The Gold Star Bridge spans the Thames River from Groton, CT on the eastern shore to New London, CT on the western shore. Recently I was commissioned to create a large wall display for an engineering firm that worked on reconstructing the southbound side of the bridge. They wanted an aerial photograph taken from the middle of the river showing the whole span of the bridge.
I discussed the project with my client offering a few alternative angles and explained the process I would need to go through to legally capture these images. The Gold Star Bridge is located in Class D controlled airspace of the Groton/New London Airport, it also falls in what is known as a “0” grid of the FAA UAS Facilities Map which as a Part 107 commercial drone pilot I need to have authorization from the FAA and the airport. It also is located about three miles south of the Groton Naval Submarine Base to the north and Electric Boat Shipyard to the south. And to add one more layer, the river in the area is controlled by the US Coast Guard.
Gold Star Bridge Southbound Reconstruction
After securing all the proper paperwork, authorizations and approvals I spent about 4 hours on a Friday evening capturing the bridge from both sides of the river until just after sunset. I also reached out to Mohawk Northeast, a rigging company located on the northeast side of the Thames River to get permission to launch my drone from their parking lot. This location allowed me to launch from a safe and secure site where I could keep my drone within VLOS, visual line of sight, while composing the shots from an approved altitude of 200ft. The above image will be printed on a large 60 inch wide metallic print then protected with an acrylic sheet and then hung in their office conference room.
Clear communication with your client during the planning stages through to the selection of the finished product is key to a successful project like this. Helping them to understand the regulations and safety aspects of your business will leave them with a feeling of confidence that you will be able to deliver the goods in the end. I look forward to working with this client again on more engineering projects they have ongoing. To learn more, go to out About Us page.
