What sits behind the work
Procurement teams ask the same questions every time. Here are the answers in one place, ready to forward to whoever needs them.
Certification and compliance
- Transport Canada Advanced RPAS operations certification
- Controlled airspace authorization obtained through NAV CANADA, including coordination with military aerodromes when a corridor requires it
- Operations near heliports and adjacent to restricted areas, with a Special Flight Operations Certificate applied for where a project requires one
- Site specific flight plans with standoff distances and pass sequencing set before mobilisation
- Certificate of insurance issued directly to your project or your broker on request
Insurance and coverage
- $7.5 million liability coverage through Coverdrone
- WCB Alberta coverage in place and verifiable
- Subcontracted pilots carry minimums of $2 million commercial general liability and $1 million RPAS liability under a signed services agreement
Alberta is the home market and most work is within a few hours of Edmonton. British Columbia and Saskatchewan are within our own reach: cemetery mapping for one client ran from Alberta into Fort Steele, British Columbia. Work beyond that is contracted to certified pilots we have worked with continuously, and the vetting is the same wherever the site is.
Fleet
The platforms we fly and stay current on. The aircraft is matched to the site and the sensor is matched to the deliverable, so a scope is quoted on the payload the work needs rather than on a single airframe.
- DJI Mavic 3E with RTK for mapping and measurement work
- DJI Mavic 3T with radiometric thermal for inspection work
- DJI Mavic 3M multispectral for crop health and vegetation indices
- Matrice 300 RTK, Matrice 350 RTK and Matrice 400 for the Zenmuse payload range, covered in detail below
- DJI Avata 360 for 8K spherical capture, Avata 2 for close quarters first person work, and the DJI Neo 2 where a launch has to happen in a confined space or from the hand
- Lidar payloads deployed for projects requiring bare earth capture beneath canopy or vegetation, paired with RGB in the same mobilisation
Positioning and ground control
- DJI Mavic 3E with onboard RTK, corrected live from an Alberta base station network over NTRIP
- D-RTK 3 base station for sites without reliable network coverage
- Emlid Reach RS2+ for ground control point and checkpoint measurement
- Static GNSS observation with NRCan precise point positioning where a base position has to be established independently
- Delivery in the coordinate system your project runs on, including NAD83 UTM Zone 12
- Both ground control supported and RTK only workflows, chosen to suit the accuracy the project actually needs
Processing and delivery
- WebODM Lightning as the primary photogrammetry pipeline, with DroneDeploy used for corridor and patch work
- Outputs in GeoTIFF, LAS, LAZ, DXF, SHP, KMZ, XLSX and PDF
- Interactive 3D site models hosted for stakeholder access without a site visit
- 360 degree panoramas and edited video alongside the measurement deliverables from the same flight
- Large deliveries issued through a shared link with a documented folder structure
- Files retained for one year from the capture date. Re issue after a link expires is available for a small administrative fee
Working with subcontracted pilots
Multi site and out of province programs are run through a network of certified pilots operating under the Drone360 services agreement. You hold one contract, deal with one point of contact and receive one invoice, and insurance minimums are enforced on every operator before they are dispatched.
At a glance
- Operating since
- 2016
- Base
- Edmonton, Alberta
- Certification
- Advanced RPAS
- Liability
- $7.5M
- Workers coverage
- WCB Alberta
- Aircraft
- Mavic 3 series, M300 / M350 / M400
- Processing
- WebODM + DroneDeploy
- Ground control
- Emlid RS2+ / D-RTK 3
- File retention
- 12 months
Need a certificate of insurance, a WCB clearance letter or a completed vendor qualification package? Send the form and it comes back the same day.
Larger platforms and payloads
Per projectWhere a project needs more aircraft than a site walk, we scale the platform and the sensor to the work. A quarter section and a several thousand acre spread are different problems, and so are bare ground and terrain under canopy.
Matrice 300 RTK
The platform with the longest service record in Canadian industrial work, and the one most often specified by name in utility, pipeline and public safety scopes. It carries the same Zenmuse payload range as the 350, flies in rain and icing conditions rated to IP45, and holds a stable platform in high wind.
- Zenmuse P1, 45 MP full frame photogrammetry
- Zenmuse L1 and L2, lidar with integrated RGB and IMU
- Zenmuse H20T, wide, zoom, radiometric thermal and laser rangefinder in one head
- Zenmuse H20N, starlight sensors and dual thermal zoom for night work
- Dual downward gimbals or a single upward gimbal for bridge soffits and structure undersides
Matrice 350 RTK with Zenmuse P1
A 45 MP full frame camera on a stabilised three axis gimbal. Fitted with a 35 mm or 50 mm lens it holds fine ground resolution from a higher altitude, which cuts flight lines and shortens the hours spent on your site. For a pit, a corridor, or a multi quarter section parcel, that turns what would be a multi day capture into a single visit.
- Zenmuse P1, 45 MP full frame photogrammetry, 24 / 35 / 50 mm lenses
- Zenmuse L2, lidar with 4/3 CMOS RGB camera and high accuracy IMU
- Zenmuse H30T, 48 MP wide, 12x optical zoom, radiometric thermal, laser rangefinder
- Zenmuse H20N, starlight sensors and dual thermal zoom for low light work
- Multispectral and gas detection integrated through the payload SDK
Matrice 400 with Zenmuse L3
For terrain beneath vegetation and for long linear corridors, lidar reaches ground through canopy and grass, and it works independent of daylight, so the capture window stays open through dusk and overcast. The airframe carries up to 6 kg, stays aloft up to 59 minutes, and supports several sensors at once, so one pass can produce both a classified point cloud and a thermal record of the same asset.
- Zenmuse L3, long range aerial lidar for topography, corridors and forestry
- Zenmuse L2, lidar for terrain models and digital twins
- Zenmuse P1, photogrammetry with Smart 3D Capture on this platform
- Zenmuse H30 and H30T, visual and thermal inspection with AI detection
- S1 spotlight, V1 speaker and Manifold 3 for night operations and onboard processing
Other payloads on request. Configurations are arranged per project. If your scope calls for a sensor outside this list, include it with your request and we will confirm availability and cost in the quote.