68
INFO TECHNOLOGY 
October 2026      AirportImprovement.com
LCQ | VDI
and overhaul shop; flight schools; and based 
operations for the state Highway Patrol and 
Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. 
Airport Director Ed Bunnell, who has run 
the field since 2009, has watched Passero 
(LCQ’s engineering consultant since 2008) 
steadily fold drones into its routine. After 
finishing a project such as a new hangar or 
milling and replacing pavement on the main 
runway, the firm typically flies the airfield to document completion 
and update master plan mapping. 
For the drainage study, Passero used remotely managed 
aircraft systems. 
“They used LiDAR-equipped drones to scan the airport and 
to see drainage topology—where the creeks were joined, where 
the drainage ditches were coming through, and how the water 
was draining across the airport,” Bunnell explains. If a bottleneck 
or an unintended dam was choking flow, the data collected by 
drones showed where to fix it.
The field crew covered more than 800 acres in a single 
day. “We had a four-person crew using our LiDAR drone and 
a GNSS/GPS base station to capture 
elevations and topography on the southern 
half of the airfield,” says Wyatt Masters, 
the Passero project engineer and certified 
drone pilot leading the effort. “Every point of 
data we collected, from treetops to inside 
a drainage pipe, was transmitted into our 
post-processing software for analysis.”
Flying a drone at the towered airport 
required coordination, not confrontation. The crew set up 
behind the FBO, programmed the coordinates to be scanned 
and worked in short windows cleared with the air traffic control 
tower. Controllers knew specifically how long Masters and his 
crew would be flying and at what altitude so they could manage 
aircraft traffic accordingly. 
The resulting dataset fed an engineering report that identified 
infrastructure deficiencies and recommended removing and 
replacing a 50-foot section of underground pipe. “Passero 
did a good job of giving us clear, reliable information without 
wasting time,” Bunnell says. “Their team worked efficiently, 
and the LiDAR study saved time in the field while giving us the 
information we needed to make sound decisions.” 
2026 | ACI-NA/ACC 
AIRPORT PLANNING
& NEPA WORKSHOP
December 2 – 4, 2026
Washington, D.C.
LEARN MORE
WYATT MASTERS
ED BUNNELL

View this content as a flipbook by clicking here.