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Who's going to be the first to use a drone scout up that wash that you'd love to hike up but crap it's warm your old it's nearly vertical geewhiz I still like to have a look!

Seriously Dash anybody thinking of using drones to scout out likely New terrain?

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I've had one for 2 years now. Initially I was going to make my own high-res imagery and sell them as overlays, but the FAA made anything business related with them illegal. I just use it to scout now mostly, but even that's been crippled since out of sight flight is now against FAA regulations too so the usefulness is questionable now. I save myself hikes up mountains and use it to take pictures of ore piles up there to see if its worth the hike, that's about it anymore.

 

As stock they wouldn't be much use for prospecting, but you can get aftermarkets parts for them so the radios go significantly further and so that you are able preprogram flight paths beyond radio distance, at least you used to be when it wasn't against regulations, not sure about now.

 

Anyways, they are loud and annoying, the last thing I'd want is to go prospecting and have a swarm of those things flying everywhere above my head out in the wilderness. Sounds like the loudest swarm of really PO'ed angry bees you've ever heard. 

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The DJI you posted a link to is what I have, it's cheap and prefab but it does the job and is probably a good way to start. I installed a much more powerful RX with circular polarized antennas, plus patch antennas on my TX radio. Also put in an FPV (first person view) system so that I can fly by videoscreen. My only limitation on distance is battery, which you'd need to go to a DIY solution like the guy in that other thread was posting to increase. I've seen vids on youtube where guys are flying 20 miles out, so distance isn't really a problem if a guy is willing to spend the time and money building his own.

 

But I should mention again for any reading this, out of sight flight is now illegal according to the FAA and they have ticketed some people. It makes sense because you don't want to be causing crashes with manned aircraft.

 

But you can still make a nice little ultrahigh-resolution aerial layer of your prospecting spots just by flying patterns within sight range. With the GoPro you need to get a fisheye filter correction or take your photos in narrow FOV which decreases the resolution so requires more passes, you can batch process them in Photoshop. A 12MP camera without fisheye would be the way to go for Aerials. There is a Russian program which I forget the name of right now which will autostitch your photos much much better than the Photoshop stitcher, It also does 3D recreation of models, like you can fly 360 degrees around a mountain and recreate the mountain as a 3D model from your photos, which is pretty cool itself, you can do with with your own head too.

 

After stitching you can georeference the aerial overlay in ArcGIS or Google Earth and then make a superoverlay from it and host it online or wherever you want if you don't want to share it.

 

That DJI Phantom is easy to fly. Like, it takes no skill at all in GPS mode, the accelerometers correct and you can take your fingers off the controls and just hover there automatically without doing anything. You can also buy the Ground Station module, which may not be legally for sale anymore, and it literally flys the entire thing automatically for you in any predetermined flight path you want.

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Jasong… thankyou for a fantastic synopsis about using drone capabilities to improve our effectiveness in the field. One can easily forecast the potential returns in the areas of Ontario and northern Appalachians that we frequently visit. I didn’t pay much attention to this information until reading your input on this thread and fully appreciated the possibilities. 

 

John… I’m glad this was brought to my notice because I haven’t been terribly active here just lately. Our family has just returned from the Atlantic shores and so I’ll keep this reply brief.

 

I’ve always enjoyed your terrific sense of humor over the years, and it certainly does enliven these forums… I suppose I should thank you for the above honorable mention!!! I won’t say that I always necessarily agree with all of your technical insights, but that doesn’t matter to me in the least. I do enjoy reading your contributions and following your thought processes. The important thing is that I have always been, and always shall be, your friend.

 

Jim.
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John… I’m glad this was brought to my notice because I haven’t been terribly active here just lately. Our family has just returned from the Atlantic shores and so I’ll keep this reply brief.

 

I’ve always enjoyed your terrific sense of humor over the years, and it certainly does enliven these forums… I suppose I should thank you for the above honorable mention!!! I won’t say that I always necessarily agree with all of your technical insights, but that doesn’t matter to me in the least. I do enjoy reading your contributions and following your thought processes. The important thing is that I have always been, and always shall be, your friend.

 

Jim.

Jim, It was Only Meant in The Nicest Possible way, As You Are The Only Canadian Gentleman I Know, and the fact that it Is an Air Canada Flight made it possible to Involve You for The Above Reason,

I hope you Are Not Offended, If You Are Then I Am Sorry Because that was Not My Intentions,

Take Care Jim

John

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Holy Cow John, I’m not the least bit offended. On the contrary, reading your above post last night gave me a good laugh. I was thinking at the time that you have a great sense of humor, and how nice it was that you remembered me despite that I haven’t been active on the forum lately.

 

We’re lucky to have these forums, but I don’t think that computers are always ideal at conveying our thoughts or emotional responses. I really shouldn’t post late at night, particularly after a couple of glasses of brandy. I tend to wax philosophic rather than speak directly to the point. I hope this will clear away any doubts whatsoever, because I do enjoy your posts and was especially pleased with your reference to me. Lets carry on and no worries. All the very best.  :)

 

Jim.

 

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