Find Dallas Drone : Professional Operator
Gretchen Mikulich: Hello. This is Gretchen Mikulich and Thomas Crosson with Full
Package Media.
Thomas Crosson: Hey, how’s it going?
Gretchen: It’s good. Today, we’re here to talk to you about your search to find Dallas Drone services.
Thomas: That’s it. Finding a Dallas Drone company can be a crowded, not necessarily a crowded marketplace but a confusing marketplace. There’s not really, it’s such a new industry– Drones are so new. The regulations have been constantly changing.
It’s hard to sort through some of the mess that is on the internet and on Facebook and to separate the amateur from the professional. What are, Gletch, the common questions that we get from potential clients or just everyday humans?
Gretchen: Yes, right. The first one that we get is, is it legal?
Thomas: Yes, I don’t know how many times I’ve answered that question. I need a pamphlet. The short answer is, yes. The FAA has just changed, about six months ago, changed the regulations to allow drones to be used for commercial purposes more than they had been before. Really, the FAA was behind the game in regulating this because they didn’t see– They weren’t ready for the huge influx of these consumer-level drones at an affordable price.
Initially, there was a thing called Section 3.33, that you could obtain from the FAA but you had had to have your pilots license to do that. You had to send in all this paperwork and all this. You could only really get approved if you were doing something. I can’t remember the exact wordage that they used, but it was basically something that was really, you almost had to be like bettering mankind by doing it. You had to be doing some research or some public service type thing, like search and rescue or delivering emergency supplies to maybe a hiker that’s trapped at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.
You had to be doing something like that. You couldn’t just be, “Oh, I’m flying the drone to make money filming XYZ.” You had to be doing something kind of unique and that they thought was important enough to grant you this exemption from the laws of the National Airspace System. Now in, it was August somewhere, don’t quote me on that, of 2016 that they announced the part one of seven tests which allows people to study for a test, take a test, that’s not a really easy test, and obtain their small unmanned aircraft systems pilot’s license.
Now, they can go fly for commercial purposes and make money. Really, the FAA’s goal here is not to stop the growth of the industry. Some people say it’s going to be a
$22 billion industry by 2020, but they want to regulate it and they want to keep everyone safe. The FAA’s outlook is that, the National Airspace System which is just the skies that are above all of us, is open to everyone and drone operators and pilots have just as much right to operate in that space as commercial airliners but they have to figure out a way to do it safely and to regulate it in a positive way for
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both the commercial airliners, the recreational pilots, and the drone pilots out there. It is legal.
There are some regulations about how far we can fly away from the PIC or Pilot in Command. There’s altitude restrictions and different restrictions about flying over people, flying over stadiums. Temporary flight restrictions, like over the white house or say the president is going– If Trump is going to New York, then you can’t fly over Trump Tower while he’s there, things like that.
Gretchen: Great. The next question we get often is, “I’m a neighbor, are you allowed to fly over my house?”
Thomas: I literally had a realtor that brought this up to me that was worried about filming a home because apparently their neighbor– They had told the homeowner they were going to do it and they were concerned that their homeowner might get– The next door neighbor might get mad that they’re flying over the home. This hasn’t really been stomped out and it’s not happened, per se, but really, the going understanding is that when you’re trying to find a Dallas real estate drone person that you– That they operate in a way that’s safe and that’s courteous to others.
Maybe if someone is in their backyard swimming in the pool, maybe you either do your flight a little later in the day or maybe you say, “Hey, I’m going to a film a video of this property. If you don’t wish to be in it could you go inside for a second,” or something like that. That’s really what the rules are. I’ve never had an issue. I’ve had one person that wasn’t happy that– Really, it’s legal.
What wouldn’t be legal is if, and really the people that have prosecuted for any drone stuff, is when they’ve done an illegal activity that’s already illegal and then they just use the drone to enable them to do so, like creeping on a neighbor. If you’re doing– If you’re purpose is to fly over that person sunbathing in their backyard, then that’s illegal just like it would be if you took a camera or your iPhone and stuck over the fence and tried to take pictures of them.
If you’re filming a house for the purpose of filming that house and you just happen to fly over someone’s backyard. The standard right now is that, that’s okay and there’s nothing wrong with that, but like I said when finding a Dallas Drone service, that’s something that you have to look out for and see. Make sure that the people that you’re hiring are educated on that and fullpackagemedia.com photographers and pilots are. They’re all part 107 certified by the FAA.
Gretchen: All right, all right so, no creeping with the drone?
Thomas: No creeping.
Gretchen: Another question, are you going to film the inside of my house with the drone while holding the drone?
Thomas: When you look out to find a Dallas Drone company, this is a question you should ask. The answer is if you’re holding the drone in your hand while filming the inside of the house, you probably shouldn’t hire that person. [laughs] The reason is
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because it’s really hard to, almost impossible, to get quality results by doing that. Although, that drones have fully automated and motorized gimbals that stabilize the camera, they work in conjunction with the other sensors on the drone to help stabilize it when it’s in the air.
It’s really not meant for that hand-held use. I see people do it. I see videos and I say, “That’s a drone.” I can tell. They’re holding it, walking around the house. It just doesn’t look very good. The way we create our videos is with still cameras with a variety of different tools and equipment. We use the drone how it’s meant to be used, flying in the sky and we use the camera how it’s meant to be used. That’s not something that we do and really that no professional should do.
Gretchen: Right, right, right. It’s all about that quality. Next common last question, when trying to find a Dallas Drone operator, are you going to fly the drone in my house?
Thomas: Most of the time the answer is no. However, there have been maybe one or two occasions where on super large homes, we have flown inside. It’s risky because your drone doesn’t have as much stability with GPS and that kind of thing because you’re inside. There has been a time when I’ve flown from the front door all the way across the living room and out the back door, over the golf course, but that was a special request by the homeowner and he understood the risks associated with asking me to do so and it turned out okay.
One other time, I’ve flown up while spinning up a huge spiral staircase, atrium-type of thing in a home. No, typically we don’t just fly through your home to do the whole video. Maybe one shot if your home is big enough and if you have huge walls that open up to a pool or something like that, then there might be some possibilities for that.
Gretchen: Crosson, thank you. Last question that we typically get, “Can my kids fly your drone?” We get this one from both the folks selling the home and the real estate listing agent.
Thomas: The extent that I ever let a kid fly my drone is just fly it up and just full throttle, let them go straight up and they just think it’s awesome. I say here, “Push this up,” and I hold the remote and let them do so. They get a kick out of it but the answer is no, we don’t. Our pilots go through an extensive training process and fullpackagemedia.com is big on professionalism and training and so when you want to find a Dallas Drone operator, just know that Full Package Media is really on the cutting edge of technology and training.
We really make sure our pilots and our photographers are trained up before they go out there and film your house. If your kid would like to fly a drone, you can buy them out there, or you can buy them a less expensive version what we own. When they never really do crush, you as the parent are not out that much money for a drone.
Gretchen: All right. Thank you.
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Thomas: That’s pretty much the frequently asked questions that we get. When someone’s looking out to find it out a Dallas drone operator, we get those questions all the time. If you have more questions, feel free to reach out to us at 972-885-8823 or you can always visit our website at fullpackagemedia.com and send us an email through there or look at our frequently asked questions page on our website.
[00:10:46] [END OF AUDIO]
File name: Episode 9 Full Package Media 1.28.17 Find Dallas Drone_mixdown.mp3
972-885-8823