I'm feeling overwhelmed by the amount of footage I come back with after each drone flight. On the other hand there are folks like me will have some general ideas, but return with a lot of footage. As a result, one of the longest steps is organizing my footage into shots, or scenes. I used to just drop everything in one timeline but it crashes my editor when I start color grading.

So trying the same thing with Da Vinci Resolve, my current method is to create a separate time line in my project just for scenes. I'll drop in the full footage, then using keyboard shortcuts trim out want, leaving me just scenes ready to drop in the primary timeline. Is this the most efficient way, or does anyone have better organizational tips?

I have the exact same problem! I start video recording when I launch the drone and end video recording when I land. Every once in awhile, I might stop and restart in flight if I want to put a known break in teh footage or from habit, "save" the video. Your DaVinci method sounds solid though - creating separate timelines for organization is smart.

This is why I shoot way more deliberately now. Instead of recording everything, I plan specific shots beforehand and only record what I actually need. Saves hours in post and reduces storage costs too.

A clear workflow makes editing faster and better. I use a three-folder system: "Keepers", "Maybe", "Trash". First pass is just sorting into these bins while footage plays back at 2x speed. Then I only work with the Keepers folder for actual editing.