Drone photogrammetry and orthomosaic mapping you can measure from

An orthomosaic is a single aerial image built from hundreds or thousands of overlapping photographs and corrected for terrain relief, camera tilt and lens distortion. Because the scale is uniform, it behaves like a map: you can measure distances and areas from it and overlay it accurately on CAD or GIS data. A stitched panorama can look similar, but it cannot be measured reliably.

With surveyed ground control and a 1–1.5 cm GSD, we typically achieve ±15–25 mm horizontal and ±20–30 mm vertical RMSE on hard, well-textured surfaces. Accuracy falls over vegetation, water and uniform surfaces such as fresh tarmac or snow, where the software has less texture to match. Every project is checked against independent checkpoints and the results are reported.

RTK and PPK positioning greatly reduce the number of ground control points needed, and for some mapping work they remove the need altogether. For survey-grade work we still lay control, because it removes small systematic height errors and provides independent checkpoints to prove the result. Without checkpoints there is no evidence of accuracy, only an expectation of it.

Cost depends mainly on area, ground sample distance, whether oblique capture and 3D models are needed, how much ground control is required and how often the site is flown. Repeat surveys of the same site cost less because the control and flight plans are reused. We quote a fixed price per capture or per programme.

Our standard mapping GSD is 1.0–1.5 cm per pixel, or 2.2 cm for large-area work. For structures, close-range oblique capture can resolve detail of a few millimetres per pixel, which helps identify cracking, spalling and other defects. Resolution and accuracy are different measures: a 1 cm pixel does not in itself guarantee 1 cm positional accuracy.

Yes. Orthomosaics are supplied as GeoTIFF or ECW on British National Grid and open directly in QGIS, ArcGIS Pro, MapInfo and most council GIS platforms. For very large areas we can tile the mosaic or supply a cloud-optimised GeoTIFF so it loads faster.

Yes. We fly a combination of vertical and oblique passes around the structure to build a textured 3D mesh and dense point cloud. These support condition surveys, design context, heritage recording and planning visuals, and are delivered as OBJ, FBX, SLPK or 3D Tiles to suit your software. Close flying around structures is planned under our CAA Operational Authorisation and covered by site-specific RAMS.

Often, with the right planning. Our Operational Authorisation allows flight in congested areas subject to conditions on separation from uninvolved people, which we meet through site controls, timing and flight path design. Some locations, including sites within aerodrome Flight Restriction Zones and parts of central London, need additional permissions, and we obtain these before the flight date.

Most contractors choose weekly, fortnightly or monthly flights, depending on the pace of work and their reporting cycle. Consistency matters more than frequency: flying the same plan, at the same altitude and against the same control each time makes every capture directly comparable. We set up a repeat programme so that each flight is quicker, more economical and consistent with the one before.