Can Radio Controlled Aircraft Be Used For Aerial Photography?

The term "aerial photography" usually refers to pictures of the ground that are taken

from an elevated position provided that the camera isn't attached to some type of a structure on the ground. Aerial photos could be taken by a photographer, they could be automatically triggered, or they could be remotely triggered.

Aerial photographs are used for land-use planning, cartography, archaeology, environmental studies, movie productions, artistic projects, commercial advertising, surveillance, and more. Historical aerials are used in a lot of Phase I Environmental Site Assessments to analyze properties. These images are often processed with GIS software.

Traditionally, aerial photographs have been taken from helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft, kites, balloons, dirigibles and blimps, parachutes, poles, and poles mounted to vehicles. More recently radio controlled model aircraft has been used to take low altitude aerial photographs.

Radio controlled models are being used by the real estate advertising industry to take pictures of residential and commercial properties because full size aircraft are currently not allowed to fly low over populated areas of the United States. However, these restricted areas are fully accessible to small scale model airplanes and helicopters.

Because these miniature aircraft are not capable of flying very high or for a very long time, they will probably never replace full size aircraft as the primary means of taking aerials. However they have proven to be very useful for situations where a large manned-aircraft is prohibited or too dangerous to operate.

For example, a slow, low altitude flight over an agricultural field or a low level inspection of the transformers that are on top of power transmission lines are better done with a radio controlled helicopter than a large scale manned vehicle.

In the past it was relatively difficult to get a stabilized image from a camera mounted in a radio controlled aircraft. However it is now possible to get professional quality images when the camera is mounted on a gyroscopically stabilized camera platform. One of the larger model helicopters that use a 26cc gas engine can lift a payload of around fifteen pounds, so it can easily accommodate most high quality digital cameras.

The U.S. government has gotten involved in regulating commercial radio controlled flights. Starting in 2006 the FAA has required that the person piloting a model aircraft needs formal FAA certification before he or she will be allowed to fly the vehicle at any altitude in the United States.

What is rather interesting is that U.S. law stipulates that anything that can be seen from a public space is outside of the realm of privacy. Therefore, an aerial photographer can legally document anything that occurs on private property as well as the features of the property itself.

by:Wendy Moyer

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