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I'm curious if you looked into PPK and possibly hiring someone with a drone based LIDAR setup to give you a quick DEM.

I actually prefer PPK over RTK for all work these days. RTK still gets used, but only to help control the drone's flight path in specific scenarios. Otherwise, uncorrected flight paths are fine since all the collected data is run through PPK after collection.

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I had thought about PPK, but I like the reassurance of knowing I got a clean point on site, especially given tree cover. I also considered drone work, and I'll likely put hands on a drone or someone who has one in future, but not for LIDAR, just mapping in general.

Since my goal isn't just getting terrain, but also mapping features in detail (I'm doing site planning for an event as well), I may as well skip the drone LIDAR because I'm going to be walking the ground anyway and I can do better than it can, was my conclusion.

With PPK, I find it's better than RTK simply because I don't have to worry about the real-time correction connection. As long as your base station is capturing data continuously over your point capture period you'll be able to apply PPK later. And you can even do things like use OPUS to get even more accurate data.

FWIW, We use a LIDAR with co-aligned 20MP camera to get RGB point clouds and they are great for large space explorations.

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