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The Davey Bulletin | March/April 2017
MY DAVEY
DRONES ADDED TO DRG FLEET
Davey Resource Group (DRG) has
added drones to its equipment fleet
to offer a variety of aerial inspection
services to Davey clients.
DRG has two certified drone pilots
based in two separate locations. Bill
Sutley, geographic information system
(GIS) technician, is based in Kent.
And Chad Laskaris, survey manager,
Wetland Studies and Solutions, Inc.
(WSSI), a Davey company, is based
in Gainesville, Virginia. Sutley and
Laskaris have three DJI Phantom
drones and one DJI Inspire drone at
their disposal.
Deborah Sheeler, production manager,
said both Sutley and Laskaris are
certified by the Federal Aviation
Administration to pilot the drones
for commercial use.
"Our main goal is to continue providing
our clients with innovative solutions
that meet their needs and exceed the
quality they expect," Sheeler said.
Sutley said the drones have numerous
applications that include providing
high-resolution images for inspection
of utility rights-of-way clearances,
imaging for GIS, wetland inspection
and tree canopy quality control work.
"Wherever aerial imagery can come
in handy," Sutley said.
He added that the high-resolution
imagery provided by the drones is a
vast improvement over the satellite
imagery commonly used for such
applications. Satellite views are lower
resolution by comparison and can't
offer as much detail.
DRG has already used the drones to
provide a fly-through video and aerial
imagery for a bat habitat mitigation
project that involves converting 131
acres of dense, invasive autumn
olive shrub cover to forested habitat.
Laskaris at WSSI has even used the
drone to capture aerial images and
video of several properties for a local
realtor who is a WSSI client.
"With a lake and large horse farms
surrounding the properties we knew
there would be a great backdrop
for the setting," Laskaris said. "We
post-processed the video to include
music and a seamless slideshow
that was provided to the client for
their website."
WSSI also plans to use drones to
capture orthorectified imagery and
certified aerial topography, which are
new services WSSI has subcontracted
out in the past.
Left: Chad Laskaris of WSSI, Inc., a Davey company, takes his drone on a test flight.
Below: This type of tree canopy aerial imagery is now available to Davey clients
thanks to the introduction of aerial drones to the company equipment fleet.
