Taking to the skies with Amy Steiger
Right to left: GIS Manager and RPAS Pilot Amy Steiger, Graduate Surveyor Alexandra Keyes
19 September 2019
Did you know – The Term “Remotely Piloted Aircraft” (RPA) is an industry-standard from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA)?
No? That’s okay! Because for most of us, the world of remotely piloted aircraft, or drones as they are commonly known as, is still very new and somewhat unknown.
But for Amy Steiger, GIS Manager and RPAS Pilot, they have been an essential tool in her daily job.
Amy is currently one of eight pilots at Cardno across Australia who is qualified to fly both fixed-wing and multi-rotor platforms (usually an eBee or DJI Inspire).
She has worked in spatial services at Cardno for over 10 years and her becoming an RPAS pilot has helped Cardno to grow and develop this important and exciting capability.
Over her career, Amy has worked on a number of different projects gaining experience with remote data capture to cover a range of coastal, civil engineering, surveying, environmental and land development applications.
She has also promoted the use of RPAs in the viticulture industry, completing multispectral analysis to gain insight into vine health and crop management practices.
Her unique skillset and experience operating these type of RPAs have enabled her to gain an in-depth understating of this unique piece of technology.
It has also earnt Amy a scholarship to attend the World of Drones Congress (WoDC) in Brisbane, Australia this September where she will see the latest trends and chat to those across the industry.
“I am excited to network with industry leaders, innovators, be inspired about where the industry is going, and bring these learnings back to my context which is to provide spatial solutions and technology to a digital engineering organisation,” Amy said.
“I believe my involvement can further highlight the innovative solutions this technology can provide and how it can make a difference in the way we approach our projects.”
Amy is a strong advocate for the use of RPAs and the difference it is making in service delivery across a range of diverse projects. She has completed survey-grade sand volume analysis for more than 20 beaches around Port Phillip Bay, Victoria to help with future planning for beach renourishment projects. The beach surveys were completed for 16 priority beaches using a DJI Inspire with survey ground control to generate high resolution and high accuracy survey datasets for aerial imagery and digital terrain models.
“With RPA, we can efficiently capture and re-survey sites over and over, compare results each time and obtain up-to-date imagery and surface information to assist with sand modelling,” Amy said.
Most recently, Amy has been involved in flying along isolated coastal cliff faces in NSW to capture high-resolution photography and derived photogrammetric models to identify geotechnical hazards. She is also helping to roll out thermal inspection capability to assist with leak detection.
Learn more about Cardno's Surveying and Spatial capabilities, https://www.cardno.com/services-au/infrastructure/surveying-and-spatial/
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Source: Cardno - www.cardno.com
Contact: Amy Steiger GIS Manager and RPAS Pilot Principal - Geospatial Information Systems Phone: +61 2 4231 9600
External Links: https://www.cardno.com/services-au/infrastructure/surveying-and-spatial/
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