Project description
Our maintenance team oversees a 44-metre lattice cell tower and two nearby 12-metre utility poles that are due for a structural condition review before the next storm season. Sending a rope-access crew up each structure costs a full day, a lane closure and a five-figure invoice, so we want to replace that first-pass inspection with a close-up drone survey.
The brief is straightforward: fly a tight vertical spiral around each structure from base to tip, holding a consistent stand-off distance while the camera stays zoomed in on the steelwork rather than the surrounding skyline. We need frame-filling close-ups of every bolted flange connection, cross-brace weld seam, guy-wire anchor and antenna mounting bracket, plus wide establishing shots for context. Corrosion streaking, loose or missing bolts, cracked welds and bent bracing are exactly what our engineers are looking for, so footage needs to be sharp enough to read a torque-stripe or a hairline crack at full zoom.
This site sits inside controlled airspace near a regional airport, so the operator must hold current certification, carry liability insurance, and either already have or be able to pull the relevant airspace authorisation and any local height/no-fly clearance before the flight date — we can supply the tower coordinates and structure height in advance to speed that up. A pre-flight briefing covering wind limits, lost-link procedure and an observer on the ground is expected as standard practice, not an extra.
Deliverables: the full raw 4K video and still-photo set organised by structure and by elevation band (base, mid, top), plus a short annotated defect log — a simple spreadsheet or PDF flagging each visible anomaly with a timestamp or photo reference and a rough severity note (routine, monitor, urgent) is enough; we'll have our own engineers do the formal sign-off. Turnaround of one to two weeks from the flight date is fine given weather windows, but please confirm your estimated timeline and any weather-hold policy before we book a date. Local pilots or teams who have flown tower or pole inspections before are strongly preferred.
The brief is straightforward: fly a tight vertical spiral around each structure from base to tip, holding a consistent stand-off distance while the camera stays zoomed in on the steelwork rather than the surrounding skyline. We need frame-filling close-ups of every bolted flange connection, cross-brace weld seam, guy-wire anchor and antenna mounting bracket, plus wide establishing shots for context. Corrosion streaking, loose or missing bolts, cracked welds and bent bracing are exactly what our engineers are looking for, so footage needs to be sharp enough to read a torque-stripe or a hairline crack at full zoom.
This site sits inside controlled airspace near a regional airport, so the operator must hold current certification, carry liability insurance, and either already have or be able to pull the relevant airspace authorisation and any local height/no-fly clearance before the flight date — we can supply the tower coordinates and structure height in advance to speed that up. A pre-flight briefing covering wind limits, lost-link procedure and an observer on the ground is expected as standard practice, not an extra.
Deliverables: the full raw 4K video and still-photo set organised by structure and by elevation band (base, mid, top), plus a short annotated defect log — a simple spreadsheet or PDF flagging each visible anomaly with a timestamp or photo reference and a rough severity note (routine, monitor, urgent) is enough; we'll have our own engineers do the formal sign-off. Turnaround of one to two weeks from the flight date is fine given weather windows, but please confirm your estimated timeline and any weather-hold policy before we book a date. Local pilots or teams who have flown tower or pole inspections before are strongly preferred.
Photography Cash, Bank transfer
