Austin, Texas – Surveying And Mapping (SAM, Inc.), a provider of geospatial data solutions, entered into an agreement with Corporate Aircraft Solutions, also known as Oasis Services, for the exclusive use of a rotary wing aircraft as a platform for airborne LiDAR deployment.

The aircraft, a Bell 206L-1 helicopter, is based near SAM, Inc. headquarters in Austin and will allow the company to more efficiently cover a wider geographic range. The exclusive use of the helicopter under its agreement with Oasis now gives SAM, Inc. complete flexibility for tasking an aircraft to perform airborne LiDAR scanning services.

According to SAM, Inc. founder and president, Sam Hanna, RPLS, "We're really excited by having the exclusive use of this helicopter. In addition to having more control over our scheduling, the central location will help reduce mobilization costs within the region. We think this will open up a whole new set of options for some of our clients."

Features of the Bell aircraft include the ability to mount the LiDAR scanning system internally, rather than suspended below the aircraft, for enhanced airworthiness. The seven-seat aircraft will be licensed for air passenger service, adding another option for clients.

For airborne work, SAM, Inc. uses the Trimble Harrier 68i scanner, with a very high rate of data capture, extremely dense data capture, a wide field-of-view and an integrated 60-megapixel digital frame camera. In addition to the scanning hardware, the firm has also recently invested $2 million in network improvements, tripling storage capacity, increasing network bandwidth tenfold, enhancing offsite data recovery services and implementing new data hosting options for clients.