Quote:
Originally Posted by flipper35
I couldn't be an airline pilot, it would be like a desk job. Charter pilot maybe. Meteorological surveying, that would be fun!
So does the camera use computer control to time the shots?
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Yes. We have a Microsoft Surface with the software loaded on it. It is connected to the camera via a USB 3 port. The camera system also has am external GPS antenna on the aircraft that is attached and an internal IMU. The laptop downloads the images as the camera fires. The camera knows and tells the laptop if the pilot drifted off line, or if they are going too fast for the camera to cycle.
Of course before we launch we put a flight project on the laptop and determine before hand how much overlap, sidelap, and at what altitude we want to be at for the resolution of image we need.
The pilot has to keep the wings level, so no banked turns while shooting. They have to watch for traffic, and watch the laptop to be sure they are on line.
The line can be as short as a few hundred feet to 99 miles. Actually the line can be longer, but we usually keep it shorter. By the time the airplane flies 99 miles, and turns around and gets back to the start they have had to travel over 200 miles. The sun angle changes a lot in that time so the exposure changes, and the shadows have moved a lot. It makes for poor image matching.