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Midlands Aerial Surveys

Drone Services

Aerial Mapping

A georeferenced overhead image of a whole site, flown to a repeatable pattern so a later visit lines up with the first. Supplied ready to sit beneath your own drawing.

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Aerial view of a quarry and mineral extraction site with water

A georeferenced overhead image of a whole site, flown to a repeatable pattern so a later visit lines up with the first. Supplied ready to sit beneath your own drawing.

What it shows


  • The current extent and layout of the site
  • Access points, gates, tracks and hardstanding
  • Structures, plant and compounds and where they actually are
  • Boundaries, fence lines and how the site meets its neighbours
  • Drainage, gullies and surface water routes
  • Vegetation, tree cover and encroachment
  • Stockpiles, spoil and material storage
  • Changes since the last visit, where we have flown before

Save time and money with an up-to-date site map — flown in an afternoon.

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Working from a drawing that is out of date


Almost every site drawing in circulation is describing a site that has changed. Compounds move, access is re-routed, stockpiles migrate, buildings come down and hardstanding goes in — and the drawing stays where it was.

Most of the time everybody quietly works around it. Occasionally it costs real money: a design based on a boundary that has moved, a delivery routed to an access that is now closed, a layout that does not fit what is actually there.

A current overhead image is cheap insurance against all of that. It takes an afternoon, it sits under your existing drawing at the right scale and position, and it shows the site as it is this month rather than as it was when somebody last surveyed it.

Aerial view of quarry earthworks with a settling lagoon

What you get


Georeferenced orthomosaic of the site
3D mesh and point cloud where required
Repeat capture from a saved mission, so visits compare like for like
Output in the file formats your CAD or GIS package expects

Save Time And Money With Current Site Imagery

Almost every site drawing in circulation describes a site that has changed. Compounds move, access is re-routed, stockpiles migrate, buildings come down. Most of the time everyone quietly works around it; occasionally it costs real money.

An overhead image takes an afternoon and drops straight into CAD or GIS as an underlay, at the right scale and in the right place.

It is used for:

  • Site layout and logistics planning
  • Planning and pre-application submissions
  • Boundary, access and encroachment checks
  • Design underlays for engineers and architects
  • Progress comparison between visits
  • Land and estate records
Aerial view of a racecourse grandstand and track
Aerial view of a racecourse and its car parks
Aerial view of a farmstead with a long barn and two grain silos in a stubble field
Aerial view of a site strip with plant working across bare ground

Fly It Again And The Two Line Up

Because the flight comes from a saved plan, a later visit repeats it exactly — the same coverage, the same pattern, the same overlap. Two images taken months apart compare directly rather than approximately.

For a site that changes, that is worth more than any single survey: you can see what moved, when, and by how much.

One thing to be clear about. This is current, measurable, scaled imagery, and for layout, access, briefing and planning it is exactly right. It is not a topographic survey, it carries no stated tolerance, and where you need levels, contours or setting-out data you need a surveyor with ground control.

Railway line running through open countryside, photographed from the air
Aerial view of a business park in Lincolnshire
Aerial view of an industrial estate with warehouse units and parking

Who asks for it


  • Civil engineers and designers wanting current site imagery
  • Developers assembling a planning submission
  • Land agents mapping a holding

What clients get from working with us


Timescales

Most sites are surveyed within two working days of instruction, with reports sent 24 hours after surveys.

Deliverables

Orthomosaics, 3D models, point clouds, elevation sets and edited media, supplied in the formats your team already works in.

Coverage

Operating throughout the East and West Midlands, Yorkshire and East Anglia.

Compliance

Fully authorised and insured, with a site-specific risk assessment issued before every attendance.

Continuity

One point of contact from enquiry to delivery. Data is processed in-house and is never passed to a third-party bureau.

Certainty

A fixed written quotation against an agreed deliverable. No day rates and no variation after the event.

Questions


Is this a topographic survey?

No, and it is important not to treat it as one. It gives you a current, scaled overhead image. A topographic survey gives you levels and contours to a stated tolerance, needs surveyed ground control, and is a chartered surveyor's work. If your architect or engineer has asked for one by name, that is what they need.

How accurate is it?

Accurate enough to measure areas, distances and layout from with confidence, and to overlay on a drawing. Not to a certified tolerance. If a number has to stand up formally, it needs ground control and a surveyor.

What resolution do you fly at?

It depends on the height we are able to fly and the size of the site, and we will tell you what to expect for your site before we quote rather than promising a figure blind.

What happens if the weather is wrong on the day?

We move it. Wind and rain make for unsafe flying and soft, unusable pictures, and a survey you cannot rely on is worse than no survey. We watch the forecast and give you as much notice as we can.

Is it legal to fly over my property?

Yes, within the rules. We hold a CAA Operational Authorisation and every flight is planned against the airspace, the surroundings and the people on and around the site before we attend. If a site needs a permission we cannot get, we tell you at enquiry rather than on the day.

Tell us about the site and we will take it from there

A site postcode and a sentence about what you need is enough to get started.

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Get in touch


Provide a site postcode or boundary and a short description of the required output. We will confirm the deliverables, level of detail.

  • A site postcode is sufficient to price most instructions
  • Written quotation, in most cases the same working day
  • Deliverables and formats agreed at instruction

info@midlandsaerialsurveys.co.uk

Stamford, Lincolnshire