RTK-GPS Construction Setting Out

Drone Setting Out Surveys.

GPS-accurate control points and setting-out grids delivered by RTK drone, replacing days of total-station work on large UK construction sites. Get a full topographic baseline plus the ground control your site engineers need to build from.

“Every drone pilot on this network is personally vetted by me — insurance, qualifications, flight history.”

Peter Leslie · Founder & GVC Drone Pilot

Trusted by site managers & agencies across the UK

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Two engineers and a total station is the wrong answer on a 20-acre site.

Setting out large sites with ground kit alone burns days, misplaces pegs, and leaves the site manager waiting for data. RTK drones solve all three.

Total-Station Hours That Add Up

A two-person total-station crew on a 15-acre site can burn a full working week before setting-out begins. An RTK drone flies the whole site and drops geo-referenced control in a single day.

Pegs & Lines That Move

Timber pegs get knocked, buried under muck, or driven over by plant. A drone-flown topographic baseline gives you a dated, geo-referenced record you can restore control from at any point in the programme.

Site Engineers Blocked on Data

When setting-out data arrives slowly, groundworkers stand idle. A drone crew delivers coordinates and a grid overlay to site IT in hours, keeping your programme moving and your subbies billing.

Setting out isn't a drone stunt. It's a chain of custody for coordinates.

By Peter Leslie, Founder & GVC Drone Pilot

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If a drone-derived control point fails on your site, the structural engineer, the groundworks subbie, and the client all end up pointing back at you. So this work has to be done by drone operators who understand OSGB36, OSTN15, and how to prove their control against known trig points.

The drone pilots I match to setting-out work fly PPK or RTK drones with verified base stations, drop aerial targets themselves, and check their GCPs against independent ground observations before handing anything over.

The result is control your site engineers can actually build to — not a photogrammetry demo.

RTK / PPK Verified

OSGB36 & OSTN15 Aligned

Coordinates your site engineers can build from.

Three practical deliverables handed straight to your site-IT and engineering teams.

GCPs to OSGB36

Fully-referenced ground control points with eastings, northings, and orthometric heights, transformed through OSTN15 to OSGB36 ready for your engineer to load straight into a Trimble or Leica rover.

Grid Overlays

Setting-out grids overlaid on a current aerial orthomosaic of the site — ideal for muckshift planning, foundation runs, and communicating positions to subcontractors who don't read CAD.

Topographic Baseline

A full survey-grade topo of the site at project start — DTM, DSM, contours, and breaklines — for volumetrics, earthworks takeoff, and as a legal record of ground condition on day one.

Site control in 3 steps.

Go from bare plot to geo-referenced control in a working week.

Define the Site & Grid

Share your site drawings, proposed setting-out grid, and the coordinate system your engineer is working in. We match an RTK-capable drone operator to the job.

RTK Flight & Control

The drone pilot sets a verified base, drops aerial targets, flies the site, and records independent check shots against the targets to prove accuracy.

Deliver to Site IT

GCPs, grid overlays, and the topo baseline are issued as CSV, DWG, and LandXML, ready to load onto site rovers and BIM tools the same day.

Start Your Project Brief

Faster, cheaper, tighter setting out.

Housebuilders, civils contractors, and site engineers using drone-derived control on UK sites.

"Three days of total-station work became a single drone flight. Our setting-out engineer loaded the GCPs straight into his Trimble and was pegging plot corners the same afternoon. Programme saver."

Craig S.

Site Manager, Doncaster

"Check shots were within 18mm of our independent observations. That's well inside what we needed for the groundworks phase and gave our engineer genuine confidence in the drone-derived control."

Fiona McL.

Setting-Out Engineer, Aberdeen

"We use the topo baseline and grid overlay every Monday in the site meeting. Subbies can see exactly where the week's work sits on the actual ground, not a design drawing."

Paul W.

Project Manager, Cardiff

Setting Out Survey FAQ

Accuracy, coordinate systems, and how drone control ties into your site rover.

What accuracy does RTK drone control actually achieve?

With a verified base station and properly sized aerial targets, the matched drone operators deliver horizontal accuracy of 15–25mm and vertical accuracy of 25–40mm on an open site. Every drop includes independent check shots so you can see the achieved accuracy, not just the claimed accuracy.

Which coordinate systems can you deliver into?

OSGB36 horizontal with ODN heights (via OSTN15) is the default across mainland GB. We also regularly deliver into ITM for Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland projects, and into site-specific grids where an engineer has already defined one.

Can drone control really replace the site engineer?

No — and it isn't meant to. Drone control is the fastest way to establish a geo-referenced control network across a large site. Your engineer still uses a rover to set individual plot pegs, levels, and kerb lines from that network. The drone simply removes the slow part of their week.

How often should the topographic baseline be reflown?

For civils-heavy sites, a monthly re-fly gives you volumetric progress data, cut-and-fill reconciliation, and a rolling record of ground movement. Simpler housebuilding sites often only re-fly at milestone gates (strip, plateau, foundations complete). We can package repeat flights at a discount.