The document provides an example of how to plan a flight for aerial photography over a 4km by 4km study area near Doaktown, NB. Key steps include:
- Calculating the flying height as 1614m above mean sea level based on the focal length, target scale, and average terrain elevation.
- Determining each photo will cover 2300m on a side based on the camera format and scale.
- Calculating the distance between photo centers as 889m to achieve 60% overlap.
- Dividing the flight lines into 4 lines spaced 1333m apart to cover the study area.
- Determining a total of 28 photos are needed to cover the 4 flight lines.
The document provides an example of how to plan a flight for aerial photography over a 4km by 4km study area near Doaktown, NB. Key steps include:
- Calculating the flying height as 1614m above mean sea level based on the focal length, target scale, and average terrain elevation.
- Determining each photo will cover 2300m on a side based on the camera format and scale.
- Calculating the distance between photo centers as 889m to achieve 60% overlap.
- Dividing the flight lines into 4 lines spaced 1333m apart to cover the study area.
- Determining a total of 28 photos are needed to cover the 4 flight lines.
The document provides an example of how to plan a flight for aerial photography over a 4km by 4km study area near Doaktown, NB. Key steps include:
- Calculating the flying height as 1614m above mean sea level based on the focal length, target scale, and average terrain elevation.
- Determining each photo will cover 2300m on a side based on the camera format and scale.
- Calculating the distance between photo centers as 889m to achieve 60% overlap.
- Dividing the flight lines into 4 lines spaced 1333m apart to cover the study area.
- Determining a total of 28 photos are needed to cover the 4 flight lines.
The document provides an example of how to plan a flight for aerial photography over a 4km by 4km study area near Doaktown, NB. Key steps include:
- Calculating the flying height as 1614m above mean sea level based on the focal length, target scale, and average terrain elevation.
- Determining each photo will cover 2300m on a side based on the camera format and scale.
- Calculating the distance between photo centers as 889m to achieve 60% overlap.
- Dividing the flight lines into 4 lines spaced 1333m apart to cover the study area.
- Determining a total of 28 photos are needed to cover the 4 flight lines.
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Flight Planning for Aerial Photography
Ever wonder how it's done? I promise, it's not rocket science.
Here is an example.
I have a study area over Doaktown, NB of 4 km wide in the east - west direction and 4 km long in the north - south direction (yellow lines on Map 1 below). Up is north. A camera having a 152.4 mm focal length lens and a 230 mm (9" x 9") format is to be used. The desired photo scale is 1:10,000 and the nominal endlap and sidelap are to be 60% and 30 %. Beginning and ending flight lines are to be positioned along the boundaries of the study area. The only map available to me for the area is at a scale of 1:50,000. This map indicates that the average terrain elevation is 90 m (300 feet) above sea level. Now, lets do the necessary computations to develop a flight plan and draw a flight map.
Map 1 Flight direction will be west - east.
Now we will find the flying height above the terrain and add the mean site elevation to find flying height above mean sea level:
Flying height = focal length + avg elevation
target scale
= 0.1524 m + 90 m _1 10,000
= 1614 m
Now determine ground coverage per image from film format size and photo scale:
coverage per photo = 0.23 m
_1 10,000
= 2300 m on a side.
Determine ground separation between photos on a line for 40 % advance per photo (60 % endlap):
0.40 x 2300 m = 920 m between photo centres.
Let's assume we are flying the aircraft at 160 km/hr, the time between exposures is:
= 920 m /photo x 3600 sec/hr
160 km/hr 1000 m/km
= 20.7 (use 20 secs) because the intervalometer can only be set in even seconds, the number is rounded down, so 60 % coverage is ensured.
Now we have to recalculate the distance between photo centres, using the reverse of the previous equation:
= 20 secs /photo x 160 km/hr x 1000 m/km
3600 sec/hr = 889 m/photo
Now we need to compute the number of photos per 4 km line by dividing this length by the photo advance. Add one photo to each end and round the number up to ensure coverage:
= 4000 m /line + 1 + 1 = 6.5 photos/line (use 7)
889 m /photo If the flight lines are to have a sidelap of 30 % of the coverage, they must be separated by 70 % of the coverage.
0.70 x 2300 m coverage = 1610 m between flight lines
Now we need to find the number of flight lines required to cover the 4 km study area width by dividing the width by distance between flight lines. (this gives number of spaces between flight lines, add 1 to arrive at the number of lines):
= 4000 m + 1 1610 m/line
= 3.48 (use 4)
The adjusted spacing between lines for 4 lines is
= 4000 m 4-1 spaces = 1333 m/space
Find the spacing of flight lines on the map (1:50,000 scale):
1333 m x 1 mm 50 m = 26.7 mm
Find total number of photos needed:
7 photos/line x 4 lines = 28 photos
Map 2 Flight plan map
The resulting mosaic of aerial photos was used to produce this distortion free orthophoto. Photo centres are shown on the flight lines.
Note: the photo centres marked here are for demonstration purposes, not the actual locations, but can be obtained by NBDNR as a GIS layer or paper map.
