Who turns up
One pilot, one aircraft, the phone answered by the person flying it
Why this is worth having on standby
The flying comes from a background in construction, not photography, which shows up here in an unexpected way: reading ground. Knowing which side of a hedge a dog is more likely to run along, why a frightened animal heads for cover rather than open space, or which field a search should widen into first, comes from time spent actually working outdoors across Devon, not from a manual.
Plenty of drone operators can fly. A search needs someone who will tell you straight, on the phone, before the aircraft leaves the ground, whether flying will actually help this particular search or whether the ground and the conditions mean people on foot are doing the better job right now.
The kit came out of Hembury Contracting, a Devon contracting business, and the aircraft and cameras already used for roof and site survey work turned out to be exactly what a fast, thermal-capable ground search needs. Adding a fixed-price, same-day missing dog service was a short step from equipment that already existed.
Everything is flown from Exeter, which puts most of Devon inside an hour and a good part of Cornwall, Somerset and Dorset inside two.
On the record
Registrations, kit and cover
CAA registered
Operator ID and Flyer ID held, plus the A2 Certificate of Competency, which is what allows closer, faster operation near buildings, hedges and people than the basic category allows.
Radiometric thermal
A DJI Mavic 2 Enterprise Advanced carrying a 640 by 512 thermal camera. This is the aircraft that goes up first at dawn, dusk and after dark, when a warm body shows against cooling ground.
100 megapixel daylight camera
A DJI Mavic 4 Pro with a Hasselblad camera and 6K video, for wide daylight coverage of open ground at a resolution that holds up when a distant shape needs checking properly.
Insured with Coverdrone
Full commercial cover for the operation. The certificate is available on request, without anyone having to chase for it.
DJI Mavic 4 Pro
100 megapixel Hasselblad camera and 6K video. Wide daylight coverage of open ground, hedgerows and field margins at a resolution that holds up when you crop into a distant shape to check what it actually is.
DJI Mavic 2 Enterprise Advanced
640 by 512 radiometric thermal camera alongside the visual one. Shows a warm body against cold ground or cold water in the dark, in woodland shade, and through light cover that the naked eye cannot see through.
How we work
Three things this service will not do
Promise a find
Nobody can promise that, and saying otherwise on the phone during someone's worst hour would be a cruel way to get the booking. What is offered is a competent, insured search with the right camera for the conditions.
Fly a search that will not work
Dense woodland canopy in full leaf, a dog known to be hiding and still, or weather beyond the aircraft's limits all get said plainly on the phone before anything is booked, even when it means turning the job down.
Replace the people who actually find dogs
The police, the local dog warden and DogLost-type groups do this every day and know the area's own patterns. A drone search sits alongside that work, not instead of it.
See how a search works
Fixed price, call now with Missing Dog Search
Tell us the last known location and when. Sam Hembury will come back with a fixed price and, where conditions allow, be in the air the same day.