Bad trend with drones

There is no stopping this. It is innovative, interesting, can be productive, and it can give terribly inaccurate results, when used improperly and not checked with satisfactory control. It is not a substitute for land surveying.

The drone mapping video shows drones flying over the top of people and property in direct violation of the FAA rules and law--for good reason.

NSPS and many of the state boards have simply done nothing about regulating or even defining this matter as it relates to encroachment into actual land surveying as defined by the law. While I do not believe that 3D mapping with a drone is a violation of the intent of many state laws, I do believe that when the advertising or work product indicate to the potential customers and public that it is something clearly defined in the regs to be land surveying, that the matter should be addressed.

I was presenting a 15-minute opening speech for state convention at two combined states 2 years ago addressing this very matter, and the NSPS chair for one of the states was there on the front row--literally asleep. Maybe I was too boring for him.

The use of drones by unqualified people will increase the forensic engineering and forensic surveying market because of gross errors that will ensue, with damage to public--the main reason that land surveying is regulated in the first place.

Think of all the survey jobs that have been created due to people looking at erroneous drawings assembled by their local county mapping departments (GIS or whatever) that show property lines in the wrong places. Finished a job yesterday that showed about 12 feet of the client's house on his neighbor's land. The line actually fell about three feet clear of the house and about two feet clear of the neighbor's garage. Pretty much right where the owners forty years ago must have guessed the boundary to be.