Lincolnshire East Yorkshire North Norfolk, UK& other areas by arrangement.
Health & Safety Consultants
Aerial Services
Benefits of using our drone service.
There are many instances where drone photography or filming is the best option for you:
● Eliminate high risk working at height.● Cost-effective and reduce the need for scaffolding or helicopters.● The quality of the photography and videos is of a very high standard.● Drones can be used to access hard to reach areas inside and outside.● Data and images can be relayed to you within 24 hours ready to download.● We can provide stunning photography and videos for a wide range of purposes.
We can now offer many benefits to a wide range of industries, providing high quality images and outputs from other sensors, including thermal imaging in a cost-effective way, and most importantly eliminating working at height as no-one must leave the ground!
What is a Drone?
Well first and in its most simplistic form, a drone is a camera that flies, that’s it! Whether it’s using them to market a property, conduct a roof survey or capture damage around an unstable building or
structure.
They are also a cost-effective way to carry out this task when compared to hiring a cherry picker, installing scaffolding, or employing a rope access company, plus the output is of a higher quality and
much more dynamic as you are not stuck in one point, say where you can park a cherry picker you only get access to one side of a building.
The output is high definition photos or video which can be interrogated in the comfort of your office, or more recently, home. The main drone has two cameras, a HD one for the wide shot, and a zoom camera which is designed for inspections, and can zoom in 180x when required.
You can take these outputs a level further and combine them in a process called photogrammetry. This is a method of combining lots of photos to make one large image that can then be zoomed into in areas where specific items need to be seen.This is good for having a large-scale overview of a site or development, it can be taken a stage further by using a specific type of drone fitted with an RTK sensor, or Real Time Kinematic.
As standard, most drones use GPS for positioning and are accurate generally to 8-10cm horizontally, which is pretty good, but not when you’re trying to use the images for measurements. The additional RTK equipment brings this accuracy down to below 1cm, meaning the outputs can be put directly into design programmes and other applications. As well as the GPS reference points it aligns the information with the base station to correct the data allowing that sub cm precision. Using the RTK system means you are not relying on having a decent mobile signal as you are with some systems like tribal, the base station operates anywhere in the world. And compared to installing ground control points to increase the accuracy as you would traditionally, it saves a lot of time and manpower.
Another service which is becoming more and more pertinent is the use of drone to replace site visits. Usually if you have a lot of stakeholders involved in a project or development and they want to see the current state you would organise a site visit, all don hi-viz and hard hats, and walk around the site to see the progress.In this time of people minimising travel and working remotely a good alternative is to send a drone pilot, to go and fly around the site and record still images and video to show the progress, which can then be reviewed in a board room or during an online meeting. However this is limiting as the footage might not quite capture everything that is of interest.To take that a stage further, the footage can be live streamed using a platform like youtube. The pilot goes to site, and flies around the site while being connected to the meeting, allowing the stakeholders to request to see whatever areas they want, all being broadcast and captured simultaneously.So you can see these are just some of the applications we can use drones for, and I think in the future they will become an essential tool and common place in the UK skies.
Civil Aviation Authority (CAA)
Of course, as new technology is created and released to the public, there follows legislation to ensure they are used responsibly and safely. The Civilian Aviation Authority (CAA) included drones into the Air Navigation Order, the legislation that governs all aircraft in UK airspace, in 2016. And since then the regulations have changed very regularly as the technology advances and events occur. Where drones had been a relatively unknown entity in the UK that changed in December 2018 where a drone was used irresponsibly around Gatwick airport, causing the entire airport to grind to a halt.
The incident affected over 140,000 passengers on around a 1000 flights at one of the busiest times of year for the travel industry, with an estimated overall cost of £50m. The culprits are still not caught and there is still a £50,000 reward for information leading to their arrest. Changes were made immediately after the incident to mitigate against drone disruption around UK airports, with a reported £20m spent on drone defence technology, and an implementation of 5km restriction zones around any airport in the country.It was clear to the Police who investigated the incident that whoever was responsible was doing it intentionally, it was not a case of hobby pilot in the wrong place at the wrong time, it was a coordinated attack by some well informed people intended to cause as much disruption as possible. However, it did show that any drone pilot could become entangled in the middle of a national crisis if a drone is used irresponsibly or ignorantly, and with the Police becoming very aware of the legalities around drone use, it’s more important than ever to ensure that any drone flight is carried out by a responsible person who will make sure it is flown safely and within the allowed limits.
I have taken this a stage further and gained an Operating Safety Case (OSC). This allows me to do more with my permission than a standard pilot can do, I can fly higher, further, and in even more complex areas, which grants me more freedom to complete the task at hand.
Of course the more straight forward way to gain footage for your video project is to employ an approved drone pilot. There is a section on the CAA website which lists companies and pilots who can provide this service, and using one of the operators from that list ensures they are approved and allowed to fly, have experience in carrying out flights, and are insured in case something does go wrong. There is an increasing amount of property videos appearing on estate agent websites to promote their properties for sale, curiously not many estate agents appear on the CAA list!
Drone Code
This led the CAA to bring out its drone code.
This was produced to quickly inform pilots of the limits surrounding drone use as up until that point it was buried within wordy documents. In November 2019 this was taken a stage further with anyone flying a drone in the UK now needing to pass a basic knowledge test online, this gives you a flyer ID and is aimed at the hobby pilot who flies in large open spaces away from the public. The footage and photos gained from this type of user can be used for personal uses such as you tube videos and social media.
As soon as you go above that level, for example flying in a city centre or congested area, you need to gain a permission to operate from the CAA to carry out drone operations. You gain permission by attending a course from a recognised training provider, which entails ground school which covers the basics of aviation, passing a flight assessment, and producing a set of documentation which states how you will plan your flights and operate your drone. Like most industries it is lead with safety at the forefront, and is heavily based in risk assessment and pre-planning. As the flight becomes more complex, such as flying in a city centre location, close to areas where people will be, then the level of planning and risk assessment rises. I have found most issues arise from the public not understanding why the drone is in the air, to make my jobs run as smooth as possible I book in the majority of them with the local Police for the area, not only is it good practice, it means that if they get a call they know I’m there, what I’m doing, and can reassure the member of the public that it’s all legal and above board.
By using an approved pilot you get the footage you want, without the worries of the potential legal or operational pitfalls. There are plenty of hobby pilots who offer their services on social media, I’ve even seen one of them state “rules are made to be broken”! You probably wouldn’t employ a gas engineer to change your boiler who were not Gas Safe registered, so why use a drone pilot who is not approved?To make sure you are working safely, legally, and hassle free, use an approved pilot for all your drone requirements.