Construction & Solar Progress Flights

Aerial Services › Construction & Solar Progress Flights

Progress imagery on a schedule, across every site you have

Construction progress documentation is a recurring job, and recurring jobs are where a locally based helicopter beats both alternatives. A drone crew has to drive to each site, launch, land and drive to the next. A turbine helicopter from out of state arrives with a mobilization fee that swamps a half-day of flying. The R44 at Harris Airport launches from Fort Ann, covers three or four sites in the Capital Region or the Champlain Valley in a single sortie, and bills only the Hobbs hours it takes.

That makes a monthly or quarterly progress flight practical for the general contractor, the owner's representative or the lender who needs consistent overhead imagery from the same angles, on the same cadence, for the life of the project.

Utility-scale solar

Solar builds in upstate New York are large, flat and spread out, which is exactly where a helicopter's altitude and speed matter. One pass at a few hundred feet shows the whole array field, the racking progress, the laydown yards and the access roads in one frame, and a second pass at low level puts a camera on any section the site team wants a closer look at. For a developer with several projects under construction in the region, we fly them in sequence on one flight and deliver the same image set for each.

What the flight produces

• Repeatable overhead and oblique images from the same positions each visit, shot by your photographer or your site engineer riding with intercom and headset
• Doors-off capability for an unobstructed downward angle
• Handheld or client-supplied gyro-stabilized gimbal; we carry no fixed mount, so your team controls the camera and keeps the files
• Up to 3 seats, so the project manager and the photographer can fly together

Cadence and pricing

Progress programs are quoted as a program, not a one-off. Tell us the sites, the counties and whether you want monthly, quarterly or milestone-based flights, and you'll have a quote within 24 hours. Hourly rates start at $750 per Hobbs hour with a 30-minute minimum; ferry time bills at the same rate, so clustering sites on one flight is the lever that brings the per-site cost down. One-off flights, for example a pre-pour overview or a punch-list flyover, are airborne within 48 hours of a confirmed order in daylight visual conditions.

Who this is for

General contractors and construction managers, solar and wind developers and their EPC partners, owner's representatives, lenders who require periodic site documentation, and quarry and aggregate operators who need volume and progress imagery over an active pit. If you are a surveyor or an engineering firm supporting any of these, we also carry your sensor and operator; pick the survey option on the quote form.