Hi, first time poster here! :-)
Found this thread folowing a look at FlightRadar24 and a Google search. Being curious I emailed Blackbushe Airport where I-GAUS took off from today, and received the following nice reply:
Date: Wed, 24 Jun 2020 10:14:21 +0000
From: Blackbushe Admin xxxxx@ blackbusheairport co uk>
To: Pete xxxxxxxx <xxxxxxxxxx@ xxxxx.com>
Subject: RE: What is I-GAUS up to today???
Dear Pete,
Thank you for your email.
This aircraft isn’t strictly anything to do with us, other than it is currently getting it’s fuel from here in between flights. It is conducting aerial survey work. Whilst we aren’t normally privy to the client for whom they are working, typically these flights are either for mapping projects (Google Maps / Apple Maps) or for specific scientific surveys -such as environmental (pollution, air quality etc). Occasionally they are speculative, in that the company will gather the photos / data and then sell it as part of a portfolio, but I don’t believe that was the case for this aircraft.
They typically base themselves from a nearby airport for a few weeks while they gather their data, and then move on to another area. They fly long straight paths, going backwards and forwards. Of course, the lower they are, the better the images they gather, but it means more overflights to cover the same area. You may notice more of these aircraft at the moment. Something that has been a bit of a regular feature since we entered “Lockdown” is the availability of otherwise restricted airspace. The aerial mapping companies have often been the only ones in the skies, and they’ve been flying lots of sorties capturing data that in normal times would either be impossible or extremely difficult to capture. In a year or so I imagine most of the country will have some very accurate imagery on their smart phones!
I hope that helps.
Thanks,
Chris
So, I hope that keeps the I-GAUS fanclub happy!