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Drones For Aerial Reconnaissance


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You guys have great Google Earth coverage down here. It is nearly useless in Alaska and I would have been thrilled to have this alternative. As it was I was lucky enough to have a father with an airplane I could talk into doing aerial photography runs.

Aerial views can be incredibly handy in rough terrain, or terrain with lots of trees. Anything that stops you from seeing what is "over there". It is so easy to miss stuff wandering around on foot. As I noted, Google Earth is a huge aid, but it is not perfect. The best time to see stuff is when the leaves are off, and often Google Earth overviews are obscured by foliage.

This unit is designed to work with a Go Pro camera and so costs less than models with integrated camera solutions. I am not expert in this stuff and just grabbed this as an example because they seem to be a well known manufacturer. The DJI Phantom Aerial UAV Drone Quadcopter for GoPro at http://www.amazon.com/DJI-Phantom-Aerial-Drone-Quadcopter/dp/B00AGOSQI8/

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Then there is a top-of-the-line model with integrated camera on gimbal. The Go Pro model you aim the drone to get the shot. This one you can hold the drone steady and rotate the camera. More money of course. DJI Phantom 3 Vision Quadcopter with Integrated FPV Camcorder at http://www.amazon.com/DJI-Phantom-Standard-Quadcopter-Camera/dp/B013U0F6EQ/ref=dp_ob_title_toy

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Anyway, just food for thought. We found aerial photography to be a huge benefit metal detecting the tailing piles at both Ganes Creek and Moore Creek.

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Way back in my earlier dredging days when I owned airplanes I would routinely overfly my dredging areas.  Amazing how much you can learn from overhead views.

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Check Walkera machines... real time operation with real videa stream on talbet unit...

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I've never used a drone - Mostly I use Google Earth for those types of situations where I want to see things a bit before I get there. With commercially available low cost drones, you pretty much need to be on site -  drones you cant really tell you what someplace many, many miles away is like - they don't transmit that far. Many have limits less than a mile.
There are also legal restrictions on flying over some types of federal land. I am sure some day future prospectors will use drones, but I think its still a bit off in the future yet.

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Steve I am in the process of building a drone now. Lots more advance than the DJI, its all carbon fiber and will have live video back to ground station. This quad will fly out to about 5 miles. and with the HD video down link the image quality will be outstanding. Two cameras will be on-board. One to show where I am flying and the second on a controllable gimbal where I can point the camera in all directions. Has a failsafe system so I flip the switch and the copter returns to the GPS cords. where it took off from and lands on its own. The quad will have 17" carbon fiber props so to cut down on noise and have about 30 minute flight time per charge. With rapid Lipo batteries can be back in the air in short time or have another set of batteries to switch out to fly while the other battery is charging.

 

The uses of a quad with video is endless. Movie studios are using them over helicopters due to the expense.

 

GoPro is in the stages of developing a quad to sell using their famous GoPro.

 

Click on this link to see a great video. Make sure to expand to full screen. Shot from a DJI quad shown above...

 

http://vimeo.com/107258028

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Quadcopter drones are non-trivial to pilot.   Master flying one of the Hubsan X4 Quadcopters ($43 at Amazon) before you crash and burn a quad that can carry a camera.  Get the blade protector for $3.  

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