London: Tower Bridge Project
The Brief: Conduct a UAV aerial survey of the property, providing photographic media to the building surveyor, reporting to a prospective new owner.
This location is classified as an AREA OF INCREASED RISK: HELI-ROUTE LONDON HELI-ROUTE H4 (check out this for more information: https://www.nats.aero/airspace/drones/non-standard-flight-applications/)
This is also another invaluable resource for UAV flights: https://www.dronesafetymap.com
The Task
The task was to photograph and video the roof area and front side of the property which would be hard to see without the use of the drone. This is one of the great flexibilities of using a UAV, getting access to all those inaccessible locations. How else could you get a good view from the riverside in close up detail of this location? Especially the roof area, which was not straight forward pitched roof. It comprised of various levels and details that could only be seen from acute and birds eye angles that the only a drone can fly to. There where several areas that needed attention such as gutters, pitches and flat roof areas that the on-site surveyor needs more detail of for his report writing to the potential new buyer…
One notable situation was choosing the take-off and landing zones. This area needs to be safe enough to use (with the crew in the vicinity) and as most of the locations that were suitable on the site were surrounded by metal railing and fences there was an issue with recalibrating the compass – something I always try to do at each location. However with perseverance, we achieved this at the end as well as getting GPS reception, so we were safe to fly.
With the surveyor checking the monitor from the camera feed. We were able to document all the desired locations for him to write his final report.
