Getting drone images of your land
Equipment
The drone thread got me thinking...
I would love to get detailed aerial imagery of my land. It would be cool to get a more detailed version of google earth. But I don't want to buy a high end drone to get the pictures...
Is there a way to rent one? Or should I hire someone to pilot it and just give me the pictures?
I looked into it once and they wanted something like $1200 to do it......it would be cheaper just to buy a drone and do it yourself. Or, if you know someone that would do it for a case of beer.....they would work too!
Mad_Angler,
It might be cheaper to pay for a plane ride and bring your camera along...
My topo make very good maps.
We had a local guy was doing it last summer, he just asked for a donation to cover his gas.
A DJI Phantom 3 Standard aerial photography drone can be purchased new for $399. This takes 2.7k video and 12MP stills. An Argtek range extender can be installed for another $50 to extend the range to over 1 mile. This is no doubt a cheaper alternative than any manned flight.
I'm pretty sure you could find a pilot to give you a plane ride for a lot less than $450.
Legally a non commercial pilot/flight operation is only allowed to charge you for a portion of the actual expenses which typically means a portion of the cost of fuel. There are a lot of private pilots out there looking for an excuse to go flying.
Personally I've taken a lot people up for $20 or less and I've taken a lot of photos from my plane and used it for aerial scouting quite a bit.
Heck, you could take a flying lesson for a lot less than $450 and ask to fly over your property and take photos. ;^)
I bought a used DJI Phantom 3 Advanced and use it all of the time to take aerial photos of our property. We are always improving our land via timber harvesting, food plots, browse cutting, sanctuaries, etc. It is a great way to inventory and reference historical changes on the property to determine what has worked and what has not. Very simple to operate.
Hey, now we know the secret to cheese head mikes success! I'm buying a plane!
Here you can get a float plane ride for under $150.00 and get pictures of your land.
Contact a a few local real estate agents, it has become popular to use drone pic's on real estate listings, they should be able to put you in contact with one of the drone operators in the area.
It was -25 degrees the day rancher gave a drone demo. He checks fence and bison herds daily with it.
It was -25 degrees the day rancher gave a drone demo. He checks fence and bison herds daily with it.
Recently met a bison rancher that has a higher end drone for 2k, range 4 miles does 40 mph. Image looked crystal on his IPad I will be getting one very soon.
Psu what is the height the drone can fly?
What is the range of that drone?
How well does it perform over water?
Hi guys. My laptop that I have the images saved on is on the blink, but this weekend I will get some and put the photos on this thread for all to see.
The max height is 400 feet, at which point the uav is merely a speck in the sky. Mine has a limit of 1 mile laterally but I have heard that they can go even farther. I never let mine get out of sight so I move around our property as required to get the areas that I would like to see.
We have a few ponds on our property and a couple times I have tried to get some good video of my 7 year old feeding the trout that we have in there but at the lower elevation required to get a really good shot, the drone creates ripples on the water that makes it nearly impossible to see the fish. Plus, I am certainly not the best operator and flying it over water makes me a bit nervous. It may withstand a drop on the ground, but water would pose some serious issues. If any of you are concerned about flying one, don't be. The Phantom is connected to about 15 satellites at any one time and will maintain position in heavy winds. The images are incredible and the video is even better. There are quite a few safeguards built into the software such as auto land, come to home, obstruction avoidance, etc. Any other questions, feel free to ask and I will answer if I can. Not a pro, but do enjoy tinkering with it.
I have never been around one, nor do I know anyone who has one. But I really want one. When you are flying it are you following it on an Ipad or gps type of readout? Or you just doing it by sight? Is it sending you the image to see while it is flying or do you have to download the information? Sorry if these are dumb questions but I am clueless.
Go to youtube and search "DJI Phantom". All questions will be answered in impressive fashion.
Yes, the camera on the drone is sending you the video image in real time to my tablet that is attached to the remote control. Also on the tablet around the periphery is the altitude, battery power remaining, button to start/stop video, take still images, satellite information, etc. All of the necessary information needed to feel comfortable flying.
When flying around the house, trees, and power wires, I usually just fly by watching the uav. Once it is clear of any obstructions, I look down at the tablet.
On a side note, we also used it to look over the flashing on our church steeple as we had a leak that was coming from somewhere. Allowed us to look over the problem and formulate a repair pretty quickly.
Psu- thanks for the reply. I really really want one.
My father-in-law hired a guy to come out and use a drone to assess flood related crop loss in his fields a couple years back when we had a ridiculously wet summer. I couldn't tell you what it cost, but there are definitely people who are starting up businesses related to the agriculture field using drones....Might be worth seeing what it would cost to have someone come out and fly your property. My FIL got all the photos and video footage on a USB to use for insurance proof if needed, so I'm sure you'd end up with quality images.
Mad_Angler, If you were in Colorado I could help you out.
We'd just have to make sure Woods Walker isn't anywhere around with his shotgun :) JK
I know of 2 farmers here in Tennessee that use them to check on there cows ever morning in there cow calf operation . I think it is program to fly over the field the cows are in . They do this while having there morning coffee .
Hey....just fly your drone over your property and there'll be no trouble whatsoever. It's called mutual RESPECT. Why's that so hard to understand?
It does sound really cool, but if you just want more detail than Google Earth you might want to at least look at bing.com maps. In the upper right, click on the drop down for image type and select Bird's Eye. You should be able to clearly see individual trees, at least in my area.
I keep it in a hard sided nanuk case made for it. 3 lithium ion batteries in the front, controller on the left.
I keep it in a hard sided nanuk case made for it. 3 lithium ion batteries in the front, controller on the left.
Here is the phantom. Pulled it out tonight to check the firmware updates and charge the batteries.
Should be ready for the weekend.
Several years ago I went to the county airport and asked the counter man if I could get a ride to photo my properties about 70 miles away. He said sure, there's always pilots that just fly for fun just to keep there hours up. I was in the air in less than an hour. Cost me, I think, $100.00 for gas.
70 miles away would be 140 miles round trip so the plane would have to fly 140 mph just to make the round trip flight in an hour. There aren't many small planes that will cruise 140 mph so I'm guessing that you were either in the air longer than an hour or you went for a ride in a pretty fast/high performance/expensive plane that burns a lot of fuel.
At $5 per gallon, $100 would be 20 gallons of gas. Not many small planes burn 20 gallons per hour. My plane burns about 5 gallons per hour and somewhere in the 4-10 gallons per hour range is typical for most small planes. It sounds like the guy may have charged you more than the cost of fuel...?
If anybody is looking to do this and you don't want to spend a lot of money on fuel I would look for rides in something like a Cessna 150/152, Cessna 172, Piper Cub or Super Cub or other smaller high-wing airplane. I would avoid the newer planes like the Cirrus, etc. unless you don't mind spending the money for a high tech fast ride.
Free on the internet, trying to post an example here:
I have a buddy with a new drone and it carries a GoPro cam. Thought about having him come up and fly the property for some pics. But what would I get that I couldn't get just as good from Bing? At least that would help in hunting it.
Bullshooter,
The difference between Bing, Google Earth, etc. and having a plane or drone fly over is that the photography off the internet may be a year or more old; it's not real-time. Oftentimes the photos on the internet were acquired during leaf-on seasons which may make seeing some features more difficult.
With a drone or plane you can get the most current imagery possible and choose if you want it during leaf-on or leaf-off seasons. I'm a County Surveyor and we acquire new aerial photography of the entire county every 2-3 years in the spring during leaf-off because it shows the most detail.
I thought about offering this service, but my business sense isnt seeing it being practical. I guess I don't know what the market would pay.
With the right drone, and software you get one orthofoto, that is 100s of photos stiched together to make one high resolution photo that is Georeferenced.
Ive been doing this in the private sector for years now. It's killer for mining, forestry etc.
I hear you Cazador and I think we speak some of the same language... Being very close to retirement and being a pilot with a background in Land Surveying and with drones becoming a very big part of the surveying and mapping industry, I've been pondering some sort of a second career tied to surveying, mapping, aviation, drones, etc.
That or maybe I'll just go hunting and fishing ;^)
Caz and Mike - I am part owner of an engineering firm and about 6 months ago we bought a sensefly ebee and exom RTK uav's for our surveying department. With the hardware and software, it was quite an investment to say the least. We have been using it for large quarries, open cut mines, large educational facilities, streetscapes, agricultural, etc. Seems to be working well but the learning curve is a bit steep. Time will tell.
Thanks for the info Psuhoss. I've been to several seminars, demonstrations, etc. on UAV's and have seen and held the ebee. I'm aware of the substantial investment and it's good to know about the learning curve.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CjNjcrQZtd8&feature=youtu.be
If anyone is interested I have a brand new never opened DJI phantom 4 drone for sale. Pm me for details. Wvarcher
PSU,
That's a good purchase, not one I'd like to see, but it's a good one. Your applications are perfect for such device.
I'm on my way home now (Chile) where I once again gave a presentation on the future if surveying and the technology we are seeing.
It's too bad that the US is so side tracked on rules and regulations and payoffs along with redneck articles about shooting drones down.
Mike, that pilot license will serve you well if you get into drones here.
It's a good investment for solid 5-10 cm resolution, I just don't know if guys would be paying 2K to have their property flown.
UAS is huge in other parts of the globe, some of the projects are incredible, and the deliverables are 20 years ahead.
In the end, I always laugh when we, as Americans look at Mexico, Bolivia, Colombia as third world countries. If you look at what they're doing with the tecnología you'd think we're third world.
