How to export your drone flight area coordinates
Updated
Authorization forms ask for the boundary of your flight area as a list of coordinates, often in degrees, minutes and seconds (DMS). Once a flight plan is saved, its page lists every point of the boundary in decimal or DMS, ready to copy, and offers the shape as a GeoJSON, CSV or KML file to attach. You can also send a read-only link to anyone who needs to see the plan, and revoke it later.
Get the coordinates in four steps
- On your profile, under Flights, click View on the plan. (No plan yet? Draw one first.)
- Scroll to Coordinates.
- Choose Decimal or DMS — whichever the form asks for.
- Click Copy and paste into the form, or download the file you need.
Decimal or DMS
- Decimal — six decimal places (about 10 cm), always with a decimal point, whatever the language of the page.
- DMS — degrees, minutes and seconds with the hemisphere, seconds to one decimal (about 3 m). Longitude degrees have three digits (
026°), the aeronautical convention that stops a longitude being read as a latitude. - Both list latitude first, one point per line, as forms expect — the opposite of the order GeoJSON files use. The closing point of an area is not repeated.
44°34'52.4"N 026°03'42.8"E 44.581234, 26.061875
All coordinates are WGS 84, the datum GPS and the published drone zones use.
Which file to attach
| File | What it holds | Opens in |
|---|---|---|
| GeoJSON | The shape with its name, maximum altitude and planned times | GIS tools, most drone software |
| CSV | One row per point: part, index, vertex, latitude, longitude | Spreadsheets |
| KML | The shape, raised to the maximum altitude when you entered one | Google Earth and many aviation tools |
The file headings stay in English in every language, because other people’s software reads them.
Share a read-only view — and take it back
- Under Flights, click Share on the plan, choose how long the link lasts under Link lasts — 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days or until you revoke it — and click Create link. A link appears, with Copy beside it.
- Anyone with the link sees the plan’s name, maximum altitude, planned times and the map, with the zones around it — without signing in, and without being able to change anything.
- The card then shows until when the link works and how many times it has been opened. To take it back early, click Revoke link: every live link for that plan stops working at once, and Share again issues a new one.
These are the coordinates as drawn. Nothing in the export has been checked or approved by an authority.
Frequently asked questions
- What datum are the coordinates in?
- WGS 84, in every format.
- Does revoking a link delete files I already sent?
- No. Revoking stops the link from opening. Files you downloaded and sent are copies, and stay with whoever has them.
- Do I need a paid plan?
- Yes. Saving plans, exporting their coordinates and sharing them are part of the paid plan — see plans.
Related guides
- How to plan a drone flight area and check it against restrictionsDraw your drone flight area or route on the map, see every restriction it crosses and how much of the area each covers, then save it to share or monitor.
- How to get alerts when the airspace changes before your flightMonitor a saved drone flight plan until your flight time: GeoPilot re-checks it against its latest data and alerts you when the result changes.
- How to measure distance on a drone mapMeasure the distance from your take-off point to a drone zone, an airfield or a built-up area, in metres and nautical miles, and read map coordinates.
Sources
- The KML reference (Open Geospatial Consortium, KML 2.2)
- RFC 7946 — The GeoJSON Format