McElhanney adopts Leica Geosystems airborne laser scanner, digital camera
NORCROSS, Ga., 27 June 2012. McElhanney Consulting Services Ltd. of Vancouver, B.C., is investing in another Leica ALS70-HP airborne laser scanner and a Leica RCD30 digital camera from Leica Geosystems Inc. McElhanney now owns and operates three Leica LiDAR scanners, two Leica RCD30 medium-format cameras, and a Leica RCD105 digital frame camera across its global operations as an engineering, mapping, surveying, and environmental services company.
McElhanney flies its LiDAR scanners and digital cameras to projects across Canada, Southeast Asia, South America, Mexico and the United States.
The new Leica ALS70-HP LiDAR and RCD30 camera will be operated from the Vancouver headquarters, where McElhanney maintains a Leica ALS50 LiDAR and the RCD105 camera. McElhanney’s Indonesia office in Jakarta currently operates a Leica ALS60 laser scanner and RCD30 camera. Depending on the needs of specific projects, McElhanney often deploys a LiDAR and digital camera together on one aircraft for simultaneous collection of elevation and imagery.
“We selected the HP model of the ALS70 because we are seeing a lot of demand for higher point density and feature extraction with LiDAR,” says Koohzare. “The ALS70-HP provides a high pulse rate that gives us a higher point density in one flight, which saves time and money.”
Koohzare explained the higher point density LiDAR collections have become common for projects involving detailed engineering design work and extraction of features, such as electric transmission lines and towers.
“The ALS70-HP allows users to fly higher and faster without sacrificing point density,” explains Jean Gardiner, General Manager of the Leica Geospatial Solutions.
The Leica ALS70 is an airborne laser scanner with a 500-kHz pulse rate capability designed specifically for high-density point collection in diverse environments to serve many type of elevation mapping projects. The Leica ALS70-HP version purchased was developed for general purpose mapping over a wide variety of terrain conditions at different flying altitudes. The ALS70 utilizes full waveform pulses, which allow for better analysis of ground cover and extraction of more meaningful information. This LiDAR sensor offers three user-selected scan patterns that provide the flexibility to meet the specific mapping requirements of different projects.
“The entire family of Leica ALS scanners features plug-and-play compatibility with our medium-format digital camera solutions, such as the RCD30,” says Gardiner.
The RCD30 is a medium-format digital imaging system developed for photogrammetric and remote-sensing applications. The 60 MP single-camera-head design delivers co-registered, multispectral imagery in the red, green, blue, and near-IR portions of the spectrum. The sleek modular design allows the camera to fit easily in aircraft previously outfitted with film cameras, and the RCD30 integrates with many LiDAR sensors, including the Leica ALS series.

Courtney E. Howard | Chief Editor, Intelligent Aerospace
Courtney enjoys writing about all things high-tech in PennWell’s burgeoning Aerospace and Defense Group, which encompasses Intelligent Aerospace and Military & Aerospace Electronics. She’s also a self-proclaimed social-media maven, mil-aero nerd, and avid avionics and space geek. Connect with Courtney at [email protected], @coho on Twitter, on LinkedIn, and on Google+.