Real Estate Shooting Legality

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Hey everyone!

Over the past month I have gotten fairly decent at flying my Phantom. Enough so that I would love to get into making some money with my new hobby.

I read the FAA regulations about drones.

Under 400 feet
not over crowed areas
No commercial use

I understand that being hired to take pictures or record video with the drone is considered breaking the rules because it's now commercial use.

However, I have heard from multiple people that you can get around it (at least for the time being) by not charging for the video but rather the editing in post production.

I read this is how the guy from www.GotAerial.com has gotten away with it for so long and is currently making a living at it.

What do you guys think?

Thanks!

Jeff
 
First rule to 'getting away with it' in this modern age with lawyers and big brother watching would probably be to not post a question in forum that can be used as evidence :p

Seriously thought we have a slightly different system in the UK but I am pretty sure a person 'could' get away without getting a CAA license but only if they do all jobs via word of mouth without any public marketing.
Like you, I would love to add a professional money making nature to the hobby (via real estate photography). It would fit perfectly with my current web design business but without accreditation you are open to all sorts of problems from the legal to the liability cover. If god forbid anything went wrong (flyaway into a window or onto a neigbours child!) that is you in real trouble and reputation ruined for cutting corners.

How much is a license over there to get legal? Its like £1500 ($1900) over here as far as i can see?
 
FAA doesn't give verbal warnings only in warnings in writing. It is an accountability and records issue. It is very unlikely that the FAA would make a warning via the telephone as opposed to a written warning. If they ever tried to prosecute you for a telephone warning the AUSA (assistant united states attorney) would laugh then right out of the office.

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk 2
 
Of course, I wasn't lending credibility to the claim about the call. I was merely directing the OP to a long thread of posts that answer the question of what people think about the issue.
 
DeweyAXD said:
First rule to 'getting away with it' in this modern age with lawyers and big brother watching would probably be to not post a question in forum that can be used as evidence :p

Seriously thought we have a slightly different system in the UK but I am pretty sure a person 'could' get away without getting a CAA license but only if they do all jobs via word of mouth without any public marketing.
Like you, I would love to add a professional money making nature to the hobby (via real estate photography). It would fit perfectly with my current web design business but without accreditation you are open to all sorts of problems from the legal to the liability cover. If god forbid anything went wrong (flyaway into a window or onto a neigbours child!) that is you in real trouble and reputation ruined for cutting corners.

How much is a license over there to get legal? Its like £1500 ($1900) over here as far as i can see?

There is no license to get legal, it just isn't legal to use a drone professionally. It has to do with how the FAA categorizes a UAV as an experimental aircraft. Experimental aircraft cannot be used in commercial applications, except for police, fire and military. Only then with written permission which is a long drawn out process. Even if someone were to go through the hassle of somehow obtaining an Airworthiness certificate for a specific drone, the fact that it is un-piloted will throw it back into the experimental aircraft category. They do recognize the stupidity in all this and are working on changing the rules. How they will change them remains to be seen, but for now you just can't do it.
 
Wow I never realised that was the case over there! Even worse that its a federa law. Sounds like we are actually lucky over here to be able to obtain a license (albeit a relatively costly process it would seem). I am still confused how we can have such a license anyway because unless the 'craft' is fitted with an altimeter it is impossible to be sure it will be flown under the 400ft ceiling.
 

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