So how do you plan to survey an area of over 250 Hectares in some of the most challenging landscape in England in the Lake District?
The client The National Trust with whom we have been providing on going survey work for the last 7 years, knows we are happy to operate in extreme terrain.
First and foremost you have to be very capable to work off grid, use compass and O/S maps, be a safe, correct clothing and able to hike up and over very tough terrain with back packs of drone gear and food/water.
Risk assessment of operation and another risk assessment of the terrain to prevent injury by falls and weather elements to us is also submitted. First aid kit is always carried.
With regards to the drone survey we use Dronelink and Phantom 4 Pro and RTK. The areas of land to map are broken down into segments so as to allow the drone to be visible to pilot and safety pilot.
The missions are planned with the terrain awareness and additional waypoints to make sure the drone can climb and ascend the extremely high elevation changes. The drone operates at 36kmh in this open terrain.
The plans are crossed checked with the NT Ranger against their O/S land map then signed off..
The missions are then flown with a simulator mission to double check.
On the day we carry two drones and have over 24 batteries at our disposal to use.
Our 4×4 truck gets us as close as possible but it still can be a 2 hr slog to the first take-off point. We use a handheld Garmin GPS with the take off points to guide us in.
We always have two operators on the day both for our safety and to observe the drone. We use professional Motorola Digital radios to remain in contact with each other.
Yesterday we had 5 missions with 20 flights. Because the missions had been checked and planned over three days we were able to deploy and cover all the areas in one day with high precision.
Then comes the downloading and cross checking material preparing it for the client. As this is a long term project of up to 10 years, all map files are saved in various formats to be future proofed if software changes.
All in all over 5 days of work which includes the one day of actual survey work.
When we are asked sometimes why the price is so high for survey work, this is the reason. There is so much planning and post work to do its not just the one day of deployment. Then the cost of equipment to provide this type of service is another factor. https://www.dronelink.com/
https://www.skylark-aerialphotography.co.uk/blog/
#work #digital #future #software #safety #aerialsurvey #droneservices #nationaltrust #lakedistrict #mountains #hiking #safteyfirst #weatherforecast
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