Sankt Gallen Metropolitan Area
Providing the knowledge, hands-on technical experience and support necessary for the flight-planning and acquisition of a project within heavily congested (NLD) airspace before impending deadline. Tasks also included sensor installation, operation, maintenance, malfunction-diagnosis and repair.
Oversaw flight planning, operator training, acquisition management, and the successful delivery of a multi-year project capturing 3” GSD oblique imagery datasets. This initiative covered over 60,000 square kilometers across hundreds of urban areas within the continental United States, utilizing three aircraft equipped with a leading large-format oblique imaging system. Data was delivered to a sister company for processing and achieved a 100% "first-time-right" acceptance rate, fully adhering to the end-client's contractual requirements. Major metropolitan areas included New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego. Additionally, served as the primary point of contact for diagnosing and repairing sensor malfunctions, as well as overseeing sensor installation, operation, and maintenance. Responsibilities also included project tracking, status reporting, and managing billing and invoicing processes.
March 2012, I relocated to Antwerp, Belgium to start on a new adventure with Aerodata International Surveys. With a much larger fleet of aircraft and a vast array of sensors from many different industry leaders, this allowed me to enhance my skills in the direction of the technical element of aerial survey from missions totaling over 1300 hours. Main duties involved sensor installation, operation, troubleshooting and repair as well as operator training on the following systems: UltraCam UCXp, UCE, UCO, UCFp, Visionmap A3, Lead’air MiDAS, Leica ADS100, FLiR, LightMapping, Riegl Litemapper, SOMAG GSM3000 and Leica PAV100 gyro-stabilised mount systems. IMU operation and field QC of data using IGI AEROcontrol, AEROoffice & Applanix systems complimented by POSPac MMS software. On non-flying days, ground duties included flight-planning, FMS & post-flight reporting using Track’air SNAP, IGI Plan, CCNS 4/5. Logistical planning & coordination with ATC both civil & military, whilst maintaining a close eye on both day-to-day and forecasted meteorological improvements. I pursued a strong interest in the rapidly evolving oblique market, becoming the lead-oblique survey specialist. This included overcoming the challenges of oblique flight-planning; whilst ensuring all GSD and overlap specs were met on all ‘views’ over challenging terrain and maintaining optimal mission efficiency. Almost one year was spent on a large international (high-resolution) oblique project as Field-Ops coordinator and liaison between platforming company, sensor manufacturer (Lead’Air) and client. Clear and precise communication with the production team was key to ensure in-field information was up to date and ensured correct and efficient data capture, in order to meet tight project deadlines.
Commenced working with BKS Surveys Ltd. in March 2008 (later acquired by Fugro B.V to become Fugro-BKS Ltd) BKS Surveys was my first taste of the geospatial world and it proved to be an excellent and diverse environment to learn in. Primary responsibilities included sensor installation, operation, troubleshooting and repair of a wide range of survey equipment. Leica RC30, Z/I DMC, UltraCam UCXp, FliMap, Riegl LiteMapper, PAV30 & Z/I Mount/TAS gyro-stabilised mount. When not in-the-air, ground responsibilities included flight-planning, meteorological analysis, fms & post-flight analysis and reporting of both image and GPS data using various platforms such as Ultramap, Track’air SNAP, IGI Plan, CCNS4, AEROoffice and Z/I Mission. I maintained a good relationship with ATC (both civil & military in the UK and western Europe) which aided obtaining necessary flight permits, logistics planning & mission coordination. I was fortunate enough to join BKS-Surveys when they still operated an RC30 film camera which allowed me to put into practice the principles of photography on missions, but also via C41 lab processing & RA4 printing, finishing, scanning & data archiving.