How I work

The difference is the methodology, not the drone.

Anyone can buy a capable drone. What separates a hobby output from a survey deliverable is what happens around the flight — the ground control, the checkpoint strategy, the processing pipeline, and the QC report at the end.

This is the rough shape of how every job runs.

Plan the mission

Flight lines, altitude, overlap, and control layout are all set against the accuracy target we need to hit. I pick a ground sample distance (GSD) that matches the deliverable, and I pick a control distribution that matches the site geometry — perimeter GCPs plus interior GCPs wherever the surface changes.

Measure the control

Ground control points are measured with a pair of Emlid Reach RS3 receivers in base/rover configuration. The base is tied to a known monument or logged long-enough for a PPP solution; the rover occupies each GCP with enough observations to beat the target precision.

Checkpoints are separate from GCPs. They aren’t used to adjust the photogrammetric block — they’re reserved to report the block’s final accuracy honestly.

Fly and capture

Flights are planned on a defined project site and flown under my Transport Canada Level 1 Complex Pilot Certificate and the Skyland Imaging RPOC. I only fly when site conditions match the mission plan; captures that don’t meet the plan get reflown rather than shipped into a deliverable.

Process and align

Imagery flows into a locked processing pipeline: image alignment, bundle adjustment against the GCPs, dense cloud, DSM, ortho. The same pipeline runs every time so deliverables are comparable flight-to-flight.

QC and report

Every delivery ships with a QC summary: horizontal and vertical residuals on the checkpoints, GCP count and distribution, CRS, vertical datum, and any known caveats on the coverage. If a number looks wrong, I say so.

This site is not a legal cadastral survey. Legal boundary work belongs with a BC Land Surveyor — I’ll happily refer.