FLIGHT PLANNING

ROMER BONGBONGA

October 2022
Project Planning
▪ Successful execution of any photogrammetric project requires
thorough planning
▪ Must first determine the selection of products to be prepared,
their scales and accuracies
aerial photo prints, photo indexes,
photomaps, mosaics, orthophotos,
planimetric maps, topographic maps,
cadastral maps, digital maps, digital elevation models

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Project Planning
After the product selection process,
▪ Planning the aerial photography
▪ Planning the ground control
▪ Selecting instruments and procedures necessary to achieve
the desired results
▪ Estimating costs and delivery schedules

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Flight Planning
▪ Success of photogrammetric project depends on acquisition of
good quality pictures
▪ Due to weather and ground conditions, time frame for
photography is limited
▪ Reflights are expensive and causes long delays on project
▪ Mission must be carefully planned and executed according to
flight plan
▪ Consists of flight map, (where photos should be taken) and
specifications

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Specifications
▪ Camera requirements
▪ Film requirements
▪ Scale
▪ Flying height
▪ End laps, side laps
▪ Tilt and crab tolerances

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Stereopair
▪ Each photo covers partially the same area

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Neatmodel
▪ Area of the overlap bounded by the principal points of the
consecutive photographs

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Overlap
▪ Forward overlap or End lap
• Common area covered by two successive photos of the same
flight line or strip
• Usually 60% ± 5%

▪ Lateral overlap or Side lap

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Overlap

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Forward Overlap
▪ If stereoscopic coverage is required, 50% is absolute minimum
▪ To prevent gaps due to crab, tilt, flying height variations, terrain
variations, >50% end lap is required
▪ For photogrammetric control extension, points must be seen on at
least 3 photos

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Side Lap
▪ Required to prevent gaps between flight strips
▪ Using side laps >30% eliminates the need to use extreme edges
of photo
▪ Crab – disparity in the orientation of camera in the aircraft with
respect to aircraft’s actual travel direction; causes the edges of the
photo to be unparallel to direction of flight; reduces stereoscopic
coverage
▪ Drift – failure of the pilot to fly along planned flight lines

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Flight Plan
▪ What the aircrew has to do as indicated by flight lines
▪ The design of aerial photography flight in order to obtain desired
photos at a certain scale, i.e., how the air crew will fly (where to
put the flight lines, how high, etc.)

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Rules in determining flight line direction
▪ Generally follows four cardinal directions – East-West (E-W) or
North-South (N-S)
▪ Should be along the longer dimension of the area
▪ If over mountain ridges or valleys, go along the direction of the
features – to maintain an almost constant scale; if a flight line
crosses mountains, scale will be smaller in the valley than in the
mountains

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Direction of Flight Lines

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Flight lines along the valley

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Weather Conditions
Flight crew should be able to interpret weather conditions and make sound
decisions on whether to fly or not
▪ Ideally cloud free; < 10% cloud cover acceptable
▪ Clouds higher than the flying height might cast large shadows on the ground
▪ Overcast weather might be more favorable when large-scale topo mapping is
done over built-up areas, forests, canyons or other features which cast
shadows on clear sunny days
▪ Photos for industrial areas susceptible to atmospheric haze, smog, dust and
smoke are best taken after heavy rains
▪ Windy days might cause excessive image motion and difficulties in camera
and aircraft orientation
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Required Data for Flight Planning
▪ Project area boundary
▪ Camera focal length – 3.5”, 6”, or 12”
▪ Photoformat size – standard is 9” or 23 cm
▪ Photoscale
▪ Overlap requirements (in percentage) – percentage of endlap or
sidelap
▪ Least number of flight lines To be more
▪ Least number of exposures economical

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Flight Planning Computations
▪ Flying height
▪ Distance between exposures or Airbase (B)
▪ Distance between flight lines
▪ Total number of exposures
▪ Flying height above mean sea level of each flight line
▪ Total time needed for photography

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s= photoformat/size s
f= focal length
Hmge = flying heigh above m.g.e. f
o= overlap in %
S= equivalent ground distance
of photoformat

Hmge

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Flying Height

𝐻𝑚𝑔𝑒 = 𝑓 ∗ 𝑠𝑝

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Distance Between Exposures

𝐷𝑒𝑥𝑝 = 𝐷 = 𝑆 1 − 𝑓. 𝑜.
Where:
S = equivalent ground length of the photoformat size (s)
= (sp)(s)
f.o. = forward overlap (in decimal)
s = photoformat size
sp = photoscale factor

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Distance Between Exposures
Example:
Given:
scale = 1:15,000
f.o. = 60%
s.l. = 30%
s = 9” = 23 cm
Required:
De

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Distance Between Flight Lines

𝐷𝑓𝑙 = 𝐷𝑓 = 𝑆 1 − 𝑠. 𝑙.
Where:
S = equivalent ground length of the photoformat (s)
= (sp)(s)
s.l. = sidelap (in decimals)
s = photoformat size
sp = photoscale factor

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Distance Between Flight Lines
Example:
Given:
scale = 1:15,000
f.o. = 60%
s.l. = 30%
s = 9” = 23 cm
Required:
Df

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Total Number of Exposures

total number of exposures

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Total Number of Exposures
Where:

𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑟 𝑑𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛
number of exposures per f.l. = 𝐷𝑒
𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑟 𝑑𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛
= 𝐵
𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑑𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛
number of flight lines = 𝐷𝑓
𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑑𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛
= 𝑊

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Flying Height of Each Flight Line
(above Mean Sea Level)

𝐻𝑚𝑠𝑙 = 𝐻𝑚𝑔𝑒 + 𝑚. 𝑔. 𝑒.

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Total Time of Photography

𝐷𝑒
t= 𝑣
× number of exposures per f. l.
× number of flight lines

Where:
𝐷𝑒
𝑡= = time between exposures
𝑣

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Total Time of Photography
Example:
Given:
scale = 1:15,000
f.o. = 60%
s = 9” = 23 cm
average velocity of aircraft = 300 kph
20 exposures per flight line
10 flight lines
Required:
t
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Example
A project area is 16 km long in the east-west direction and 10.5 km in
the north-south direction. Aerial photography of scale 1:12,000 will
be used with the end lap and side lap of 60% and 30%, respectively.
A 6-inch focal length camera and a 23-cm square photo format is to
be used.
Prepare the ff:
o flight map on a1:24,000 base map
o compute the total number of photographs needed

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END OF PRESENTATION

Questions?

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