Aerial Survey
Land and estate records
A dated aerial record of a whole holding, farm, estate or solar site, flown so that this year can be put next to last year and read.
Estates, farms and solar sites accumulate a lot of paper and very few pictures. When a question comes up about what a corner of the holding looked like before the works, before the tenancy, or before the storm, the answer is usually somebody's memory and a photograph taken from a gateway.
This service is the alternative: the whole holding photographed from above on one day, at a known height, with the date on it. Buildings, yards, tracks, hedges, watercourses, woodland, arrays and outlying parcels, in one set of files.
It is a management record and a handover record. It is not a land surveyor's plan and it is not a valuation, and the report says so on the front page.
What is included
- The whole holding captured on one visit where the size and the weather allow it
- An orthomosaic of the block, with the outlying parcels flown as their own runs
- Obliques of the yard, the buildings and anything you specifically want on record
- A dated file set, named so that next year's sits beside this year's
- A short written record of what was flown and what the conditions were
- Repeat visits at the same height and on the same plan when you want the comparison
Why the date on it is the valuable part
A photograph of a farm is mildly interesting. A photograph of a farm with a defensible date on it, taken at a known height with the whole holding in one frame set, is evidence: of the state of a building at handover, of the condition of a track before a contractor used it, of what was standing in a field before a claim.
That is the reason to fly one before works start, before a tenancy changes hands, and after a storm. None of those moments come back.
Solar sites and other installed ground
An array is difficult to photograph from the ground and easy from the air: rows, access tracks, inverter stations, fencing, the state of the grass and scrub between and under the panels, and where water is standing after rain.
What this service does not do is inspect the panels themselves. A hot cell, a dead string or a failing joint shows in thermal, not in daylight photography, and that is a different flight with a different camera. The thermal side of the business has its own site, linked from this one, rather than being folded in here as though one flight did both.
What we will not write in a record
We will not put a boundary line on a photograph and call it a boundary. We will not describe a building as sound or unsound, or a structure as safe. We will not offer a valuation, an area figure presented as authoritative, or an opinion that belongs to a chartered surveyor, an agronomist or a structural engineer.
What the record does is put the picture in front of the person who is qualified to say those things, with the date and the conditions attached. That is a smaller claim than most of this industry makes and it is the one that holds up.
On the day
How a estate records runs
- Step 1
Walk the list first
What matters on your holding, in your words: the parcels, the buildings, the access, the boundaries you argue about, the drain that always blocks.
- Step 2
Plan the runs
A main block flown as a grid, outlying parcels as their own runs, and a short list of obliques for the things a plan view will not show.
- Step 3
One visit where it fits
Most holdings fit into one day. Where they do not, the split is agreed in advance and both halves are flown to the same plan.
- Step 4
Deliver and date it
Files named and dated so a later set drops alongside them, with the report that says what the conditions were on the day.
Behind the work
Kit, cover and qualifications
Registered operator
CAA registered, with an Operator ID and a Flyer ID held. Both are checkable, and any land agent or consultant is welcome to ask for them before a flight is booked.
A2 Certificate of Competency
The A2 CofC, which is what governs how close the aircraft may work to people who are not part of the job. No GVC is held, so operations are planned inside the A2 CofC.
Aircraft
A DJI Mavic 4 Pro carrying a 100 megapixel Hasselblad camera and 6K video, and a DJI Mavic 2 Enterprise Advanced with a 640 by 512 radiometric thermal camera.
Insurance
Insured with Coverdrone for commercial operations. A certificate goes to your office before the visit if your site induction needs one on file.
Estate records
Land and estate records questions
- How long does a whole holding take?
- Most fit inside a day, including the outlying parcels. Very large or very broken holdings run to two visits, and that is decided and priced before the first one rather than discovered halfway through.
- Can you fly the same holding every year?
- That is what it is for. The plan is kept, the height is kept, and the second visit is flown the same way as the first so the two sets can be laid side by side.
- Will the record show what is wrong with my buildings?
- It will show you the roofs, the yards and the drainage as they were on the day, and anything obvious gets flagged with the frame that shows it. A proper condition inspection of a building is a different job, and there is a separate site in this network set up for exactly that.
Where
Land and estate records across the South West
Also on this site
Tell us the output you need
Request a quote with Aerial Survey
Send the boundary or the postcode and the output you need. Sam Hembury comes back with a fixed price, a date and anything in the brief that needs settling first.