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Drone flight geography calculator

Calculator based on SORA methodology for defining Flight Geography, Contingency Volume and Ground Risk Buffer as described in this guide published by the Luftfahrt-Bundesamt (LBA). Download the methodology doc. for this calculator.

Calculations are dynamic and all entries are auto-saved across sessions.

UAV and operation details

UAV type

Equipped with Parachute

Max. speed (m/s)

v₀

Max. UAV dimension (m)

Alt. measurement error

Type

Error (m)

H_δ

GPS inaccuracy (m)

S_GPS

Psn. holding error (m)

S_POS

Map error (m)

S_K

Pilot response time (s)

t_RZ

Flight geography

Flight height (m)

H_FG

Min H for small FG (m)

H_FG = CD * 3

Min W for small FG (m)

S_FG = CD * 3

Contingency volume

Lateral

Manoeuvre

Reaction distance (m)

S_RZ = v₀ * t_RZ

Cont. manoeuvre dist. (m)

S_CM = 0.5 * v₀ * v₀/(9.81 * TAN(RADIANS(φ))

Vertical

Manoeuvre

Response height (m)

H_RZ

Cont. manoeuvre height (m)

Ground risk buffer

Termination method

VLOS

Ground visibility (m)

GV (max 5,000)

Minimum lateral CV (m)

S_CV = S_GPS + S_POS + S_K + S_RZ + S_CM

Minimum vertical CV (m)

H_CV = H_FG + H_δ + H_RZ + H_CM

Minimum lateral GRB (m)

Adjacent vol. lateral (m)

S_AV = 120 * v₀

Adjacent vol. vertical (m)

H_AV = H_CV + 150

Attitude Line of Sight (m)

Detection Line of Sight (m)

DLOS_max = 0.3 * GV

Max. Visual Line of Sight (m)

VLOS_max = MIN(ALOS_max, DLOS_max)

Visualization only available on larger screens