Quote:
Originally Posted by SCadaddle
As a 43 year veteran of flying fixed wing model aircraft AND a Professional Land Surveyor:
1) You are using your "Drone" in the furtherance of your business. You should be licensed with the FAA as a commercial operator before using it in your business.
2) Good luck with your mapping software creating a usable TIN on that project without a LOT of manual intervention. You are mapping the top of the dirt in some spots, the top of the tall vegetation in others, the tops of trash and the tops of the trees in other spots. Looks to be once an open cultivated field. Now you've got vegetation growing in the bottom of the cultivated rows that will be mapped taller than the actual ground adjacent to them. How do you reckon that will work out? The drainage ditch with a lot of brush growing in it....good luck with that! There's a reason this technology works so well in the desert Southwest where nothing is growing amongst the sand and rock....
3) Better up your E&O Policy significantly.
4) One man with a robotic total station or GPS and an ATV could have absolutely smoked that site and you would sleep much better at night.
Sincerely,
Your Brother in the Profession!
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I am currently studying, when I have time, for the commercial drone pilot exam. Until then I am using just as a hobby and not using any of the photos for financial gain.
Crazy, 30 years ago a company I worked for leaned heavily on aerial photogrammetry I was just a drafter at the time but I remember plotting our test cross sections over the maps created by the mapping company.
I had assumed 30 years later the technology had evolved to the point where it was more accurate now.
I mentioned this to Seahawk in a PM, I met a guy who owned a UAS company at a CE class last year and I asked him a million questions during our lunch break. Then went to my equipment supplier and asked 100's more. The equipment supplier was trying to sell me 7K in software with training and I hesitated and did some research. Seahawk suggested some sub-contract post processing which I think may be more cost effective for a company my size. I am really small and most of the time my contracts for jobs like this would be for residential building permits. I really am not involved in commercial or construction much anymore. By choice due to risk vs. pay. I think most land surveyors are idiots (especially around here) and get underbid on larger projects. I am not taking a risk unless the payout is worth it.
I will stick with lot and block mortgage work and builder work and leave the high risk work to the price undercutting idiots. My clients know I am expensive when jobs become risky and use crappy "surveyors" who will get them their piece of paper that they need for permitting or closing or whatever they need. Fine by me. Let them take the liability for next to nothing.
Thanks for the suggestions I already have GPS but no robotics, I am a really small company so many times it is like taking a bazooka rabbit hunting.