All posts by Jeff Salmon

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Top of the Crop: Best of Pangaea 2015

As we end the year 2015, it’s interesting and informative to look back and see what you, our readers, found most interesting. Using metrics gleaned from our newsletter platform, I picked the top five issues for… Best of Pangaea 2015 Surprising UAS Section 333 Exemptions UAS continue to be a hot topic as the FAA...

Multicopter Profiles

The eXom, RiCOPTER, Aibot X6, and Trimble ZX5 SenseFly’s eXom Inspection and close-in mapping sUAS I first saw sensFly’s new eXom sUAS at the ILMF conference in Denver early this year. It’s billed as an inspection and close-in mapping platform, and I thought, “Inspection? That’s interesting” and moved on. Turns out the team at senseFly...

Utility corridor mapping and monitoring is a prime example of an application that is constrained by the current FAA Section 333 VLOS rule. (Here a hydroelectric power transmission tower being inspected by an Aeryon Scout. Courtesy of SkyDroid.)

Getting Beyond VLOS

The FAA’s streamlined Section 333 exemption and COA process is welcome, but there’s still a fly in the ointment.  While the ongoing FAA Section 333 exemption process is a big step in the right direction for UAS, all operators flying under these exemptions are constrained by the VLOS rule: all flights must be conducted within...

Feature: A Strategic Shift to Ship Scanning

A surveying firm based in the United Kingdom leverages its terrestrial 3D scanning and modeling expertise into a new market: marine and shipping applications.In February this magazine showed how Fenstermaker and Associates expanded their firm by successfully employing “Diversification through Scanning.” Now we take the idea another step to a firm with extensive 3D scanning experience that is...

Business Leader: The Marksman: Diversification through Product Innovation

Diversification is an ongoing theme at this magazine; we think it’s the best survival mechanism for a profession undergoing rapid change in a recovering economy. Gerry Clarke, owner and president of Coordinate Control, Stoney Creek, Ontario, Canada, saw the need for a better tool to use in precision surveying applications. The result became The Marksman,...

Feature: Rockfall Mitigation

A potential market for surveyors is collecting data for rapid hazard analysis, using 3D photogrammetric techniques. Every state with mountains has to deal with rockfall hazards. Helping proactively manage these hazards, i.e. rockfall mitigation, can be an opportunity for service diversification for land surveyors, especially in the mapping and analysis of suspected areas of rockfall...