History

The Early Years

Founded in 1956 by George Sander, Ph.D, P.Eng., Sander Geophysics Limited (SGL) is one of a small number of companies specializing in high resolution airborne surveys for petroleum and mineral exploration, and environmental mapping.  SGL carried out its first airborne geophysical surveys in 1958, and by 1967 airborne surveys had become the company´s mainstay.  In 1970, SGL purchased its first aircraft, a Bell 47G-3 helicopter.  SGL´s first fixed wing aircraft, a Cessna 402 was purchased in 1975.

Growth and Innovation

Operations have continued and expanded under the same ownership since 1956.  In 1996 Sander Geophysics Ireland Limited (SGIL) was formed to better serve the company´s European and African clients.  In 1997, after outgrowing several successively larger buildings, SGL combined its head office and aircraft maintenance hangar in a spacious new building conveniently located at the international airport in Ottawa, Canada.

SGL currently owns and operates one of the largest fleets of geophysical survey aircraft, including eight turbine Cessna 208B Grand Caravans, two de Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otters, and two Airbus Helicopters AS350 B3 turbine helicopters.   SGL has flown and compiled more than 12 million line kilometres of high resolution airborne geophysical data.  Sander Geophysics currently has a staff of over 160, which are largely geophysicists and engineers.

SGL is dedicated to research and development.  Nearly one-third of the company´s resources are devoted to developing new and more efficient instrumentation and software for airborne geophysical surveying.  Combining leading edge GPS capability with engineering excellence, SGL has completed an ambitious project to design and build an airborne gravimeter which offers much better resolution and stability than any other system.  Sander Geophysics is now pleased to offer gravimetric surveying with SGL´s Airborne Inertially Referenced Gravimeter (AIRGrav).

Safety

SGL is proud of its excellent safety record, and attributes its safe operations to the quality and experience of its field crews and flight operations crew, and management's ongoing commitment to safety.  All company aircraft are flown and maintained by permanent SGL employees while in the field and at head office.  Sander Geophysics assumed a leading role in making safety a priority, for the industry, as a founding member of the International Airborne Geophysics Safety Association (IAGSA), which promotes the safe operation of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft on airborne geophysical surveys.

Ongoing Commitment

With consolidation in the airborne geophysics industry, in recent times, the number of survey companies has been reduced, and SGL is one of the only independent, privately owned companies capable of performing airborne gravimetric, magnetic and radiometric surveys worldwide.  As such, SGL continues to offer its clients experience, flexibility, timeliness, innovation, safety and an unsurpassed commitment to quality.