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Advanced Aerial Intelligence

Your Site.
From Above.
With Precision.

Northern Drone delivers specialist survey and inspection data for agriculture, telecom, solar, LiDAR, GPR, and bathymetric applications — on time, certified, and ready to integrate.

1000+
Acres / Day (Ag)
97%
Data Accuracy
72hr
Std. Turnaround
6
Service Lines
Northern Drone GPR survey platform flying over agricultural field
GPR Altitude1–3m
SignalStrong
Survey GridGPR Active
Agricultural Surveys
Telecom Inspections
Solar Thermal Analysis
LiDAR Mapping
Drone-Based GPR Survey
Bathymetric Surveys
Agricultural Surveys
Telecom Inspections
Solar Thermal Analysis
LiDAR Mapping
Drone-Based GPR Survey
Bathymetric Surveys
The Problem We Solve

Dangerous Jobs. Slow Timelines. Bad Data.

Traditional survey and inspection methods haven't changed in decades. You're sending crew up towers, wading through wetlands, and waiting weeks for processed data that's already outdated.

Northern Drone replaces all of that. Specialist platforms. Certified pilots. Actionable deliverables — in 24 hours.

  • Tower climbs cost thousands and carry real injury risk — we eliminate them entirely.
  • 🌾Crop health issues stay invisible until it's too late — we see them from 120m up.
  • 🗺️Ground surveys miss what's under canopy — our LiDAR sees through it.
73%
Cost Reduction vs. Traditional Survey
Survey cost reductions of 50–75% vs. traditional ground crews are consistently cited across multiple independent industry benchmarks for sites over 5 acres.
0
Crew Climbing Required
Telecom and solar inspections are completed entirely from the ground with zero personnel at height.
24hr
Average Data Turnaround
Processed, GIS-ready deliverables delivered the next business day for most standard missions.
Six Specialist Services

Every Mission.
The Right Sensor.

We don't fly one drone and call it a service. Each line uses purpose-built equipment and pilots trained specifically for that application.

01 — Mapping
LiDAR Mapping

Dense 3D point clouds for terrain modelling, corridor surveys, and bare-earth DTMs through dense vegetation.

Point CloudDEM/DTM
02 — Mining / Hydro
Bathymetric Surveys

Sonar-equipped USV platforms for flooded quarry pit mapping, volume calculations, and dewatering planning. No dive crew, no boat, no downtime.

SonarHydrographic
03 — Sub-Surface
Drone-Based GPR

Airborne ground-penetrating radar for sub-surface mapping, utility detection, and geotechnical surveys in hazardous terrain.

GPRSub-Surface
04 — Volumetrics
Stockpile Volumetrics

Aerial photogrammetric stockpile volume measurement with 1–2% accuracy. No crew on the pile, no halting operations.

PhotogrammetryVolumes
05 — Agriculture
Agricultural Surveys

Multispectral and thermal imaging for crop health, NDVI mapping, and precision agronomy at any scale.

NDVIThermalMultispectral
06 — Energy
Solar Farm Analysis

Radiometric thermal surveys to identify panel faults, hotspots, and delamination across utility-scale arrays.

Thermal IRPanel-Level
How It Works

From First Contact to Final Deliverable — Four Steps.

01
💬
Brief & Scope

Tell us your project, location, and timeline. We'll come back with a scoped proposal or clarifying questions within one business day.

02
🗓️
Mission Planning

We handle all airspace authorizations, flight planning, weather windows, and logistics. You don't lift a finger.

03
🚁
SUAS Flight

FAA Part 107 certified pilots on-site with the right platform for your mission. Safe, efficient, and fully insured from takeoff to landing.

04
Data Delivered 72hr std / 36hr rush

Processed, QA-checked deliverables in your required formats within 72 hrs standard — or 36 hrs with rush processing — ready for GIS, CAD, or farm management platforms.

Client Results

What Our Clients Say

★★★★★

"Cody is very professional with an eye for detail. I love his drone video services and his 3D virtual tour. Especially..."

KN
Kelly Norton
Google Review · Local Guide · Dec 2020
★★★★★

"Northern Drone has the best pricing in the area for the services they provide. They were also able to get my photos and videos to me within only 2 days with no extra charge! Definitely recommend!"

AS
Alexis Solo
Google Review · Nov 2020
★★★★★

"Cody was attentive, knowledgeable, helpful, and all around excellent! The work he did for us really helped to flesh out..."

CR
Charlie Rohan
Google Review · Local Guide · Jun 2021
Real Projects. Real Data.

Work That Speaks
For Itself.

LiDAR vegetation encroachment survey
LiDAR Survey — Utility
Powerline Conductor Classification

Green-classified conductors individually resolved from ground, structure, and vegetation returns — providing exact sag measurements and clearances without deploying a single climber.

LiDARVeg. ClassificationCorridor
LiDAR bridge and powerline sag survey
Bathymetric Survey — Mining / Quarry
Quarry Pit Depth Mapping & Volumes

Sonar bathymetric survey of a flooded quarry pit — color-coded depth contours, cross-sections, and volume calculations for dewatering planning, permitting, and reclamation. No dive crew, no boat required.

LiDARSag AnalysisInfrastructure
3D elevation model pre-construction
LiDAR Survey — Engineering
Pre-Construction Elevation Model

Full 3D DTM with contour lines and feature mapping of a site before ground was broken — giving the engineering team accurate cut/fill volumes and drainage planning data.

DTMContoursPre-Construction
Multispectral NDVI golf course turf health
Multispectral Survey — Turf Management
Golf Course Turf Health — NDVI Survey

NDVI multispectral map of an 18-hole course revealing stressed turf zones (red) vs healthy stands (green) — enabling targeted aeration, fertilizer, and irrigation decisions.

NDVIMultispectralTurf Health
Transparent Pricing

Every Project Is Different.
Here's How We Price Them.

We don't publish rate cards — because a 2-mile powerline corridor and a 200-mile one aren't the same job. Every quote is scoped to your specific site, sensor requirements, deliverable format, and timeline. Here's exactly what goes into it.

📐
Site Size & Complexity

The primary driver of cost. A 10-acre construction site and a 100-mile transmission corridor require very different flight plans, ground control setups, and processing time.

Total area or corridor length
Terrain and vegetation density
Number of flight sessions required
Access and mobilization distance
🎯
Sensor & Accuracy Requirements

Different services require different equipment. LiDAR corridor surveys, drone GPR, and bathymetric mapping each use specialized platforms with different operational requirements.

Service type (LiDAR, GPR, thermal, sonar)
Required accuracy class
Ground control point setup
Flight altitude and overlap requirements
📦
Deliverable Format & Timeline

What you need at the end affects how long processing takes. A classified LiDAR point cloud with encroachment reports takes more time than a raw orthomosaic — and a 36-hour rush costs more than standard 72-hour turnaround.

Output formats (LAS, GeoTIFF, DXF, PDF)
Classification and analysis requirements
Standard (72hr) vs rush (36hr) turnaround
Reporting and compliance documentation
01
Tell Us Your Project

Fill out the quote form or call us. Site size, service needed, and your timeline — that's all we need to start.

02
We Scope It

We review your requirements and put together a detailed proposal within one business day. No vague estimates.

03
You Approve

Fixed price, clear deliverables, confirmed timeline. No surprises. You know exactly what you're getting before we fly.

04
We Deliver

Data in your hands within 72 hours standard. Rush processing available. Formats ready for your GIS, CAD, or reporting workflow.

Most projects are quoted within one business day. There's no obligation and no sales pressure — just an honest number for your specific job.

Where We Work

Nationwide Coverage.
We Come to You.

Northern Drone operates across the United States with full mobile deployment capability. Headquartered in West Fargo, ND — we regularly serve clients throughout the Midwest, Great Plains, and beyond. Your site, wherever it is.

Headquarters — West Fargo, ND
Active service area — all 50 states
50
States Served
We
Come to You
Full Mobile Deployment
1
Business Day to Quote
Start a Mission

Ready to
fly?

Tell us about your project. We scope, plan, and fly — you get actionable data in 24 hours.

What We Offer

Our Services

Six specialist service lines. Purpose-built equipment. Certified pilots. Ready to deploy anywhere in the United States.

Service 01

Agricultural Surveys

Precision agriculture starts with accurate data. We deploy multispectral and thermal cameras to capture crop health indices, canopy temperatures, and biomass estimates across fields of any size. NDVI and NDRE maps let you target inputs exactly where they're needed — irrigation, fertiliser, pesticide — cutting waste and improving yield.

Compatible with all major farm management platforms. Data delivered as GIS-ready rasters.

SensorsMultispectral, Thermal IR, RGB
IndicesNDVI, NDRE, SAVI, EVI
Coverage1,000+ acres/day
DeliverablesOrthos, rasters, KMZ, SHP
Service 02

Telecom Inspections

Tower climbs are expensive, slow, and dangerous. Our drone-based inspection service captures high-resolution imagery of cell towers, antennas, and transmission infrastructure — delivering detailed defect reports without a single person at height.

We document structural issues, corrosion, antenna alignment, and cable routing with 4K zoom and thermal imaging. Formatted for carrier and tower company workflows.

Camera4K Zoom, 30× optical
Thermal640×512 IR sensor
ThroughputUp to 8 structures/day
ReportAnnotated PDF + imagery
Service 03

Solar Farm Analysis

A single underperforming string can quietly drain revenue for years. Our thermal drone surveys identify hotspots, bypass diode failures, soiling, shading, and delamination across utility-scale and commercial solar installations — while the array keeps generating.

Panel-level fault maps and severity rankings delivered for your O&M workflow.

SensorRadiometric thermal IR
ResolutionPanel-level fault detection
CoverageMulti-MW per day
ReportFault maps, severity ranks
Service 04

LiDAR Mapping

Our airborne LiDAR systems generate dense 3D point clouds that penetrate vegetation canopy to capture bare-earth terrain at centimetre-level accuracy — where photogrammetry alone falls short. Indispensable for corridor surveys, flood modelling, forestry inventories, and engineering design.

Accuracy±2–5 cm vertical
Point DensityUp to 300 pts/m²
OutputsLAS/LAZ, GeoTIFF, DXF
CanopyFull penetration to bare earth
Service 05

Drone-Based GPR

Ground-penetrating radar from the air removes the need to send crews into hazardous, contaminated, or inaccessible terrain. Our drone-mounted GPR systems map sub-surface utilities, voids, buried infrastructure, and geological features across wide areas — safely and rapidly.

Frequency250 MHz – 1 GHz
Depth RangeUp to 5m (soil-dependent)
Use CasesUtilities, voids, geotechnical
Flight Altitude1–3m AGL (terrain-following)
Service 06

Bathymetric Surveys

Our sonar-equipped drone and USV platforms are built for flooded quarry pits, mine voids, retention ponds, and waterways — delivering exact pit geometry, water volumes, and sediment accumulation data critical for dewatering planning, reclamation permitting, and extraction decisions. No dive crew, no boat, no operational downtime.

SonarSingle & multi-beam
Min. Depth0.1 m (very shallow)
OutputsDepth charts, DEM, volumes
StandardsIHO S-44 compatible
Who We Are

Built in the Field.
For the Field.

Northern Drone was founded in 2019 on a simple idea — that aerial survey and inspection work should be done by people who actually understand the industries they're serving. Not generalists with a drone and a camera, but operators who know what a utility company needs from a LiDAR corridor run, what a quarry operator is looking for in a bathymetric report, and why GPR altitude matters to within a meter.

Every service we offer comes from real field experience — thousands of hours in the air, across dozens of industries, in conditions that demand precision. We operate across the United States and come to your site, wherever that is.

2,400+
Missions Completed
6
Service Lines
97%
Data Accuracy Rate
72hr
Std. Turnaround
Our Values

What Drives Every Decision

01
Accuracy First

Every dataset is held to rigorous QA standards before it leaves our hands. We don't deliver data we wouldn't stake our reputation on.

02
Safety Always

FAA Part 107 certified. $5M commercial liability insurance. COA/waiver-capable for restricted airspace. Safety is non-negotiable on every mission.

03
Right Tool for the Job

We invest in purpose-built sensors for each service line — not consumer drones repurposed as industrial platforms.

04
Client First

We work alongside your team. Our reports integrate with your GIS, CAD, and farm management software — not the other way around.

The People

Meet the Team

🧑‍✈️
Cody Hedstrom
Founder & Chief Pilot

Cody founded Northern Drone in 2019 after a decade working in aerial survey and inspection. Since then he's logged over 3,000 tower inspections, 80,000+ agricultural acres, 100+ miles of transmission corridor, drone GPR surveys across hazardous terrain, and bathymetric mapping of flooded quarry pits — the kind of varied field time that makes a real difference in how a mission gets planned and executed. FAA Part 107 certified, fully insured, and still flying every job that matters.

FAA Part 107LiDARThermal IRGPR
🔬
Data Processing Lead
Geomatics Specialist

Specialist in post-processing LiDAR, photogrammetry, and hyperspectral data. Ensures every deliverable meets geodetic accuracy standards and client specifications.

GISPix4DArcGIS
📡
Ryan Clayton
Field Operations — Inspection Specialist

With over 12 years of field operations experience, Ryan has managed multiple large-scale survey and inspection projects across a range of industries. His hands-on expertise ensures every mission runs safely, on schedule, and to spec — from initial site assessment through final data handoff.

FAA Part 107Thermal IR
Cody Hedstrom
Founder & Chief Pilot

FAA Part 107 certified pilot and founder of Northern Drone LLC. Cody built Northern Drone to bring industrial-grade aerial survey and inspection capabilities to clients across the United States — from powerline LiDAR and bathymetric quarry surveys to precision ag and drone GPR.

FAA Part 107LiDARThermal IRGPR
FAA Part 107Thermal IR

* Replace with real team details, photos, and bios. Personal introductions significantly improve trust with new clients.

Let's Talk

Get a Quote

Tell us about your project. We'll scope it and come back within one business day.

Start Your
Mission

Whether you have a detailed brief or just an idea of what you need — we're happy to talk it through and build the right scope together.

📧
Emailinfo@northerndrone.com
📞
Phone+1 (218) 556-6031
📍
OperationsMobile across the United States
⏱️
Response TimeWithin 1 business day
Certified & Insured
  • FAA Part 107 Certified
  • $2M+ Aviation Liability Insurance
  • COA/Waiver-Capable for Restricted Airspace
  • Fully Mobile — We Come to You
Request a Free Quote
Request Received!

We'll review your details and be in touch within one business day with a scoped proposal.

Common Questions

FAQ

What areas do you operate in?
We operate across the United States with full mobile deployment capability. We travel to your site — no need to be near a major centre. For multi-site projects, we coordinate logistics to keep costs efficient.
Are your pilots certified and insured?
Yes. All pilots hold FAA Part 107 certification and we carry $2M+ commercial aviation liability insurance on every mission. Certificates of insurance can be provided directly to your project team or safety officer on request.
How long does it take to receive data?
Standard turnaround is 72 hours or less from survey completion. Rush processing delivers within 36 hours for time-critical projects. Large complex datasets (full LiDAR classification, large-area bathymetrics) may extend to 5 days — always confirmed upfront.
What file formats do you deliver?
We match formats to your workflow. Common outputs: GeoTIFF, LAS/LAZ, SHP, KMZ, DXF, PDF reports. Tell us what platform you use (ArcGIS, QGIS, AutoCAD, AgLeader, etc.) and we'll format accordingly.
Can you fly in restricted or controlled airspace?
Yes. We are capable of obtaining Certificates of Authorization (COAs) and waivers from FAA for restricted or controlled airspace operations, including near airports, over populated areas, and beyond visual line of sight.
How do I get a quote?
Fill out the form above — as much or as little detail as you have. We'll respond within one business day with a scoped proposal or follow-up questions to help us build the right plan for your project.
Our Work

Project Portfolio

Real deliverables from real missions. Every image below is data we collected, processed, and delivered to a client — this is what precision aerial intelligence actually looks like.

LiDAR vegetation encroachment
LiDAR — Utility / Vegetation Management
Powerline Vegetation Encroachment Survey

A transmission line operator needed to identify trees and vegetation growing within critical clearance zones along a multi-mile corridor. Our LiDAR platform flew the full route and produced a classified point cloud separating ground, low vegetation, and tall vegetation — pinpointing every encroachment risk before a single field crew was dispatched.

ServiceCorridor LiDAR
DeliverableClassified point cloud
ClientUtility / Power company
OutputLAS, encroachment report
LiDAR powerline sag bridge
LiDAR — Infrastructure / Clearance Analysis
Powerline Sag & Railroad Bridge Clearance

Elevation-classified point cloud of a railroad bridge crossing showing exact conductor sag geometry and structure-to-ground clearances across the full span. The rainbow-colored elevation data gave the client a precise, measurable 3D model of the crossing — replacing estimates with engineering-grade measurements.

ServiceInfrastructure LiDAR
DeliverableElevation point cloud
ClientUtility / Rail
OutputLAS, clearance analysis
Pre-construction elevation model
LiDAR — Engineering / Pre-Construction
Pre-Construction 3D Elevation Model

Full DTM with white contour lines and feature mapping (drainage channels in red, boundaries in yellow) captured before ground was broken on a development site. The engineering team used the data for accurate cut/fill volume calculations, drainage planning, and grade design — avoiding costly surprises during construction.

ServiceLiDAR + DTM
Deliverable3D elevation model
ClientConstruction / Engineering
OutputDTM, contours, GeoTIFF