“If you think hiring a professional is expensive, wait until you hire an amateur!”
We’ve all heard or seen that old adage plenty of times. But in the commercial drone photography and video business here in Oklahoma City, it’s taking on a whole new meaning.
To everything from printing to doing your taxes to shooting still photos and video, it’s always better to hire a professional. An amateur may be cheaper but that can cost you in two ways. First it makes you look like an amateur. Then when it’s clear the work is not so great, you have to pay again to re-do the work.
I belong to a professional drone pilots group on Facebook. (By the way, we don’t necessarily like the word drone but everybody calls them drones, so, OK.)
It’s a great place to share and gain information with professional drone operators around the world. One of the continuing threads is the issue of what we call “cowboy” operators. They are all over. Unlicensed hobbyists who work cheap and produce amateurish photos and video.
The problem is, of course, they charge ridiculously low rates, have no liability insurance, fly drones in an unsafe manner and in some cases just flat violate FAA rules. It happens every day.
But there’s a new wrinkle in the drone photography and video business that you need to be aware of.
To operate commercially a drone pilot must be FAA certified & licensed.
In the industry that’s known as having a Part 107 license. Not only is OKC Drone Photography & Video licensed under the FAA Small Unmanned Aircraft Regulations (Part 107) , we have full liability insurance coverage for both our operations in the air and on the ground.
If you do not have this license and fly a drone registered with the FAA, you cannot engage in any commerce using a drone.
If you are not licensed and fly a drone for commercial purposes you’re liable for an $1100 fine from the FAA for each incident.
So if the non licensed drone pilot gets busted they get a pretty hefty fine. And the FAA has a really easy to use violation reporting system.
But…Here is the important part for you the real estate agent, business owner, marketing manager, to know…
If you hire a non-licensed drone pilot for commercial use, you are liable to be fined as well… at 10 times the rate of the pilot. So that means you can face an $11,000 fine for hiring an unlicensed drone pilot.
This also applies to those who fly their own drones for their own business.
If you’re operating a drone in the furtherance of your business and you are not commercially licensed you are liable to both fines! First, for operating as an unlicensed airman and second, for causing the operation. Furtherance of a business is a key phrase. Doesn’t matter if the unlicensed pilot does it for free or you are doing for your own business, it’s an FAA violation and you are subject to these fines.
Here’s a screenshot of the text received from the FAA confirming this fine structure.
Back to my original point, not only can using an amateur cost you a lot more money in the long run than using a professional in a lot of areas, now using an unlicensed drone pilot for your business can cost you a serious amount of money right now and get you in trouble with the FAA.
There are excellent licensed commercial drone operators in central Oklahoma. We think OKCDPV is one of the best and hope you’ll work with us for drone video and photography. But regardless of who you work with, please make sure it’s not your nephew using the drone he got for Christmas. You and your business could be at serious financial and civil risk for doing so.