So you’ve just passed your FAA Part 107,  purchased your new DJI Mavic Pro 3 Fly More Combo and you are ready to start earning money as a drone service company.   Slow your roll for a second and let’s first establish some priorities. One of the first things any photographer does before launching their professional career is to create ...

The primary role in every aerial photography mission is owned by the drone pilot-in-charge (PIC), however, the unsung hero of the drone flight crew is the visual observer.  Although the drone pilot must always maintain the capability to see the drone in flight, utilizing one or more visual observers allows the pilot to conduct other mission-critical duties while still ensuring ...

Register Your Drone at www.faadronezone.faa.gov The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulates all airspace in the United States and has specific statutory rules for unmanned aircraft systems, including the need to register drones. At the time of this writing, there were 347,957 commercial drones registered in the US. So why should commercial drone pilots register their drones? 1. It helps ensure ...

Why do drone pilots log their flight time? 1. The FAA Recommends that Drone Pilots Log Maintenance and Inspections Although the FAA does not require drone pilots to log flight data, they strongly recommend it – primarily for the purpose of tracking the flight time accumulated by each drone, along with maintenance and inspection records. Paragraph 7.3.5 of FAA Advisory ...

If you’re like me, you may sometimes wonder if the English language has been reduced to words containing only 3-4 letters.  We often see it in almost every industry we’ve encountered in our professional lives.   What am I talking about? Acronyms.     For those of us in the drone industry, it’s no different.  In fact, given the relatively ...

1. Safe and Professional Operations Just like commercial airline pilots use a checklist before each flight, drone pilots use  pre-flight checklists to ensure their operations are safe and legal. In addition to ensuring aircraft readiness and considering things like weather, site safety and crew briefings, checklists also help pilots ensure compliance with FAA, state and local regulations that govern the ...

This is the first in a series of “Five Reasons” articles. Over the next several months, we’ll explore key areas for consideration, what to look for and questions to ask when hiring a commercial drone service provider to fly your important mission. 5 Reasons to Insist that Your Drone Service Provider is an FAA-Certified Remote Pilot 1. Flying a Drone ...

The simple fact is the real estate market is a veritable magnet for drone service providers of all skill and experience levels; from the most tenured real estate drone photography company to the guy who splurged on a Mavic 3 and read Drones for Dummies (yes, it really exists!).  In the case of the former, these drone photography companies have invested ...

The number of providers offering drone-based commercial aerial photography, videography and data gathering services is rapidly increasing. Unfortunately, not all drone service providers are created equal. Selection of a qualified provider breaks down into two major categories: 1) Regulatory Many drone operators, as well as their prospective Clients, are unaware that FAA regulations specifically govern the safe use of this ...