Looking For Signs Of Old Activity Using Electric RC Planes/Onboard Cameras & Some Other Unique Ideas To Spy Hints Of Foundations Under Grass

[Critterhunter]

Check out a few of these pictures below, and if that wets your appetite then check out this link to the Sovereign forum on Findmall for more on that, as well as some other unique ideas such as a discussion about using drought or frost to see the outlines of old foundations under the grass the old fashion way by eye still standing on mother earth...

http://www.findmall.com/read.php?21,1772648

 

[samuel_schumaker]

THats cool, but in my area, all old home sites are located on the old plat maps, but, my county isnt all that old compared to other places across the eastern half of the country. I can see where this would be usefull if you dont have old enough maps

 

[vx3 man]

Plat maps are where its at for us in Illinois,I got one from a old farmer its from the 20s and it shows schools,churches,as well as homes

 

[Critterhunter]

Far as I know plat maps don't show some of the older stuff, or every one of the structures on a property that came and went over time, but I haven't read heavily into it so I could be wrong about that. Eyes on the ground or in the air might find you some old foundations you never knew were there. Plus, you can see signs of other things with a bird's eye view such as the slight wear/depression in the ground to indicate an old trail or road that can be almost impossible to see standing right on top of it. Stuff like that sticks out when you've got a higher perspective on it. Even the change in the tree canopy with the slightly lower height of younger trees in a straight line from the surrounding trees can indicate where an old trail use to be, long since grown over by the forest. That could be harder to spy by eye walking through the woods, but a distinct line of canopy might be seen from an aerial perspective.

I remember a few years back I was watching some documentary on TV and they were trying to locate an old path used to run cattle long since lost to history. They used a bird's eye view and the slight depression from wear from the surrounding ground was obvious from that perspective.

 

[Ed in SoDak]

Google Earth works well enough to spot foundations and other "anomalies." It also has the advanthae that you can rotate and tilt it to view it from different angles rather than just the angle the RC plane happened to be traveling. It has views from different years and that helps track changes over time.

I spotted a couple things that looked like abandoned sheds, When we went to the spot, we found some discarded box springs from an old bed. I guess that's about the max resolution you might see. We did mark off a couple foundation-lloking objects, one turned out to be a rock ledge, the other is a full rectangle, but we haven't made it out to that spot yet to check.

Anyway, you can do similar "fly-overs"of most anywhere from your computer in the dead of winter or in weather too uncomfortable to hunt in, log the coordinates and visit them when you get around to it.

-Ed

 

[fowlercharles]

Hi Critterhunter, You are absolutely right about your thinking. Do some Googles on Archaeology and Aerial Photography. The Archies have been doing it for years, especially in the UK. I have gained all manner of info on river crossings, really old roads, and in one case what could only have been an ancient huge gardening/crop plot associated with early American Indian Settlement we were trying to locate. The Archies have it down to a science.They can tell you what to look for in the aerials to put you onto the past activities, but what really makes it come together is to have an area that has not seen many many years of modern activity.It only takes one season or less for new activity or "Progress" to step in and cover a site with a new whatever.My crop plot had never been distured and I only acquired one good aerial of it , as the next aerials I was able to find showed the whole area had been plowed and planted with Pine trees and were well on their way.Most likely now to be forever covered in Pine trees. We start with what we already have or learn from research and then hope to find some aerials over some seldom disturbed dirt/ fields/forests for the best hopes of spotting our target. I used to use an aerial site that allowed you to darken/ighten shade the pic which helped greatly in spotting the anomalies.It could also could magnify and measure distance. I did not even mention the Infra Red aerials, or whatever else that may be in play now. Very interesting and productive tools for "Gettin her dun!" HH Charlie

 

[Critterhunter]

One of the advantages to RC video/still shots is that you can get any angle on the area you want. For instance, I can fly at low elevation past a wood line and spot any opening in the canopy on the side of that wood line that might indicate an old trail opening, where as from above the tree branches/canopy might not indicate such an old trail once existed. Also, the lower angles you can view stuff at can show slight depressions or raises in the ground level to tip you off to an old foundation site or such. Despite all the great advantages to satelite (which I use too of course) images, I don't think (?) they are able to show you slight raises in the ground even when you flip the perspective sideways because it's still a picture. Even with radar images I'm not even sure if public access stuff could show you say a 3" rise or depression in the ground height from that surrounding it. I'm not knocking satelite stuff because I use it myself to scout out areas I have no intention to fly an RC plane over, but if something really interests me I can come back later and fly over with the RC and take a closer look.

You know, one of the things I have intended (but haven't done yet) to do with the RC aerial stuff is to fly over some of my hunting land on a huge expanse of old strip mine land. There are hundreds of pounds all over that place tucked away by steep cliffs and mazes of logging roads and such. Even if you spent weeks hiking around to locate many of these pounds, from one year to the next beavers make new ones or abandon dams and pounds dissapear. A quick 15 minute flight over an area and I've have up to date information on where pounds are at that would take me months to find. One of these days I'm going to do that, because the fishing is fantastic and we also jump shoot ponds for ducks and geese there. It would be nice to throw a DVD into the TV the night before and watch an RC aerial video of the place and find new ponds to jump shoot, and pick out strategies as to the best way to sneak up on them using natural blinds such as the cliff faces that are often nearby.

Some day I'm going to do that. I can launch and land my AP plane on any old dirt road wide enough to drive down, although I prefer a bit wider landing strip for peace of mind and room for mistakes. Great thing about foam though is it glues together fast. I've got these planes so crash proof with carbon spars at Tyvek tape and such anyway that they'll take a rather bad crash without damage. That's why I prefer push planes, because if they nose into the ground no damage is really done most of the time.

 

[fowlercharles]

Wow Critterhunter, Man, you got a sure nuff great research tool to work with! That is really cool being able to get in low,/different angles, and being able to peek at the situation. High. aerials give absolutely no perspective as to what the topo elements are, though with an experienced eye the higher aerials will sometimes reveal the folage anamolies/patterns better than the low pics. Even in rough or high elevations everything shows up flat as new penny.Another advantage you have is being able to get a real time pic of what a site looks like"rat now". Lol, I have walked in to some places only to find they have been dug up and hauled off, and nothing left but a big hole in the ground.You have some really exciting hunts to look forward too with your cool new tool Hammer down, and HH, Charlie