[Aztlan] Fw: Aerial survey

[donald raab]

Dave,
 
I do have to see the plane to fly it.  In heavily vegetated areas like Caracal there is a tradeoff.  Flying higher allows a larger area to be scanned. Lower does limit the area.  One solution only thought of after the flights was to fly from the top of the pyramid.  No limits then except the range of the video (1.5) miles.  In regards to your specific example; if the footprints were at all in contrast to the landscape; the camera would have discerned them easily.
 
The present flying approach is to set out a square survey area.  Within it the flight path is a series of back and forth laps overlapping each other.  As I mentioned the GPS overlay is in real time and stored as part of the video.  It does beat walking an area with a handheld GPS; especially for an initial survey.  
 
Recharging time of the flight and camera  batteries is about an hour.  I carry two sets of batteries so the down time is actually quite small.
 
Don


--- On Mon, 3/30/09, David Hixson <chunchucmil at yahoo.com> wrote:


From: David Hixson <chunchucmil at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Aztlan] Fw: Aerial survey
To: "donald raab" <modeldon_9 at yahoo.com>, "Dave Pentecost" <dave.pentecost at gmail.com>
Date: Monday, March 30, 2009, 8:12 AM



Thank you Donald!!

For the past few years I had dreamed of contacting radio controled avocational flyers to see if this was possible.  It would be a PERFECT low-cost approach to gaining low-altitude coverage.  I wish I was still working in the field at Chunchucmil - I would have jumped at this offer in a heartbeat.

If you do get the chance to try this approach again, may I also suggest you place two or three reflective markers on the ground at precisely measured locations (say, two well-georeferenced GPS points exactly 100 meters apart).  It would help with the eventual georeferencing of the entire data set.

I had wanted to use this technology to follow the linear rock alignments that were used as footpaths by the ancient Maya to travel through the seasonal wetlands of western Yucatan.

Question: do you need to be able to see the plane in order to fly it?  That would be one complicating factor for covering larger parcels of land when there is no tall vantage point for you to see the aircraft.

-Dave