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    Flight Planning

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    rajat pandey
    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

    Uploaded by

    rajat pandey
    39 views4 pages
    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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    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.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    39 views4 pages

    Flight Planning

    Uploaded by

    rajat pandey
    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.

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