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Illegal flying by professional photographers

Joined
Oct 18, 2017
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I am just wondering what everyone’s take is on those who use a drone to make wedding videos commercially but don’t have permission from the Aviation Authority. I was at a wedding last week where this happened and it was a very busy hotel. I am sure the owners of the hotel were unaware that the photographer was unlicensed.
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This is his video the opening shots are drone footage.
 
It would all depend on the laws of the country. where it was filmed at.
In the USA, the person doing the filming/flying would have to be commercially certified if doing it for profit of any sort. That would also mean permission from the property owner to overfly the building that close. I am sure there are many that do such a thing and are clueless to the laws and regulations for doing so safely and legally.
Just makes for a bad situation for those who do it for a business and are following the rules.
 
This is a very familiar conversation. In my country it is estimated that 50% of the work carried out by professionals is illegal. I'm not talking about unprofessional, professional intrusion, I'm talking about professionals with everything in order who make illegal flights to get ahead.

If we add to this the flights made by people who do not have any role, the problem gets much bigger. I don't know what the rules are in your country, but they almost certainly have some method of reporting such flights. By denouncing this type of flight we will make those of us who comply with the rules have a chance.
 
Until active enforcement of laws takes place these conversations are a waste of time and resources. The situation is unfortunately also applicable to conducting the average commercial aerial endeavor for the same reason.
 
I was in the UK last weekend to shoot a wedding at a prestigious venue, as a stills photographer. There was a couple of chaps there who were hired by the couple to do some unobtrusive drone footage, after chatting with them throughout the day, they admitted to me that neither were licensed but were making so much money they didn't care, I have reported them as they gave me their business card in case I wanted any drone work :/
 
I called FAA reps on the carpet about enforcement during an open Q&A attended by over 100 107 holders, and the one that answered stated the burden was on the public to report them. He said if you call the nearest FSDO, they have to investigate it. Start calling them in- the Remote Pilot cert, the cost of liability insurance and equipment DEMANDS that we start doing that.
 
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I called FAA reps on the carpet about enforcement during an open Q&A attended by over 100 107 holders, and the one that answered stated the burden was on the public to report them. He said if you call the nearest FSDO, they have to investigate it. Start calling them in- the Remote Pilot cert, the cost of liability insurance and equipment DEMANDS that we start doing that.

Indeed, unfortunately, those of us who want to do things legally pay our taxes and have everything in order have no other choice. In all professions there is professional intrusion but in this one which is so new and has so little control, mostly because, at least in my country, the state security forces have no training and do not know how to act in most of the cases that remain on the professionals of the sector to denounce these illegal practices. In the meantime, keep turning down jobs because they don't give you permission to fly and then the "smart ones" go and fly illegally and charge for the work you couldn't do without breaking the rules :(
 
There may be nothing illegal in this video. The first frames seem to be made far away and possibly away from people. The close up of the castle tower with the flag may be in question but it can be just a zoom.

So unless you know there is a quite wide restricted zone there we can be sure it was done illegally.

For illegal stuff I have seen plenty of real estate ones, Majority of them are done in high populated areas(It is against rules in Australia) and I have seen even ones done in CBD by quite reputable drone companies.

We have a potential job near CBD to film some government festival. It would be just very easy for us to shoot our drone up and film it. However we will be breaking a lot of rules. If we cannot figure out how to do it safe with a drone and do not get permission from CASA to do it that way we have only a few options to do it and most of them without a drone being involved.

Actually, I have a question about it in case somebody tried it. What if we use a horizontally running rope stretched between two buildings lets say 10 meters above ground, then we will make an addition to a drone with a plate on top. The plate will have a 10-15cm rod attached to it it and there will be a ring at the top. Then the rope will go into the ring before stretching it and a drone will be moving below along the rope and hanging on a rope by the ring.

Do you think it will work in terms of drone control? I am not worried about horizontal movements along the rope but if our drone starts drifting up or down the ring will prevent it and it may be possible that the drone will start rotating around the rope.

Technically if it works I do not think we even need any permissions from CASA. Even though we will be using a drone and it is powered and in the air it hooked to a rope so it cannot fall or fly away. So the risk of injuring anyone is close to zero.
 
This is only 1 instance that surfaces and someone brings it to our attention. There are probably 100 other similar instances that occurred the same day. You can only hope that the law will find its way
 
Although all the images that appear in the video are following the rules, but the pilot is not registered and can do commercial work, to be paid for it, will always be illegal :eek:
 
Spider Cam.

I am looking at these systems but the problem with them they are very expensive. Apart from some non brand one listed on ebay from UK for 1000-1500 AUD the minimum price I have seen is $4500 USD to buy and about $600 USD per day for rent. Buying it for this kind of money is not an option, we will get less for a job than this system costs. Renting unfortunately to because it is in USA.

There is one that is crowd funded called Wire Cam but it seems to be good for GoPro only or at least I could not see any details on mounting something else on it. And I could not find what payload it can actually carry not to mention what third party gimbal I can use with it If it is only for go pro no surprise there is no info about its payload.

It costs about $500 USD though. It may be an option still but they have sold the first batch already and promise to do another one in October. However the festival in November and we will depend on their promise to start shipping them in October. Even if they deliver it we then have to be quick with figuring out how we going to mount something like Sony A7s on it.
 
This is a very familiar conversation. In my country it is estimated that 50% of the work carried out by professionals is illegal. I'm not talking about unprofessional, professional intrusion, I'm talking about professionals with everything in order who make illegal flights to get ahead.

If we add to this the flights made by people who do not have any role, the problem gets much bigger. I don't know what the rules are in your country, but they almost certainly have some method of reporting such flights. By denouncing this type of flight we will make those of us who comply with the rules have a chance.

In Italy is 80% :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:
 

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