Drone Operations have made aerial photography, videography and inspections much easier. As powerful as modern drones are, there are still many limitations to what they can do. For example, drones have limited battery life which keep them in the air for only short periods of time. By FAA Regulations, drones cannot be operated over 400′ above the ground or 400′ above the top of a structure in which the drone is being operated within a 400′ radius. Drone’s must also be in line of sight at all times, and have limited range from the operator controller.
Our team has helicopter and small aircraft pilots for those projects that need a bit more than a drone. We also have working relationships with several flight operations that we can schedule for helicopters and small aircraft based missions that allow us to maintain much higher altitudes for longer periods of time and cover far more ground. Who uses this? Many large acre or harsh environment areas that a drone cannot be used will use small aircraft operations instead. For example, one of our commercial property developers purchases land over 1200 acres. In order to make his purchase decision, he asks our team to photography the entire topography which he can review before spending 7 figures on land that may not be suitable for his business goals.
Other operations we have used small aircraft for include being in mountainous regions which create heavy wind shears and downdrafts that a drone simply cannot withstand. For these operations we have used helicopters or backcountry small fixed wing aircrafts.