Drone Use: Frequently Asked Questions

When you get a drone and fly it around your backyard or down at the local park, the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) considers you to be a HOBBYIST drone pilot. As a hobbyist, you are not allowed to produce imagery for any commercial entity. It doesn’t matter if you just give the photos/videos away. As soon as they are used in a commercial capacity, you are in violation of FAA rules. No matter whether it be images for the business down the street, pictures of a house for a relative who is a realtor, or even your employer who had you shoot some overhead video for their use. The FAA has been cracking down on unauthorized usage of drones, and the fines they’ve been handing out are STIFF indeed!

FAA rules state that if your drone is over .55 pounds, it must be registered with the FAA. You can handle many aspects of droning in relation to the FAA on their dedicated web portal for drones, found here: https://faadronezone.faa.gov/#/home 

To receive a license to be a commercial drone operator requires you to take a 60 question, multiple choice test, and to get at least 80% of the test questions right. These aviation related and drone related questions can be tricky and it definitely pays to join a study course to get help in preparing for the test. Someone who is already proficient in their knowledge from private pilot ground school might walk in and pass the test without studying, but for the average person there are some tricky concepts which  need to be studied about ahead of time. To get help with the process of becoming licensed, there is an FAA website to turn to, found here: https://www.faa.gov/uas/commercial_operators/become_a_drone_pilot/

1,000% yes! Eye In The Sky Drone Services is all about helping you bring your special project or idea to life. Use the chat function at bottom right of your screen or else contact us using this button and we’ll be glad to over the details!

Contact Us

The short answer is…NO. The FAA considers a drone to be an aircraft, much like a helicopter or fixed wing plane that might fly overhead. And as you can imagine, you are not allowed to bring an aircraft down.

Isn’t the drone that passed over my house invading my privacy?

No aircraft is allowed to fly over your property and then stop, spending long amounts of time looking towards your windows, recording what is on your lot with videos and photos, following people around, etc. Drone pilots are not allowed to invade your privacy. Having said that, an aircraft is allowed to fly over your house on the way to other destinations, and remember a drone is an aircraft! If your neighbor’s drone passes over your property during the course of their flight, this is not illegal. Neither is it illegal for your house to be in frame when a wide shot of the neighborhood is taken. You have a reasonable expectation of privacy, but remember that a drone passing overhead on the way elsewhere is not unreasonable.

One of the major disappointments you face when buying your first drone is when you learn just how little flight time you have with a drone battery! Eye In The Sky Drone Services does not own or operate any specialty use, high-end commercial or agriculture drones and so can’t speak to every drone model available, but for the types of drones that a hobbyist would fly, or the types of drones that the average drone business like ours would buy, the answer to how long can you fly on a battery is: IT AIN’T LONG! A very popular model of drone for the hobbyist market is the DJI Spark, and that drone gets anywhere from 8-12 minutes on a single battery. We fly two models of drones. One “prosumer” model and one industrial model, and both of these drones get about 25 minutes of usable flight time. So we have to land to change batteries more often than we wish we did!

Drones are not allowed to fly directly over traffic or people’s heads. A waiver from the FAA may be applied for by a drone pilot which if approved would allow flights directly over people and/or traffic, but as of this writing, the FAA is turning down all applications for those waivers. There is an inherent danger of a heavy drone falling out of the sky on top of people’s heads and causing injury, so there is some sense in being very strict about this.

Will it always be this way?

As of 2019 things are beginning to change and as a result different proposals are being discussed at high levels which relaxes some of the current rules and restrictions. It is said that the topic of direct flights over people is one of the points being discussed. Some relaxation of this rule may occur when the drone pilot has rigged their aircraft with special safety gear like recovery parachutes. As of this writing, the official rule is still NO direct flights over people or traffic. As mentioned that may get relaxed. Until then, you’ll be amazed at the results you can still get. You can hire a pilot to fly up to and around the periphery of the event or gathering, giving you some outstanding imagery!

Eye In The Sky Drone Services is based out of Columbia, South Carolina. As of this writing, the state of South Carolina expressly forbids the use of drones for official surveying and mapping work, unless that drone is used by a licensed, properly regulated survey company or architectural firm or other official entities. Often times a company like ours will join forces with a land surveying company and work together, but your first hire won’t be a drone service. Your first stop would to a properly licensed and regulated surveying company who then would call on whatever resources they regularly use, if any…like Eye In The Sky Drone Services!

Can you take overhead photos/videos for my own use?

Eye In The Sky Drone Services can indeed give you fly over imagery of your house and property for your own personal use. Remember that none of the imagery can be used for official work used for surveying, selling the property, etc. But we can give you the general imagery that you have a right to see.

More info soon…