Aerial Work & Survey Services

Helicopter, plane or drone: which suits the job

• Helicopter: slow, low flight along a winding route, following the terrain in the hills. It suits long corridors such as power lines, pipelines, roads and railways, mountain projects, lifting loads to sites without a road, and air advertisement over a city or an event.
• Fixed-wing aircraft: suits large, open survey blocks flown in straight lines.
• Drone: suits a single plant, mine, warehouse or construction site of a few square kilometres, and is usually faster and costs less there. See industrial drone survey.

For terrain under forest or scrub, aerial LiDAR survey from a helicopter can separate bare earth from vegetation, which photo-based mapping cannot.

How an aerial work job is booked

• Requirement. You send the area or route (a KML or shapefile is ideal), the scope of work, the outputs and accuracy you need, and the deadline.
• Feasibility. The operator looks at the aircraft and equipment needed, where it would be based, and the clearances the area needs.
• Permissions. Survey flights need airspace clearance, some areas need security clearance for aerial survey, and advertising flights need permission for the route. Allow several weeks.
• Written quote. You see the full cost before anything is booked.
• Flying. Sorties fly in daylight and fair weather. Mountain work is planned around the season, because cloud and rain stop a sortie.

What decides the cost

• Flying hours, including positioning from the operator's base to the work area and back.
• The size of the area or the length of the route, and how many sorties it takes.
• The equipment: LiDAR, cameras, sensors, a sling for external loads, or a banner.
• Processing and deliverables for survey work: point clouds, terrain models, maps or reports.
• Permissions, landing and night-halt charges, where they apply.

What to check before you pay

• Which permit-holding operator will fly, and which aircraft and equipment are planned.
• Who arranges each clearance, and how long each is expected to take.
• That the quote is all-inclusive: positioning, flying, equipment, processing, permissions and taxes.
• What happens to the schedule and the cost if weather or a clearance stops a sortie.

For aerial filming, see helicopter for film shooting; for passenger or cargo flights on your own route, see private helicopter charter.