Hi, I'm a young RC/Drone enthusiast and summer is coming which results in me coming up with wild skeems to make money. I was wondering if it is legal, and if not, what the registration process is for acquiring a licence to shoot commercial videos and photos from an RC quad. The quad will be fully under my control the entirety of the time, through fpv, and will not even have the GPS unit attached to it. Any response would be very helpful, and greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
-Isaac
Replies
I can say that it is wholly not legal in the United States, or at least that is what the gentleman from the FAA told me on the phone the other day when they read about us doing some possible work with our copters. Now, whether they have the legal right to keep people from flying and charging for it is what we are all eagerly waiting to find out. Some people are saying that they are basing their right to prevent commercial operations of UAS in the US airspace on rules and recommendations and that they really have no legal right to prevent it since there are no laws on the books about it. I know other people and companies that do this type of work, and get paid for it, but they are either willing to risk the possible fines or they have creative ways of getting around the being paid for it part.
From everything I've read inside and out your flying of a drone and getting paid for it not possible at the moment. I just don't see how film companies in the US get away with it. God knows we've all see the ones used on Gold Rush. They even had a behind the scenes episode that featured the guy who brought the drone. I've also seen a "making of" for some bridgestone commercials that were shot at the old El Toro Marine base in So Cal. Obviously people are making money from drone photography and videography.
See, I dont think that the word drone should be used in this circumstance, as i will be flying exclusively through rc and tx/rx. What I was wondering if there are any specific FAA regulations that apply to this, and if there are, what are they?
Autonomous or Live RC control I don't think the FAA really differentiates at this point. The big difference is its perfectly OK to fly that camera into the sky and take cool pictures to share with friends. The second you take a dollar for doing it it becomes commercial in the eyes of the FAA.