SMALL FORMAT AERIAL SURVEYS FROM LIGHT AND MICROLIGHT AIRCRAFT

Small format (SF) cameras, fitted to light or microlight aircraft, can provide an economic and convenient alternative to the more expensive conventional mapping systems. Further advantages accrue from the use of wider aperture lenses, an extensive range of easily available films and simplijed processing. These advantages can be exploited by employing light aircraft for small survey missions, such as map revision, and desktop photogrammetric systems dedicated to handling SF imagery. In this paper, an account is given of a research study involving SF map revision survey photography, using a modern microlight aircraft and a 70 mm metric camera.