Can you sell drone footage shot on US Forest Service as stock footage?

[Byte2600]

Hey I am taking my classes to get my part 107 and fly commercially. I have two questions. The companies that you work for, do you have to buy your own drones, secondly do you have to have a bachelors degree. I have gone to Zishka school of business focus on programming then switched to Purdue engineering. I got sick and had to choose work or school and have done IT for 20 years. Flying is what I love and switched to fly drones as I have a bit of an artistic and a quick mind that serves me well flying drones. I don’t have my degree but a [Language removed by ADMIN] ton experience and own drones. Taking the pilot institute class. Figure I’d start with video and pics and buy better equipment until I can do environmental scanning and higher end gigs. Any suggestions?

 

[SethB]

Hey I am taking my classes to get my part 107 and fly commercially. I have two questions. The companies that you work for, do you have to buy your own drones, secondly do you have to have a bachelors degree…

There are two forms of employment - if you are working as an independent pilot, as a freelancer, contractor, etc. then you will need your own “tools”. This is per the IRS regulations on who is an employee and who could be a contractor/freelancer.

IRS steps in because they want to assure *somebody* is paying employment taxes, and bookkeeping is a big part of running any small business, including contracting drone work!

If you are employed by another company it is usually (almost always? Always?) their responsibility to provide the tools. And pay Social Security and other employment taxes.

More info from the IRS is linked here.

Regardless, you need a capable drone for your own learning.

Any degree/education/training requirements would be individual to specific employers, such as a certificate or associate’s degree for GIS/Geospatial, a surveyor’s license for mapping with it’s own requirements (depending on your state), building inspection, a reel or portfolio for photography, videography, or cinematography, etc.