I had someone express some interest in shooting some development/planning pictures for the local township. They usually take them from a small full size airplane. I am thinking that the straight down, high altitude shot will be beyond an RC heli's abilities. The shots are used for overlaying a photo over a presurveyed computerized grid used by the local township.
Anyone attempted something of this magnitude?
05-19-2004 Over year old.
blacksmith Heliman Location: West Central, Georgia, USA
I'm sure that sort of thing is over our heads.
05-19-2004 Over year old.
JestRR Senior Heliman Location: Florence, Oregon
Just DO IT!!!Here is the new Casino that is going up in our town.Getting lots of work off this job every week and even sometimes twice a week with as fast as the construction is going!!!
Jump on it!We have had calls like that as well. In our case we have a military drone we will be using because of the range abilities, however we have talked to a few geo-spatial and GIS consultants who do exactly what you're talking about and they mentioned that in most cases they use fixed wing commercial aircraft with $200K + camera systems on them that measure graphing etc... What you'll run into on mapping is they will need exact co-ordinates via GPS. Altitude is a key factor as well. In some cases may even measure points on the ground get to a pre-set altitude and measure what dimensions your camera configuration allows on HGT and Wdth to do the GPS thing for you but next to impossible for what you want.
Personally I'd pursue the commercial excavators. steady money can be made tracking progress for large commercial projects. They will want pictures at least 2 to 3 times a month in most cases. Get a highway project and youll be set for years!
We are also finding great interest from Graphic designers for aerial shots for brochures etc.. AND Never forget to team up with your local advertising agency. They like to do trade work!
Good luck!
05-19-2004 Over year old.
heliraptor Key Veteran Location: Colchester, Essex, UK
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How can he get so high ??
Easy, its JestRR with his Raptor
Seriously though, it comes with practise and feel.
how high?!?!?Its a big Vario BT trainer and a set of large, wide skids carrying the camera!! I'm working on an even bigger set that can carry 2 sets of 30 size floats for over the water operation so my sanity wont be put to the test every time i fly for this shot!!!
More than not its jsut getting up that high and getting comfortable with it!!
I've noticed that with flat lighting (when cloudy) I tend to have more problems high then when it's sunny.
I also must have gotten used to watching the skids in my heli as I can get disoriented at times with a camera mount. All those angles just look different than I'm used to.
I'm hoping that this will improve with time.
I was wondering how the FMA co-pilot would truely help in situations as this, but I'm not sure how much of it is hype and how much it really helps.
