Camera drones take flight

By Luke Balvert

A Papamoa aerial imaging company is stepping away from traditional aerial photography to make its mark on the unmanned aircraft community.

ATEA Data specialises in aerial photography using an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle and the latest electronic features for stabilisation – something many businesses and aviation enthusiasts’ are looking to enter into.

UAV’s, commonly known as a drone, are aircrafts without a human pilot aboard. Its flight is autonomously controlled by onboard computers, or by the remote control of a pilot.

Formed three years ago by director Moeava De Rosemont and technical director Reuben Abrahams ATEA Data uses a UAV with six propellers specialising in creating custom aerial photography for personal, technical and commercial use.

Weighing 6 kilograms, the $16,000 aircraft can fly for up to eight minutes, able to video an entire flight, take 360 degree panoramas and use infra-red.

“It’s quite new technology. What we essentially want to do is provide a snapshot of an area,” says Reuben.

Current projects for the business include building a UAV able to identify and perform orchard crop spraying with infra-red, as well as the unusual task of scaring birds away from produce to be exported from the Port of Tauranga.

All model aircraft and UAV are subject to Civil Aviation Authority rules, which constrain where they can operate. ATEA is fully compliant and informs Tauranga Airport of any planned flights.

Such aircraft cannot be operated within 4 kilometres of an aerodrome while operation of an aircraft in controlled airspace requires clearance from Airways NZ.

Reuben says with the increasing popularity of the UAV community for both aviation enthusiasts and hobbyists, a bigger push for promoting such rules and safety guidelines needs to be enforced.

“Most people are not aware of this [CAA rules]. People who use model aircraft are usually operating illegally.

“At six or seven hundred dollars for a model a lot of these people don’t have any training and are also flying with only one person instead of the required two. So it can create a number of safety issues.”

Sun Media photographer and radio control pilot Bruce Barnard says from a hobbyist perspective there is nothing quite like flying a multi-rotor after immersing himself in the radio-controlled industry two years ago.

Purchasing a basic internet set up, Bruce spent the last two years custom building the aircraft – along with learning the intricacies of what makes such a machine tick.

“It became quite a long process and I had a very determined approach to it in the end. It was just about trying to learn the different things like amps, watts and volts and what it all means,” says Bruce.

“I have always had an interest in aviation so I started building and designing my own fixed wing aircraft and learned a lot about it,” says Bruce.

A photographer with more than 30 years’ experience, the move to flying a UAV seems like a logical progression for Bruce, and he believes such aircrafts are becoming more easily accessible for interested people.

“I enjoy flying it. It’s really fun and I come away with a huge smile.”

“As a hobbyist it’s way more affordable than what it used to be. But today you can still spend tens of thousands of dollars if you want to.”

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