You're not buying a highlight reel. A weekly progress ortho is a dated, measurable map of the job. Your superintendent uses it the same way they use a daily report: to see what moved, what got poured, and where the site is starting to fight itself.
You're hiring an aircraft operation, not a photographer. The aircraft is just the capture method. What you pay for is a repeatable map you can stack week over week.
What a progress ortho is
An orthomosaic (ortho) is a stitched, nadir (straight-down) image of the site, corrected so scale is consistent across the frame. You can measure off it, overlay it on the site plan, and toggle last Thursday against this Thursday without walking the pad.
A marketing flyover is a different product. It looks good in a board deck. It does not tell you whether the south haul road is still holding, how many decks got poured, or whether the stockpile you paid to move actually moved.
Typical progress mapping is flown at a ground sample distance (GSD) of about 2 to 5 cm per pixel. That's enough to read a pour line, a trench, a parked mixer, and a washed-out swale. Tighter GSD, around 1 to 2 cm, is more common when you also want earthwork volumes. Those are typical industry ranges, not a promise from any one operator. Ask for the GSD in the quote.
What your superintendent actually gets
Cut/fill trend, not a one-off volume
A single volume shot is a snapshot. A weekly ortho plus a surface model is a trend. You can see whether the mass haul is catching the schedule or whether the same cut is being recut because the grade wasn't held.
You're not replacing the surveyor on a pay-quantity. You're giving the super a weekly check against the grading plan. If you need volumes, ask for a DSM or point cloud in the project coordinate system, plus a cut/fill comparison to design or last week.
Progress mapping and survey mapping are not the same bid. If you will pay a dirt contractor from the drone surface, you need control, checkpoints, and a scope that says so. Ask for accuracy as a method (RTK/PPK, ground control, checkpoints), not as a slogan.
Pour count and slab progress
On a vertical job, the weekly map is a pour log you can see. Which decks are in. Which pads are stripped. Whether the south wing is actually a week behind. Mark it up in Bluebeam or drop the GeoTIFF into the tools you already use for RFIs. That's more useful in an OAC meeting than a fly-through of the tower crane.
Haul roads, laydown, and site circulation
Haul roads fail quietly. They rut, pond, and get pinched by a new laydown, then the next truck cycle adds ten minutes. A weekly nadir map shows gates, wash rack, crane pads, trailer farm, fire lane, and the path the dirt is actually taking. You also get a dated picture of the yard: the steel landed, or it didn't. That's logistics, not photography.
A record when weather or a claim shows up
Storm hits Friday. Monday someone asks what the site looked like. A dated ortho is a condition record. Same for a disputed pour line or a haul route that cut across a protected area. You're keeping a visual log with a date stamp, not building a legal brief.
What this is not
Don't hire a weekly ortho if what you want is a cinematic site video, a one-time "before" shot with no follow-up, or a stamped topographic survey. Video can ride along on the same mobilization. Don't let it become the deliverable. The map is the deliverable.
How to hire for a weekly ortho
Write the scope like a repeating field operation. Same flight path. Same altitude. Same deliverable. Same weekday when weather allows.
Operator checklist
- Current FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate. Commercial flight in the U.S. requires it. Ask for the certificate number.
- Certificate of insurance. Many GCs ask for $1 million commercial general liability, with the GC and owner as additional insureds, plus aviation / unmanned aircraft coverage. Use your risk team's minimums, not the pilot's default.
- Airspace plan. If the site sits under controlled airspace, the operator files LAANC or works an ATC path before they show up. Confirm they will. Need the law on LAANC? dronelaws.us.
- Repeatable capture. Same grid, overlap, and altitude every week. If the framing jumps around, you can't compare weeks.
- Processing, not just flying. Someone has to stitch, georeference, and export. Ask who does that and how fast.
Deliverable checklist
Put the file formats in the PO. Typical progress packages include:
- Georeferenced GeoTIFF ortho in the project coordinate system (State Plane or the datum your civil set uses). This is the file your PE and BIM lead can open.
- A web ortho or compressed JPEG/PNG for the people who will never open a GIS file. Owner, lender, Monday meeting.
- Date, site name, and GSD on the file or in the filename.
- Optional: DSM or point cloud if you want cut/fill. Optional: a short annotated PDF for the OAC packet.
Ask for turnaround in writing. A common window is 24 to 48 hours from wheels-down to files in your project folder. Faster is fine. "Sometime next week" is not a weekly program.
Cadence and weather slip
Weekly is the usual rhythm on an active civil or vertical site. Biweekly is enough when the site is slow. Daily is rare and usually reserved for a short critical window, such as a complex foundation or a post-storm reset.
Weather will slip flights. Write the slip rule now:
- Rain, standing water on the lens, or winds above the aircraft limit cancel the flight.
- The operator proposes the next flyable slot the same week, not "we'll catch it next cycle."
- If they miss the week, you still get a dated note so the time series doesn't look like a hole.
- Low sun and long shadows late in the day make a worse map. Morning or midday is the default.
Don't pay for a flight that can't produce a usable ortho. Do pay for the operator to come back.
What to put in the RFP
Keep it short:
- Site address, approx. acres, and the active work area (not the whole parcel if you don't need it).
- Weekly or biweekly, preferred weekday, and the weather-slip rule.
- Deliverables: GeoTIFF ortho plus a web ortho. Add DSM or point cloud if you want cut/fill.
- Coordinate system and any existing control you can share, or say you expect RTK/PPK and will discuss checkpoints.
- Where to drop files (Procore, ACC, a shared drive).
- Part 107 proof, COI with additional insureds, and who files airspace.
- Start date and expected duration (earthwork only, through topping out, or through closeout).
If you don't have a pilot yet, search the directory by state or post that RFP on findadronepilot.com. You hire the operator directly. There's no broker in the middle and no commission on the job.
Start with the map, not the reel
Your superintendent already has more photos than they can file. What they don't have is one dated, measurable view of the whole site, every week, in the same frame.
Hire for that. Part 107, COI, GeoTIFF plus a web ortho, a weekday cadence, and a weather slip. Then put the files where the Monday meeting can open them.
Search Part 107 pilots by state, or post the RFP, at findadronepilot.com.