A friend has asked if I'd be able to help with a special project at his church.  They need some photos take all around the steeple to solicit quotes for some much needed repair work.  Part of the problem is that there are power lines right in front of the building.

Other than the obvious (don't bump into them), what kind of concerns / warnings would you all offer?  Will they cause communication problems with the aircraft (a Phantom 3 pro).  I'm new to this, and won't attempt until I'm confident in my flight skills.  

This link shows a Google Street View of the church, right in the middle of downtown Utica.

https://www.google.com/maps/@43.09899,-75.234208,3a,90y,204.36h,121.87t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sgD9FnaaCgoqfdxaf7NLzjw!2e0

How many of you would try this?  
Thoughts?
Comments?
Any other concerns I should keep in mind?

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Friends and projects come out of no where when people discover you have a drone.  :-)

I've flown to within 50 feet of the high tension lines and a lot closer to the power lines on the telephone poles and no problems.  I wouldn't go flying under them,

I'd fly that, but it would be early on a Saturday morning. Take off from the grassy plot next to the church and judge how the wind is at altitude.

As far as the front of the steeple, doing a straight up slow climb from the side up to the the steeple spire. The front should be accessible above the power lines, just rotate around to the church front, then elevate to the top, one more rotation to the left side and one slow drop .

From the view above the power lines to the top of the spire, should take you a good 30-45 seconds.

Land the Phantom and view the video to see what you missed. You want the sun behind you so from what I discern from the map, the grassy side of the church should be the east.

Also, don't think that you need to be up close on the building to get good shots. You can get good enough images from up to 20 feet away.  I would go find a practice building (like a barn) in the country and test how far away you can be to get good detail shots.  You will be focusing on going around an object, so you really have to be mindful of the copters orientation, it's easy to loose track and pull the stick left when you needed to go right.  Set a tin can in a big field and practice going around it while keeping the camera pointed at the can.

My thanks to everyone for the wonderful suggestions.  Much appreciated.

Here's a link to part of the final result.  I have the full high resolution imagery on DVD for my friend.  He was beside me as I shot this, giving direction about exactly what viewing angles were of most interest to him.  There's a chance we may go back and get a couple more shots.  If that happens, I'll be sure to let you all know.



This simple project saved the church hundreds and hundreds (thousands?) of dollars.  Their only other option was to get a crane in to be able to get close up views of some of these areas.  The project was complicated by safety standards which would have involve the electric company because of the power lines.

Thanks again