In the UK a drone can only fly 500 meters in any direction (without an exemption or OSC) from its starting point, it essentially covers a circular area with a radius of 500 meters and diameter of 1000 meters.

 

To calculate the total area it can cover, we use the formula for the area of a circle: A=πr2

Where r is the radius (500 meters), and π is approximately 3.1416.

 

By substituting the values we get:

A=3.1416×(500)2

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A≈3.1416×250,000=785,400 square meters

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So, the drone can cover an area of about 785,400 square meters, or roughly 78.5 hectares or 194.08 acres without contravening the CAA Drone code and going beyond 500meters from start point.

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So can you cover larger areas?

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The simple answer is yes but consideration needs to be given to moving your Take Off and Landing Area (TOLA) to allow for the coverage of the remaining area. 

When flying large areas that require more than one TOLA then you must insure that you provide your processing software with enough of an overlap to allow for the seamless stitching of the image together. 

When using Ground Control Points (GCP's) or Check Points (CP), any that are with the overlap area they MUST remain in place for all flight covering that area.  ​