe horizontal distance needed to maintain line of sight on a drone flying above a building, based on building height, length, and flight altitude.

  • Drone Map of California — Map of UC properties, county/city regulations, and public lands relevant to flight planning.

  • UAS Registration Tag Generator — enter a drone nickname, campus, and FAA registration number to generate a printable tag PDF

Partner Tools

  • When2Fly — Decision support tool from the Digital Agriculture Laboratory (Alireza Pourreza, UC Davis).