Monday, June 20, 2016

Introduction

Where to begin?

About two years ago, I started considering the idea of aerial photography using a UAV (drone), marketing primarily to the real estate industry.  Unfortunately, when I started looking into the hardware costs and quality, it was just a little too immature.

Not to mention, there were no provisions for "exemptions" to the licensing rules -- basically anyone operating a UAV for commercial purposes needed to hold a commercial pilot's license.  To recover the costs of such a license doing aerial photography would take quite a long time.

Fast forward to 2016.  We now have drones that cost less than $2,000 which are capable of 4K video and 12 MP stills.  And, Transport Canada has updated the licensing rules to include a exemption and provided more information on preparing an application for a Special Flight Operations Certificate or SFOC (more on that later).

Is it commercially viable now?  I believe so, so am taking the leap to get into this.

What will I be posting about?

In doing my research, there was a significant lack of information about getting started.  Nobody seemed to really document the trials and challenges.  There were a lot of experienced folks telling everyone about how hard parts were in order to either discourage market entrants or sell their consulting services.

So I'm going to do my best to document the trials and tribulations, as well as the successes, in starting down this path.

Some topics I can already see covering (in no particular order): liability insurance, hardware research and purchase, applying for an SFOC, my first flights, and recruiting new customers.

Welcome to the journey!

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