California/Nevada Laws for using Drones for a business?

JoeJITSU

JoeJITSU

Veteran
I am in the process of buying one and I would need to use it for Clients. Most of the time for Weddings, Can someone tell me the laws for using these drones for Videography/Photography for Clients?
I hear that in California it is a very strict law.
In order to operate the drones, outside of doing it as solo a hobbyist, one needs to have a Certificate of Authorization from the FAA. This site lists everyone who has one of these COA’s and is able to operate a drone for commercial or industrial use legally.
 
I can only offer what I have learned about the situation in the UK. To fly drones and shoot video/stills as a hobby no problem, but as soon as it becomes a commercial operation i.e. a business for profit you need a licence from the CAA civil aviation authority, insurance and you need to inform Air traffic control exactly where you will be flying and at what height.
Recently there have been two cases, a photographer took his drone up for still images during the recent flooding, he sold the images to newspapers and a TV channel, his flight was successful but I believe he was prosecuted for not having the appropriate paperwork as the flight was for commercial gain. Another guy a hobbyist, flew his drone over an MOD (ministry of defence) base right over a nuclear sub, he crashed it and as you can imagine it did not go down well with the MOD, he was fined as well.
 
Last edited:
Again, a UK user.... But there are some rules that are pretty widespread now, one of which would really affect your wedding photo/videography.

The copter needs to be 50 meters away from any person, vehicle or building that is not under your control. So flying over the wedding party as they leave the church would be a no go (legally).
 
A Federal Appeals Court struck down a fine for commercial use (http://mashable.com/2014/03/08/faa-drones-appeal/). The FAA is appealing. In the meantime, they have stopped fining people/companies but they are still issuing warnings to those they catch.

Nothing I have shot has caught their attention, so I have not received anything from them. It's kind of a "don't let them catch you" situation.

I did read that a News Media advocacy group is filing a class-action lawsuit against the FAA for violation of their First Amendment rights in not allowing them to fly drones for news coverage.
 
Rather than asking for laws from random people on the internet, perhaps it would be better to search for or ask for a link to the relevent authority/legislation.
 
DigitalBard said:
A Federal Appeals Court struck down a fine for commercial use (http://mashable.com/2014/03/08/faa-drones-appeal/). The FAA is appealing. In the meantime, they have stopped fining people/companies but they are still issuing warnings to those they catch.

Nothing I have shot has caught their attention, so I have not received anything from them. It's kind of a "don't let them catch you" situation.

I did read that a News Media advocacy group is filing a class-action lawsuit against the FAA for violation of their First Amendment rights in not allowing them to fly drones for news coverage.
Click to expand...

Actually, it wasn't a federal appeals court that ruled. It was an administrative law judge. That case has been appealed to the full National Transportation Safety Board.

Yesterday, more than a dozen news organizations filed a "friend of the court" brief arguing that the FAA policy statements and cease and desist orders violated 1st Amendment rights to free speech and news gathering.

Recently, a NYC resident was fined approximately $2K for reckless and dangerous flying in the city. The incident occurred in 2013 and involved hitting several skyscrapers.

The FAA also posts several FAQ and "myths" about FAA enforcement. It isn't backing off on issuing cease and desist orders and hasn't ruled out fining people.
 
Last edited:
I'm not a lawyer. I don't really know much about FAA and drone laws. BUT, I will say that you are unlikely to get very accurate legal advice from an international online forum. Tread carefully.
 
Andrius Simutis said:
I'm not a lawyer. I don't really know much about FAA and drone laws. BUT, I will say that you are unlikely to get very accurate legal advice from an international online forum. Tread carefully.
Click to expand...

Actually, you won't get any advice even from the few posters here that are lawyers.

However, the FAA prohibition is being appealed to the full NTSB board.

The issues involving regulation of US airspace and commercial use of drones are a long way from being resolved.
 
http://www.latimes.com/local/political/la-me-pc-assembly-floor-bills-20140129-story.html

SACRAMENTO -- Lawmakers in the Assembly approved a slate of bills Wednesday, including one measure that would limit how law enforcement and public agencies can use unmanned aerial vehicles, also known as drones.
The bill, by Assemblymembers Jeff Gorell (R-Camarillo), Steven Bradford (D-Gardena) and Bill Quirk (D-Hayward), would require public agencies to destroy data collected by drones within six months and would ban the weaponization of drones in California.
It also would require law enforcement to obtain a warrant to use a drone, except in certain emergency situations.
Gorell acknowledged that some in the state had called for a complete moratorium on drones; last year, the state of Virginia imposed a two-year ban on their use.
"I don't think that's the right answer here," Gorell said. "The right answer, frankly, is for us to embrace the new technology because it is the future."

"We also have to recognize there are going to have to be some parameters in place around how we use unmanned aerial vehicles," he added. "We want Californians to feel confident that this legislative body is protecting their right to privacy."
The bill, AB 1327, passed on a 59-5 vote.
 
I am probably stating the obvious - but its only a matter of time before a drone causes a serious accident or fatality somewhere.

I watch youtube videos of keen new owners taking their drones out flying over built up areas and fast moving traffic, its frightening to think 'what if' the copter has a failure over busy traffic, thru someone windscreen etc....

When this "incident" happens, not if, the regulatory bodies all over the world will come down 'like a tonne of bricks' on all drone pilots, there are a few comments on youtube urging more caution when flying these things but we need to highlight the 'what if' situation to the keen new guys.
 
Last edited:
I had seen that incident, sadly I think it will be a much bigger incident. That incident has been covered on other forums with claims that the pilot said the drone was sabotaged or it was jammed deliberately. I think the pilot is being a little evasive.
 
It is really worrying, I think back to some of the rookie mistakes and crashes we had when starting out with just the Phantom.. thankfully we had the wisdom to only ever fly in fields with zero people around, but just a quick scan through YouTube shows people taking much bigger copters for test runs in built up areas, often not even waiting for the GPS to lock.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top