so ive been doing cell tower inspections for about 8 months now and im still not fully happy with my workflow. currently running a Mavic 3 Enterprise with the tele lens and its fine for mid-range stuff but when the client wants to see actual corrosion detail on mounting hardware up around 250-300 feet i feel like im always pushing the limits of what the camera can resolve at a safe standoff distance.

the issue is obviously you dont want to get too close to the tower structure itself because of the RF interference messing with your signal and also just the physical risk of a crash at that height. ive had one close call already where the bird started acting weird near the antenna array, think it was compass interference, had to switch to atti mode real quick and that was not a fun few seconds.

some guys ive talked to swear by the Autel EVO II Pro for this kind of work, others say just get a Zenmuse H20T on a M300 and be done with it. but thats a big investment jump. curious what setups people are actually using day to day for telecom and tower work specifically, not just generic commercial stuff

M300 with H20T is honestly the answer if you're doing this regularly and billing it properly. yeah the upfront cost is rough but the hybrid zoom on that camera is just in a different league for picking out corrosion, cracked welds, whatever. you can stay 30-40 feet out and still get documentation quality shots that hold up for engineering reports. the RF shielding on the M300 is also noticeably better, ive flown that thing next to active arrays that would have had my Mavic doing cartwheels.

that said if you cant justify the cost yet, one thing that helped me before i upgraded was flying a pre-planned orbit at a fixed altitude and just doing multiple passes at slightly different standoff distances rather than trying to nail it in one pass. takes longer but you get more usable frames

not a tower guy specifically but i do a lot of rooftop HVAC and industrial chimney work and the compass interference thing is real, ive learned to always do a manual compass cal on site before any job near heavy steel structures. probably something you already know but also disabling return-to-home and just planning your manual abort path before you even take off makes those atti mode moments way less stressful because you already know where youre going