There are a few things you need to get to grips with when you are learning the ropes with your drone and if you can acquire some basic knowledge and take on board some useful tips you should be able to get the most out of your flying time.
One example of this would be getting to know all about the different drone platforms and what sort of options each one offers.
Here is a run-through of drone platforms, including a look at fixed wing and single rotor, with the aim of giving you the information that will help you improve your drone skills and enhance your competency levels.
The default option
If you are wanting to get more out of your drone beyond flying it around the skies you will no doubt be looking to capture some amazing aerial shots with the camera incorporated within your drone.
You can search Dronethusiast top drones with cameras list to get a good idea of which drones are best suited to your requirements on that score, and another option to consider is the type of platform would be best for aerial photography.
The default option tends to be a multi-rotor platform.
What you get with a multirotor platform is probably the easiest and least costly way of getting your hands on a drone that can give you a good level of control over position and framing, taking a bit of the hard work out of your hands.
There are certain pros and cons attached to multi-rotor platforms and one of the main issues is that many models suffer from limited endurance capabilities and a lack of speed.
If you are wanting to map a large area and keep your drone in the air for a length of time, a multirotor platform could struggle to give you what you want.
Longer distances
If endurance in the skies is important to your requirements then you might want to look at a fixed-wing option for your choice of drone.
The fixed-wing is not so reliant on vertical lift rotors to hold their position in the air and this means that they are not using as much battery energy as their multi-rotor counterparts, making them a good choice if you want to plenty of air time to get all your photographic work done.
The major drawback associated with the fixed-wing option is their inability to hover in one spot, so bear that and decide if that could be a potential problem.
Harder to fly
Another platform option available is a single-rotor version and this is typically the preferred option if you are specifically wanting to do aerial LIDAR laser scanning.
It should be noted that learning to fly a single-rotor is harder and you will often need more training for this type of platform to become accomplished and achieve a decent level of competency.
There are also various hybrid versions available which aim to try and combine the benefits of a rotor-based model with the increased flying time of a fixed-wing option.
Hovering and forward flight is not always that easy with some of the hybrids currently available so you might be better served narrowing down your platform options to multi-rotor and fixed wing drones, especially if you are still on a learning curve with your drone flying.