Idaho · Treasure Valley · Est. 2026
We find what fails before it fails.
Vertical Recon is a calibrated inspection and documentation company. Thermal and visual. Ground and air. Every reading measured, every report built to hold up.
- Sensor payload
- Thermal + 48 MP RGB
- one visit, both records
- Aircraft thermal sensor
- 640 × 512
- radiometric
- Spectral band
- 8–14 µm
- longwave infrared
- Pilot
- Part 107
- FAA certificated
- Region
- Intermountain West
- based in the Treasure Valley
What goes unseen
The failures that cost the most are the ones nobody can see.
A canal losing water through its bank. A connection running hot behind a closed panel door. Moisture trapped under a roof membrane. Each is invisible on a walk-through and plain to a calibrated thermal camera. Each is expensive by the time it announces itself.
Found early, each one is a numbered line on a register: a location, a temperature difference and a verification flag. That is a repair order, not an incident.
Sample deliverable
| ID | Station | ΔT °C | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| ANOM-01 | 14+20 | 3.1 | Verify |
| ANOM-02 | 19+60 | 2.4 | Verify |
| ANOM-03 | 26+40 | 4.2 | Verify |
Why the flight is at dawn
Wait for the sun to stop lying.
Through the day the sun loads every surface unevenly. Aspect, shadow and material all push temperature around. A thermal image taken at noon records the weather as much as the asset.
By first light that load has gone. What is left is the difference the water makes. Ground holding moisture gives up its heat more slowly than the dry ground beside it. So a seepage face or a saturated roof reads warmer than its surroundings. Fly then, and the contrast you record is the condition.
- Flight window · ΔT attributable to the condition
Watch · 2:03
Vertical Recon — calibrated inspection, in two minutes
What separates a report you can cite from a folder of photographs: method, a baseline and a stated limit. The company, in one continuous flight.
Transcript
Inspection is easy to buy and hard to rely on.
Anyone can take pictures. That's not what we do. What separates a report you can cite from a folder of photographs is method, a baseline and a stated limit. Vertical Recon is a calibrated inspection and documentation company. Thermal and visual. Ground and air.
A canal losing water through its bank. A connection running hot behind a closed panel door. Moisture trapped under a roof membrane. Each is invisible on a walk-through and plain to a calibrated thermal camera. Each is expensive by the time it announces itself.
A thermal image is easy to fake and easy to misread. We calibrate our cameras, work in the conditions the method depends on, and follow published methods like ASTM C1153 and NFPA 70B. That discipline is the difference between a picture and a measurement.
Ours are built to stand up when a contractor disputes a finding, an adjuster questions a claim, or a decision ends up in front of a lawyer. We document what we measured, how, and under what conditions. So the report answers questions instead of raising them.
Before we quote, we tell you plainly what this inspection can prove and what it can't. A thermal roof scan finds probable wet insulation; confirming it takes a core sample. Honest limits are part of a report you can trust.
Every inspection we do becomes a reference point. You can see whether a canal leak is spreading, a wet roof area is growing, or a repair actually held. One inspection tells you the situation today. A baseline tells you the trend.
We're owner-operated and based in Boise. Mobilized across the Intermountain West. The person who scopes your job is the person who performs it and signs the report. No rotating crew, no hand-off to someone who never saw your site. And we'll be here next year to inspect it again.
Bring the asset you are least sure about. Talk to the person who'll do the work. Vertical Recon. Calibrated to defend.
Why a second flight
Every flight becomes your baseline, so the next one shows what changed.
One capture tells you the condition today. Two tell you the rate. The flight plan, altitude and overlap are recorded with the deliverable. A re-flight covers the same ground the same way, so the comparison means something.
Standing method · every service
What we inspect
Seven inspections. One instrument standard.
- 01 Canal seepage thermography Find where a reach is losing water, stationed and mapped.
- 02 Electrical & industrial thermal inspection Hot connections and failing bearings, found under load.
- 03 Roofing Condition from above, trapped moisture from within.
- 04 Construction progress documentation A dated, georeferenced record of what was actually built.
- 05 Mapping & 3D modeling Photogrammetric orthomosaics, surface models and volumes.
- 06 Solar Underperforming modules and connection faults, module by module.
- 07 Agriculture Where a field differs from itself, in visible light and thermal.
Who we serve
Written for the people responsible for the asset.
- 01 irrigation districts and canal companies Reach, station, acre-feet and who signs. Locating conveyance loss well enough to spend a lining budget on it.
- 02 facility and plant management Two differences per anomaly, severity classified, audit-ready — and the roof on the same mobilization.
- 03 general contractors, owners and lenders Draws, percent complete and work that gets buried. A dated record three parties can read from.
- 04 property management Condition assessment, CapEx and preventive maintenance across a portfolio, on a cycle you can compare year to year.
- 05 food, dairy and agricultural processing Electrical under load, planned around your food-safety program, your contractor rules and your production schedule.
Where we work
Based in the Treasure Valley. Mobilized across the Intermountain West.
A thermal window at dawn is short and does not wait. The flight is planned around the window, here or on a scheduled trip. The method does not change with the distance. Only the calendar does.
Service areasNext step · One asset
Start with one asset.
We reply within one business day.