A remote -controlled helicopter fitted with a camera is designed to give sellers a lift writes Alanna Gallagher
IS IT A BIRD? Is it a plane? No it’s a remote-controlled helicopter fitted with a camera that can take aerial shots of your property. Called a Flyinair, the device can fly as high as 250ft and as low as 20ft, giving home owners, architects and planners a whole new property perspective. Full-size helicopters, by contrast, cannot fly below around 500ft.
Sellers at the mid to upper end of the market could use the device to show the size of their property, the views from the upstairs windows and even the interiors of very grand rooms, says graphic designer and Flyinair founder, Richard O’Connell. “It’s a great way to capture pictures of your project.”
When compared with free image services the camera quality is crisp and O’Connell’s graphic background is evident in the sharply focused images.
Google Earth, while free, doesn’t offer the same level of detail, according to David O’Shea of Odos Architects. “I can see the potential for these kinds of aerial shots, especially at a pre-planning stage.
“An aerial shot of an apartment block, for example, could then be Photoshopped into the photograph to show density, scale and an overall sense of the development.”
The cost of a Flyinair shoot starts at around €250 and for that you can expect to get 20 to 30 shots of a house setting, with larger commercial shoots costing more.
If there is one snag it’s that the helicopter-camera only works in very still weather conditions. Might this be the end of so-called “fish-eye” exterior photography and estate agents’ exaggerations? Promises of “breath-taking views” and “rolling lawns” can be verified with one click.
Sherry Fitzgerald director Simon Ensor has mixed feelings: “The way the market has gone people are not exactly looking for extra ways to spend money,” he says, but for the middle to upper market, on a property that is selling for €3 million, for example, spending €250 on aerial photographs is not excessive. “The more vehicles we have to show off specialist properties the better.”
O’Connell is still getting his wings, so to speak, but has already captured the grandeur of Powerscourt House and Estate, delivered a birds-eye view of heritage site Glendalough, is stitching together 20 stills of the Aviva Stadium to create a 360-degree image, and has captured for Dubliners aerial views of Sandycove almost as potent as those conjured up by Joyce in his Martello tower.
More details are on flyinair.ie
