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.
Following the Water: Gutters, Valleys and Where a Roof Sheds Rain
A roof moves rainwater along a designed path, from slope to valley to gutter to outlet. Autumn is when that path is loaded for the first time in months, and when anything silted, sagging or split begins to show. Almost none of it is visible from ground level. This is what an aerial inspection records about roof drainage, why standing water is such a useful signal, and how observations are marked on the imagery so a contractor can quote from them.
Radiometric Thermal Imaging: Why a Thermal Image Is Not a Temperature
A thermal camera does not measure temperature, it infers one from the radiation reaching its lens. That inference depends on emissivity, reflected apparent temperature, distance and the state of the air in between, all of which the thermographer supplies. Get them wrong and the camera still reports a confident figure. This piece sets out what has to be controlled to make a thermogram measurable, why it matters more on some surfaces than others, and what to ask a supplier.
Drones and Low Flying Aircraft: Who Else Is Using the Air Above Your Site
The air a survey drone works in is shared. Air ambulances, police helicopters, light aircraft, infrastructure inspection flights and military low flying training all have legitimate business below 120m, and none of them knows a drone is there unless somebody says so. This piece explains how a commercial operator builds the low level picture before a flight, what the United Kingdom Low Flying System is, how notification works and what it does not buy, and the small decisions on site that keep a survey and a passing aircraft apart.
