Precision Imaging from Above
N VJ

THE COMPLETE
AERIAL IMAGING
PLATFORM

Hardware, software, and calibration — engineered as a single system for the modern aerial surveyor.

VJ Nadir — Cessna Camera Pod
VJ Orbit — Mission Planner
Test Pattern V1 — Ground Calibration
VJ TRACS — Live Airspace Board
Explore the Platform How It Works Together
Product 01
VJ
NADIR
Cessna Camera Pod System

A wing strut-mounted, fully gimbaled camera pod for Cessna 172, 182, and 206 series aircraft. Clamps to the interplane strut in under 15 minutes — no airframe modifications, no drilling. The 3-axis active gimbal isolates the sensor from all aircraft movement: vibration, turbulence, pitch, roll, and yaw have zero effect on image geometry.

  • Cessna 172 / 182 / 206 wing strut clamp — tool-free install and removal
  • 3-axis active gimbal — ±30° pitch/roll, ±180° yaw — maintains true nadir lock
  • IMU-coupled stabilization: rejects turbulence, prop vibration, and coordinated turns
  • Accepts Sony Alpha, Phase One iXM, and Micasense Altum sensor families
  • Heated enclosure — certified to −30°C operation
  • Shutter trigger sync via VJ Orbit — ±5 ms precision regardless of aircraft heading
  • Gimbal holds nadir lock through standard coordinated turns between flight lines
  • Power: 12V aircraft bus via strut-routed cable — 34W including gimbal motors
  • Weight: 2.4 kg including gimbal and optics
Request Nadir Specs →
CESSNA WING LOWER SURFACE STRUT QUICK-CLAMP TOOL-FREE 3-AXIS GIMBAL ±30° PITCH/ROLL IMU NADIR LOCK GROUND FOOTPRINT TERRAIN-CORRECTED VIA DEM 12V
Product 02
VJ
ORBIT
Intelligent Aerial Mission Planning & Coverage System

Import a KML polygon, compute optimized flight lines, then fly. VJ Orbit continuously computes actual camera footprints in real time using a pre-cached DEM — accounting for terrain variation and off-axis flight. Stray off a flight line? Every frame is still captured and projected. When you land, Orbit shows you exactly what was covered and where the gaps are.

  • KML polygon import — paste or load, flight lines computed instantly
  • GSD-locked altitude: enter target GSD, Orbit solves for altitude over terrain
  • Pre-cached DEM integration — camera footprint computed per-frame using actual ground elevation
  • Off-line-of-flight capture: every shutter trigger inside the AOI adds to coverage, regardless of heading
  • Live coverage heatmap — green (covered), amber (marginal overlap), red (gap) — updated in real time
  • Persistent gap tracking — missed areas stay flagged until a subsequent pass covers them
  • Re-fly path generator — at end of mission, computes minimum additional flight lines for gap fill
  • VJ Nadir gimbal-aware footprint: accounts for true sensor orientation from gimbal telemetry
  • Integrated Test Pattern waypoint at mission start — calibration before first AOI frame
  • Export: KML coverage, GeoTIFF footprint mosaic, Pix4D / Agisoft project files
  • Runs on iPad, Windows, and macOS — works offline with cached map tiles and DEM
Request Early Access →
VJ ORBIT · LIVE COVERAGE · MISSION ACTIVE KML BOUNDARY LIVE FOOTPRINT CAL WPT COMPLETED ✓ STATUS ALT 887 m GSD (DEM) 7.1 cm OVERLAP F/S 76 / 64% GIMBAL NADIR LOCK P:+0.4° R:-0.2° COVERAGE COVERED 64% MARGINAL 14% GAP 22% OFF-LINE CAP. 7% ⚠ GAP ALERT 3 areas below min 65% overlap VIEW GAPS DEM SOURCE SRTM 30m CACHED ✓ IMAGES 218 / ~340 RE-FLY PATH COVERED MARGINAL GAP OFF-LINE
Product 03
TEST
PATTERN
V1
Aerial Ground Calibration Target

The physical ground truth instrument the entire VJ Aerial system is built around. 24×36 inches of precision-printed reference data — GSD grids, color patches, grayscale ramp, fiducials, and scale bar, all sized for resolvability at your target GSD.

  • GSD checker grids: 7 cm, 10 cm, and 20 cm square sizes
  • 24 color reference patches — each minimum 7 cm wide × 10 cm tall
  • 8-step linear grayscale ramp, 0→255
  • 4 corner fiducials + center nadir target
  • Physical scale bar — 100 cm in 10 cm increments
  • VJ Orbit integration — auto-waypointed at mission start
  • 24×36" matte print, rigid mount — field deployable in 60 seconds
Download Print Files →
VJ VJ Aerial Test Pattern VERSION 1 GRID A — 10 CM SQUARES GRID B — 7 CM SQUARES GRAYSCALE RAMP COLOR REFERENCE PATCHES 0 50 cm 100 cm SW·B1 SE·B2 DO NOT SCALE · PRINT 100% ACTUAL SIZE
Product 04
VJ
TRACS
Live Airspace Status Board

Sweep any area of sky and see who's in it. TRACS queries the Flightradar24 API for every aircraft inside your mission area, then lets you pick which contacts belong on your status board — callsign, altitude, speed, track, and squawk, refreshed live while the imaging mission runs.

  • Area sweep — every aircraft inside your bounds, discovered in one pass
  • Pick your traffic — one tap adds a discovered contact to the status board
  • Live board: callsign, registration, type, altitude & trend, GS, track, squawk
  • Follows boarded aircraft by registration even after they leave the scan area
  • Emergency squawk alerting — 7500 / 7600 / 7700 flagged instantly
  • Signal-loss & staleness detection with clear board states
  • 85,000-airport database on the map — runways, frequencies, elevation per field
  • Self-hosted service (server-held FR24 key) or plain browser with your own key
  • Demo mode with simulated traffic — try it with no key at all
Launch VJ TRACS →
VJ TRACS · AREA SWEEP · 6 CONTACTS SCAN AREA N540KD CAP4231 N172SP SWA1943 N9134L N66103 ↗OUT STATUS BOARD CAP4231 AIRBORNE C182T · N540KD 4,500 ft ↑ · 128 kt · 245° N172SP AIRBORNE C172S · SQ 1200 2,300 ft → · 96 kt · 310° N9134L ON GROUND PA28 · KPAO 0 ft · 8 kt · taxi N66103 SQ 7700 C206 · EMERGENCY 3,100 ft ↓ · 105 kt · 095° SWA1943 NO SIGNAL B737 · last 38,000 ft seen 4 min ago DISCOVERED N540KD · C182T + ADD UAL233 · B777 + ADD FR24 LIVE · REFRESH 30 s
The Ecosystem

FOUR PRODUCTS.
ONE SYSTEM.

Each product is useful alone. Together they form a closed loop — from mission planning to calibrated imagery — that no other platform delivers. And while the loop runs, VJ TRACS keeps the airspace picture live.

01
VJ ORBIT
Mission Planner
Plan the flight. Set the GSD. Auto-waypoint the calibration target. Sync to VJ Nadir.
02
VJ NADIR
Camera Pod
Mount to Cessna. Receive trigger sync. Capture nadir imagery over the calibration target, then the AOI.
03
TEST PAT.
Calibration Target
Deploy on the ground. The Nadir flies over it first. GSD, color, and geometry — all locked before the mission AOI.
04 · Overwatch
VJ TRACS
Runs alongside the whole loop — sweeps the mission area for live traffic via FR24, and keeps every aircraft you choose on a live status board from engine start to shutdown.
Launch →
Result:  Calibrated, georeferenced, spectrally-accurate aerial imagery — from first frame to final deliverable.
Why VJ Aerial

NOTHING
ELSE COMES CLOSE

Capability VJ Aerial Drone platforms DIY / ad-hoc Enterprise aerial
Cessna-native camera mount✓ Purpose-built✗ Wrong platform✗ ImprovisedProprietary only
Physical GSD calibration target✓ Engineered✗ None✗ UnmeasuredVaries
Color calibration in the scene✓ 24-patch standard✗ Post only✗ NoneAdd-on cost
Integrated mission planner✓ Orbit + Nadir sync✓ Drone-only✗ ManualProprietary
Auto-calibration waypoint✓ Every mission✗ N/A✗ N/A✗ Manual
Open sensor compatibility✓ Sony, Phase One, Micasense✗ Vendor lock-inCamera-dependent✗ Closed system
Field-deployable calibration✓ 60 seconds✗ No equivalentHoursLab only
Manned aircraft workflow✓ Native✗ Different FARPossible✓ Yes
"The only platform where the camera knows what it's looking at, the planner knows where it's going, and the ground tells the truth."
VJ Aerial  ·  The Complete Aerial Imaging Platform  ·  2026
Our Philosophy

The aerial imaging industry has been building better cameras, better drones, better algorithms. Nobody was building a better system.

VJ Nadir gets the camera off your lap and onto the aircraft. VJ Orbit gets the aircraft on the right path. Test Pattern V1 makes the ground tell the truth.

Together they form something that didn't exist before: a closed loop from mission intent to calibrated deliverable — built for the people who fly Cessnas and need to be right.

VJ Aerial · Precision Imaging from Above · Est. 2026
About VJ Aerial

BUILT BY
PILOTS WHO
NEEDED THIS.

VJ Aerial wasn't founded in a boardroom. It was founded in a cockpit — by two CAP mission pilots who kept running into the same problem on aerial photography sorties: no standardized way to calibrate what the camera was seeing. One brought 29 years of Silicon Valley infrastructure engineering. The other brought a decade at a national weapons lab and a front-row seat at the fusion energy revolution. Between them: every system, every product, every line of code is built by people who've shipped things that actually matter.

V
V
VASU
Capt. Swaminatha Vasudevan
Co-Founder
CAP Captain Mission Pilot MO / MS Rated WALDO Operator Private Pilot · IFR 29 Yrs · Cisco

Twenty-nine years at Cisco — building the networking infrastructure that the internet runs on — gave Vasu an engineer's eye for systems that must not fail. At UC Berkeley, he studied electrical engineering. At Cisco, he helped ship enterprise networking products used by governments, carriers, and Fortune 500s worldwide. After 29 years, he retired from full-time tech to focus on CAP, aviation, and building VJ Aerial — and, crucially, walking dogs.

In CAP, he flies out of Jon E. Kramer Squadron 10 in Palo Alto, holding Mission Pilot, Mission Observer/Scanner, and Mission Radio Operator ratings. He also has deep hands-on experience with WALDO — CAP's existing aerial photography system — and currently serves as Squadron Commander, Oakland Amelia Earhart Senior Squadron 188, California Wing.

Role at VJ Aerial
Mission systems architecture, cloud infrastructure, network design, operational workflow, flight test coordination.
Career
1995–2024 Cisco Systems — Network Architect / Engineering Leader
2024– Retired — walking dogs & flying Cessnas
2026– VJ Aerial — Co-Founder
J
J
JAKE
1st Lt. Jacob Trueblood
Co-Founder
CAP 1st Lt. Mission Pilot MO / MS Rated 8+ Yrs Aerial Photo Private Pilot · IFR 11 Yrs · LLNL

Eleven years at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory — where the National Ignition Facility achieved fusion ignition for the first time in history — shaped Jake's approach to precision measurement, calibration, and the difference between data you can defend and data you can't. At LLNL, instruments that aren't calibrated to a known ground truth don't just give wrong answers; they can invalidate years of work.

At Pacific Fusion — the $900M+ Fremont startup building the next generation of pulsed magnetic fusion energy, backed by Eric Lander, Bill Gates, and General Catalyst — Jake is the Pulse Power Lead, responsible for the high-current, fast-rising pulses that drive fuel to fusion conditions. If your job is delivering a precisely controlled burst of energy with nanosecond timing, you understand calibration at a cellular level. He brings that same standard to aerial imaging.

In CAP, Jake serves as Deputy Commander for Seniors, Tri-Valley Squadron 156, California Wing. Eight-plus years of drone and manned aerial photography — from commercial survey to CAP imaging missions — meant he saw the calibration problem up close, every flight.

Role at VJ Aerial
Product design, imaging systems engineering, calibration methodology, hardware prototyping, aerial photography workflow.
Career
11 Years Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Current Pacific Fusion — Pulse Power Lead
2026– VJ Aerial — Co-Founder
Platform
CESSNA
172 · 182 · 206
Organization
CAP
Civil Air Patrol
Ratings (both)
MP · MO · MS
Pilot · Observer · Scanner · IFR
CAP Commands
SQ 188
SQ 156
Oakland · Tri-Valley
Prior Systems
WALDO
CAP Aerial Photo System
Why We Built This

"One of us spent a career making sure nuclear experiments were calibrated to the ground truth. The other spent a career making sure networks never lost a packet. We both fly the same Cessna on SAR missions, and we both kept coming home with imagery we couldn't fully trust. That stops now."

— Vasu & Jake · Co-Founders · VJ Aerial · 2026
READY TO
FLY RIGHT.

Join the early access program. Get VJ Nadir, VJ Orbit, and Test Pattern V1 before general availability.

Request Early Access VJ Nadir Specs VJ Orbit Demo