We were delighted to be invited to come and film alongside the team from the BBC’s The One Show down at the Swanage Railway.
We were part of an article that they were creating regarding the rejoining of the Swanage train station to the main railway line, something that’s been achieved through a huge amount of work by a team of volunteers in a large part. We were to provide aerial footage of the beautiful steam engine puffing its way along the route – the chocolate box Dorset countryside and you really couldn’t ask for a more picturesque backdrop.
A very friendly farmer allowed us to use his field as a takeoff and landing site as it was adjacent to the rail track, giving us the opportunity to get beautiful views of the train as it headed over from Corfe Castle towards Swanage. Then we moved off to Norden station where we were able to interact even more closely with the train as it left the current final station on the line, filming almost trackside to create rising views of the drone disappearing into the steam plumes as the engine chugged beneath.
Despite relatively high winds on the day, our Matrice and Inspire fleet of craft were more than equal to the task of creating stable and stylish footage to capture both the engine and the environment with plenty pieces of the footage being used in the finished piece on BBC 1.
Bird Droppings, Lichen or a Cell Fault? How a Drone Solar Survey Tells Them Apart
Bird droppings and lichen both make solar cells run warm, and on a thermal image either can look like a genuine module defect. This article explains how each deposit presents, why a dropping can resemble a single cell anomaly and lichen at the frame can resemble an electrical edge pattern, and how a Level III thermographer separates surface growth from faults using the visual image, distribution and symmetry, so every finding reaches the right person.
Missing Insulation, Thermal Bridge or Air Leak: How a Drone Heat Loss Survey Tells Them Apart
A warmer patch on a heat loss thermogram can mean missing insulation, a thermal bridge or an air leak, and each sends the owner to a different specialist. This post explains how a Level III thermographer tells them apart, reading the shape and edges of each pattern against the construction of the building rather than the colour alone, why glass and metal can mislead, and why classification, not the picture, is the real value of a drone heat loss survey.
Why a Building Has to Settle Before a Heat Loss Survey: Thermal Mass Explained
A heat loss survey needs more than a cold night. It also needs a building heated steadily for long enough that heat is flowing through the walls at a settled rate. Thermal mass delays and dampens any change, so a building imaged while it is still warming up shows patterns that look like defects and are not. This post explains what thermal mass does to a thermogram and why the heating regime is agreed before a date is set.
