What this calculator does not know
It does not model charger wattage, generator output, heat, wind, battery aging, or crew fatigue. It gives an operating ceiling from cycle time. If the number already fails your target, a better charger plan will not rescue the purchase.
Use this before quoting custom work. A drone that looks strong at the aircraft level can stall at the landing zone if swaps, mixing, and battery rotation are under-built.
Worked examples
Solo-pilot benchmark. A 12-minute flight with a 4-minute swap creates a 16-minute cycle, or 3.75 possible flights per hour. If each flight covers 4 acres and the crew can sustain that cycle for a 10-hour day, the time ceiling is about 150 acres before charger, weather, and crew constraints pull it down.
Assumptions to check
- Battery sets are charged fast enough to support the cycle.
- Swap time includes landing, filling, inspection, and relaunch.
- Acres per flight comes from tank coverage and actual field layout.
- Heat, wind, and battery aging may reduce usable flight time.
The buying implication
If the productivity target fails in this calculator, the fix is rarely just a larger drone. The crew may need more batteries, more charging capacity, a better nurse setup, or a different application plan.