A cold and frosty morning in Doncaster at Blyton Park Driving Centre – out with the drones and the BBC One Show team filming an article about potholes!
The One Show’s presenter Iwan Thomas presents the piece and overseas the competition judged by some eminent people in their field, Victoria Hazael (Cycling UK), Vince Crain (The AA), Keith Jones (Institution of Civil Engineers). The filming took place on Blyton Race Track in Lincolnshire, where three large potholes were repaired and reviewed. They will be testing out pothole repair technologies on the racing circuit itself and we will be providing supporting cinematography from an aerial perspective!
Watch the One Show here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPqk2OEMYpU
Why the Detail in an Aerial Survey Is Decided Before Take-Off
Most survey enquiries ask for high resolution without saying what the result has to do. Detail in a photogrammetric survey is not a setting applied in processing, it is a consequence of how high the aircraft flew and how much each photograph overlapped its neighbours. Both are fixed before take-off and neither can be improved afterwards. This piece explains what those two decisions control, what they cost in flying time, and why the useful thing to bring to a scoping conversation is an intention rather than a number.
Standoff Distance in Aerial Inspection: Optical Reach Versus Getting Close
The instinct on an inspection is to move in close. On most sites that is the least useful thing the pilot can do, because proximity puts the platform among the hazards and changes the surface being measured. Standoff inverts the trade, letting the optics close the gap instead. This piece sets out what standoff buys on a working site, what actually governs the working distance, and where the limits sit, including why a thermal measurement is never a zoomed view.
Why Wet Roof Insulation Shows Up on a Thermal Image
A flat roof is a layered build-up, and only the membrane is designed to keep water out. Once water gets past it, the insulation holds it, and wet insulation gives up its heat far more slowly than dry insulation does. That difference in cooling rate is what a thermal survey records. Because water tracks sideways once it is inside the build-up, the leak, the wet area and the stain below are rarely in the same place.
