5 Reasons for FAA-Registered Drone Service Providers

August 28, 2021 by Jim Gibson
Image of Faa Registration Label
Register Your Drone at www.faadronezone.faa.gov The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulates all airspace in the United States and has specific statutory rules for unmanned aircraft systems, including the need to register drones. At the time of this writing, there were 347,957 commercial drones registered in the US. So why should commercial drone pilots register their drones? 1. It helps ensure ...
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5 Reasons for Drone Service Providers to Log their Flight Time

July 15, 2021 by Jim Gibson
Image of Flight Log
Why do drone pilots log their flight time? 1. The FAA Recommends that Drone Pilots Log Maintenance and Inspections Although the FAA does not require drone pilots to log flight data, they strongly recommend it – primarily for the purpose of tracking the flight time accumulated by each drone, along with maintenance and inspection records. Paragraph 7.3.5 of FAA Advisory ...
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Top 15 Most Common Drone Industry Acronyms

June 21, 2021 by Jim Gibson
Image of Commercial Drone Scaled
If you’re like me, you may sometimes wonder if the English language has been reduced to words containing only 3-4 letters.  We often see it in almost every industry we’ve encountered in our professional lives.   What am I talking about? Acronyms.     For those of us in the drone industry, it’s no different.  In fact, given the relatively ...
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5 Reasons to Prioritize Pre-Flight Checklists for Drone Services

May 23, 2021 by Jim Gibson
Image of Checklist
1. Safe and Professional Operations Just like commercial airline pilots use a checklist before each flight, drone pilots use  pre-flight checklists to ensure their operations are safe and legal. In addition to ensuring aircraft readiness and considering things like weather, site safety and crew briefings, checklists also help pilots ensure compliance with FAA, state and local regulations that govern the ...
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5 Reasons for FAA-Certified Drone Service Providers

May 8, 2021 by Jim Gibson
Construction Drone Monitoring
This is the first in a series of “Five Reasons” articles. Over the next several months, we’ll explore key areas for consideration, what to look for and questions to ask when hiring a commercial drone service provider to fly your important mission. 5 Reasons to Insist that Your Drone Service Provider is an FAA-Certified Remote Pilot 1. Flying a Drone ...
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5 Benefits of Hiring Licensed and Insured Drone Pilots for Real Estate Agents

May 6, 2021 by Jim Gibson
Image of Drone Operator Scaled
The simple fact is the real estate market is a veritable magnet for drone service providers of all skill and experience levels; from the most tenured real estate drone photography company to the guy who splurged on a Mavic 3 and read Drones for Dummies (yes, it really exists!).  In the case of the former, these drone photography companies have invested ...
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Questions to Ask Your Drone Service Provider

April 28, 2021 by Jim Gibson
Image of The Crew Looks Drone
The number of providers offering drone-based commercial aerial photography, videography and data gathering services is rapidly increasing. Unfortunately, not all drone service providers are created equal. Selection of a qualified provider breaks down into two major categories: 1) Regulatory Many drone operators, as well as their prospective Clients, are unaware that FAA regulations specifically govern the safe use of this ...
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