Best flying practices for real estate aerial shots

[James Chung]

Hi everyone,

What started as occasional one off "favors" is turning into serious paying jobs. Now, I need to get "great" shots (I am Part 107). So, I am looking for ways to stay legal while trying to do my best...and stay safe and not get yelled at...

In the San Francisco Bay Area, it's nearly impossible not to...

1. Cross the road/major interactions while flying. So, do I fly across it when no cars are driving by or land/re-take off from after cross it?
2. How many nearby neighbors do you tell in advance? Or do you simply wait until someone yells?
3. Looking for blogs/websites with best practices for above kind of questions.

Thank you in advance.

James

 

[GadgetGuy]

If you are getting yelled at, you aren't flying from far enough away, so they can't see you! Fly earlier in the morning when no one is around and use your best judgement to avoid confrontations. Minimize flying over people by flying alongside them and avoid flying over any open cars. Flying over roads to cross them is inevitable. Finding paying clients will be your biggest challenge, after you run out of paying friends. Good luck!

 

[hakbar]

Hi James,

I am not too familiar with San Francisco, but can Imagine it's highly congested.

1) As GadgetGuy said, fly early or at quiet times. Don’t fly over people or cars. However, if you require a different shot of the property, maybe there is a local park where the property is in view. Or possibly ask a neighbour who is opposite, if you can use their back garden to take off to take some shots.

2: I get the real estate agent to let the neighbours know or ask the property owner.
They are more likely to be on board as they know their neighbour.
I can’t comment how many neighbours get told in advance, depends on how highly populated the area is.

3: I understand some of these links may be generic but good reads.
Want To Use Drones In Real Estate? Read This First.
Filming with drones in towns and cities

Wish you best of luck,
Haseeb

 

[BryanD]

Personally, depending on the situation, flying early might upset more people because if the noise. But every situation is different. And I am beginning to think that it is okay to fly over a few people or cars as long as you are transitioning from the launch area to the area if interest and not "hanging out" directly over people or cars.

 

[BigAl07]

. And I am beginning to think that it is okay to fly over a few people or cars as long as you are transitioning from the launch area to the area if interest and not "hanging out" directly over people or cars.

Keep in mind that's YOUR interpretation of a law that says NO to these things not "some if you're very careful".

Odds are nothing will ever come of this type of flying unless there is an incident or someone reports you. If there is an incident and someone is struck by your sUAS you were operating outside of the FARs. The FAA will give you just enough rope to hang yourself so keep that in mind. The "Grey Area" isn't for our benefit in the least.

 

[BryanD]

So then help me to understand what the FAA means by not flying over people. Does it mean directly over them?

If I want to do a Real Estate photo of a house and a neighbor one or two houses away is cutting his grass. Is that flying over people?

In the eyes of the FAA, how can a wedding photographer legally capture a wedding?

 

[BigAl07]

So then help me to understand what the FAA means by not flying over people. Does it mean directly over them?

If I want to do a Real Estate photo of a house and a neighbor one or two houses away is cutting his grass. Is that flying over people?

In the eyes of the FAA, how can a wedding photographer legally capture a wedding?

It just depends on how strictly you want to follow the FARs. Flying over people is flying over people is flying over people. It also can be interpreted if you're flying forward (with momentum) and you suffer a failure and the aircraft continues to move forward (as it should to some degree) and strikes a person/people then you did not do everything in your power to avoid it. Either poor planning, lack of knowledge of aircraft and flight paths, lack of experience on the operator etc will be the root cause of the accident. With so many Single Points of Failure in our aircraft we should always be thinking "What if . . . " and plan/act accordingly.

Now in all reality not flying over a single person is almost an impossible feat and I fully admit that. As an aviator it's all about minimizing/eliminating risk. Do everything in your power to do this and you "should" be fine. But like I said earlier, if there is an incident and someone is struck by your aircraft, most likely you didn't do everything you could to avoid that.

Legally a wedding photographer can NOT fly directly over people but it's done every single day. At the same time people are stuck by sUAS fairly often but unless someone happens to be recording it or someone is hurt they go no further than that.

 

[Meta4]

So then help me to understand what the FAA means by not flying over people. Does it mean directly over them?
If I want to do a Real Estate photo of a house and a neighbor one or two houses away is cutting his grass. Is that flying over people?
In the eyes of the FAA, how can a wedding photographer legally capture a wedding?

Flying over people would mean that if the drone was to fall from the sky there would be a risk of hitting someone.
If someone is 1 or 2 houses away, he isn't going to be hit by a falling drone unless you fly over him.

For the wedding photos, do you want to look down on the tops of everyone's heads?
You can get great group photos without being directly above people.

 

[BryanD]

Meta, thanks for the reply. That is basically how I would interpret it. But I dont know if my interpretation is what the FAA intended.

I would not fly directly over people. Just trying to understand if it is okay to take aerial shots from off to the side and be within the rules.

I suppose then that you could get an overhead shot from off to the side and then crop the photo to give the appearance of being directly overhead?

 

[BigAl07]

I would not fly directly over people. Just trying to understand if it is okay to take aerial shots from off to the side and be within the rules.

I suppose then that you could get an overhead shot from off to the side and then crop the photo to give the appearance of being directly overhead?

We've shot many weddings and other "people intensive" events and the images are much better from an angle. Otherwise you're just looking straight down and see the tops of heads etc. Even the "scripted" wedding pics we take from a slight angel to ensure participant safety should we have a failure event.

We look at it like this... every time the aircraft leaves the ground we assume/anticipate there is going to be a failure and the aircraft may not return "Home". The only way to never crash is to never fly. The more you fly the higher your odds of failure/crash are.

 

[R Martin]

Personally, depending on the situation, flying early might upset more people because if the noise. But every situation is different. And I am beginning to think that it is okay to fly over a few people or cars as long as you are transitioning from the launch area to the area if interest and not "hanging out" directly over people or cars.

Were that the case then the regs would state it's ok to fly over some cars and some people. The regs don't, so it isn't. The fact that you do does not make it "alright". It's a personal decision and if something goes wrong we'll be reading about you and commenting on your lack of judgement and common sense.