Down To Earth

New Drone Surveying Reality Series, Down To Earth, Flies out of the Classroom


Now available on YouTube and mdTV

Down to Earth, a surveying reality series, shows how real surveyors collect data and turn it into real deliverables, despite challenging conditions, rugged terrain and lurking dangers.

In these new episodes, Down to Earth heads back to school!

However, this is not your ordinary classroom. The drone surveyors of tomorrow are students today – and there’s a lot to learn at the Mohawk Valley Community Colleges’ Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems Program that features drone surveying equipment from Microdrones.

In these episodes of Down to Earth, we follow MVCC Professor Bill Judycki as he teaches his students both in the classroom and out in the field. See how students gain incredible hands-on experience flying drone surveying equipment, learning about the mechanics, workflow, and software capabilities.

Watch Episode 1 Below

Episode 1 introduces MVCC Professor Bill Judycki and his students enrolled in the Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) Class. The interdisciplinary curriculum of the RPAS degree includes the mechanics, electronics, and software programming of the RPAS.

Students also learn how to use drone surveying equipment from Microdrones for LiDAR and mapping projects- which we'll see them put to use to map a local golf course, Yahnundasis Golf Club

Watch Episode 2 Below

In Episode 2, the students are out of the classroom and in the field planning and flying their mission to map all 18 holes at Yahnundasis Golf Club.

“Fieldwork is extremely important,” Judycki said, “and using the drone surveying equipment from Microdrones is an exceptional resource for my students. I have one platform that can perform multiple applications, and with the modular approach I can snap out one payload, snap in another and we’re off to another application. That’s the best part about it. We can shoot high-resolution maps with the photogrammetric payload or switch to LiDAR to create a 3-D point cloud. The learning curve is very short with this equipment.”

In episode 3, the class heads into the MVCC FABlab to process and visualize the data and see if their mission was a success.

Watch Episode 3 Below

We hope you enjoy our latest Down to Earth episodes! For more information on this series or to learn about drone LiDAR, CLICK HERE to speak to one of our professionals.