Lisoka - Aerial Survey 2015
UAV Geospatial Solutions recently conducted an updated aerial survey of the farm, reflecting this years plantings.
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Preparing the drone for flight
Owen from UAV Geospatial Solutions, preparing the plane for flight. The battery powered drone is assembled with a camera mounted in the nose and the co-ordinates of the farm and the flight path are plotted onto his laptop.
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Launching, flight and landing
Launching the drone was simple, it detects movement above 3m/second, then the battery powered motor springs to life. Using cellphone telemetry the flight path previously entered into the laptop was followed remotely by the UAV without any need for human intervention, with it's progress displayed on the laptop. The UAV flew under the low cloud cover at a hight of 160m above ground level snapping pics of the farm. It was only during the landing that Owen took over using a R/C control system to bring the drone gently into the plantation.
The entire Farm
The high resolution pics are pieced together to form a detailed aerial view of the farm that was printed on AO sized paper and laminated. Above is reduced image indicating the past two seasons plantings. Below are a few zoomed selections.
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Zoom of 2015 Plantings (click to enlarge further)
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Zoom of the reservoir and bulldozer constructing a storage dam (click to enlarge further)
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Zoom of 2014 Plantings (click to enlarge further)