Aerial photos

[Furby]

Well I can send up the camcorder in the underwater housing for protection, but it's about 2 pounds total based on the bathroom scale.
Might be able to drop that a bit by doing away with the water tight plug.

Or the camcorder alone is maybe a half pound.
I guess with your ground, protection really isn't needed anyways. : :

[Furby]

Click that link for reusable ballons near the bottom of the page.
Some of those are big enough to lift a small kid!  ;D

[Jeff]

We could use one of those for the Forestry Forum Pig Roasts!  To bad they are so proud of them. :-\

[Kevin]

You might get by with a large garbage bag.
We have filled those with helium before.

[Furby]

Float da Furby Jeff ??? :

[Jeff]

No Furby, as a beacon to where we are.  If we had one with the logo on it flying about 50 feet above the trees, you could find us from most anywhere in town.  Apparently we had members this year get to town but not the pigroast. Speaking of which, If I had been them and stopped at the sherriffs, I would have had them jump on line and ask on the forum. 100 people would have got them here.

[Furby]

I'm a little surprised they didn't see the buzzards circling. :

[Jeff]

Hah!  They were circling when we got home Sunday. Somehow, the trashcan with all the pig trimmings was left by the trimming table Sunday of the roast. We got all the other garbage out but somehow missed that one for the monday pickup.  Think how much sun and heat we had during that week.  Tammy about lost it as we took the can around the front when we got home from the U.P. this past Sunday. IT WAS REAL BAD. :D   I felt really really GLAD I was not the garbage man.  I may have to leave him a tip or something for even taking it.

[Furby]

 :D :D :D :D :D
I know what was in there and feel bad for the guy.
Can't belive ya missed it. ;D

[Jeff]

One like this might be perfect. It could go up with about 3 party balloons.

LINK

[Jeff]

I've found some model Helicoptors that are cheaper then buying one weather balloon and filling it one time with helium.

http://www.hobby-lobby.com/index.htm

[Furby]

Yeah, but those heli's won't take any load! :'(

[Furby]

Jeff, I've been wanting to build a large scale RC helicoptor for more then 15 years.
I now happen to have the power unit for one in my basement, a crunched 395xp! smiley_biggrin01
It's just waiting for the time,$, and machining for it to become an RC helicopter capable of carrying a wide array of video and still imaging equipment. ;D

Now, we can move things along if we can get some help and do a REAL video shoot of your property as well as Lou's AND the piggy roast!
So.......................... who's game ??? 8) 8) 8)

[Jeff]

All I can think is decapitation.

[Furby]

Party Pooper! :D :D :D



They've been using them for years, just could never afford the $45k price tag of a ready to go unit. :'( :-\

[Jeff]

Who is "They"?    There is a lot more to a helicoptor then a chainsaw engine.  First of all you need to know how to fly one well before getting into a model of that size. Otherwise you will crash. No practice with one of that size.

[Texas Ranger]

Y'all got any nudist colonies up there near by?  Could make this project a whole lot more fun, and probably finished quicker. :

[Jeff]

I'm convinced that at some point, Tammy is going to change your username to Texas Pervert.

[Furby]

Actually TP (TR) ........ yes we do! ;D
Most folks are real suprised when I inform them about it, but it's there, maybe 30 miles give or take East of town.
They even have a website.  :



Jeff, "they" are videographers that shoot some of the ads and commercials you may see everyday and not have a clue that was how it was actually filmed.
They are also used to film some of the Nascar and such races.

[SwampDonkey]

Might find this document useful, has contact info at the end.

http://www.dnr.state.mi.us/spatialdatalibrary/sdl2/doqs_zip/_metadata/imagesDOQ.pdf

http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-10371_14546---,00.html <-- images here

You can view them with ArcPad 7 demo.


http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/about/mobile_gis.html   A demo of ArcPad 7, with 20 min time limit per session, can be found here.

To set the coordinate system in Arcpad, click on the 4th icon on the top row. Then click the top icon on the right edge of the popup window. Navigate to C:\Program Files\ArcPad 7.0\Coordinate System\Projected Coordinate Systems\State Systems\NAD 1983 Michigan GeoRef (meters).prj'

Load the photo into Arcpad by clicking the 3rd icon on the right edge of the popup window mentioned above and navigate to the directory containing the image.

Once loaded pan/zoom/measure with the mouse. The measure tool is on the second row of icons at the top of the screen and by clicking slightly to the right of the "i" icon a drop down appears with the 'Measure' tool. Distance or area can be measured by pointing and clicking a path, then click the green arrow icon at the bottom left to get the measurement. The red X cancels the measurement and the black loop arrow cancels the last point clicked.

[SwampDonkey]

Anyone interested in looking at GIS (map) layers available for their own state can look here.

http://home.pacbell.net/lgalvin/drgnotes.htm

The info was compiled for users of Oziexplorer, but if your using a current GIS you won't likely need to do much conversion. I think most all the data will load into ArcPad as is.

Some states include the Orthographic (images) of their state in MrSid format as well. Just set your projection in Arcpad and have fun. ;D The source , usually your state agency, will have the projection info published.  ;)

[SwampDonkey]

Tom, I see Florida has some 2004 aerial photos. I'm on dialup, so I was only browsing briefly.  ;D

http://data.labins.org/imf3/LABINS2B/labins.jsp

I think you can find owner info in there to.

I fellow could get lost.  ;D :D 8)

[SwampDonkey]

Jeff, Your Orthophoto (MrSid format) is here on tile "27"  ;D Hover mouse message is 'Goetzville SE'.

http://www.mcgi.state.mi.us/mgdl/doqs_zip/1998_Series_htm/chippewa/index.html

Tons more info over here ;D

http://www.mcgi.state.mi.us/mgdl/?action=thm

[SwampDonkey]

Couple of screenshots from Arcpad 7.0




Shows the aerial photo, county, and streams classed as trout brooks.



Close up of the woodlot with a measurement off Arcpad. I guessed at the boundaries.  ;D The projection was metric, but the preferences will allow you to see US units.

[SwampDonkey]

Another view with some more layers. Some layers have transparency on so you can see through to the aerial image below. They include lakes and classified wetlands. Place names (yellow) are labeled. There are roads and the powerline shown, unfortunately they don't name the roads in the layer database. Contours lines (brown) and elevations are labled in feet (yellow). There is a stream layer there to, but doesn't seem to have all the streams digitized. Notice that whom ever cut the forest land only cut up to the classified wetland boundary.  ;)