Originally Posted by
skyhawknut
It starts......................Your going to need a pilots license if you want to fly them commercially.
"If you're planning to shoot your next movie
using a drone, beware: you may need to meet some stringent conditions to stay in the Federal Aviation Administration's good books.
Sources tell the
Wall Street Journal that the agency will propose commercial drone rules that require a conventional pilot's license. Yes, you may need to have flown manned aircraft for dozens of hours to even
think of controlling a UAV for cash. You'd also have to fly only during daylight, stay under 400 feet and remain within sight of your craft, so any hopes of high-altitude night shots would go out the window. And these rules would apply to any drone weighing 55 pounds or less; small, easy-to-fly vehicles like
3D Robotics' Iris+ and
DJI's Inspire 1 would be subject to the same demands as larger, more complex models."
I'm pretty sure this has been the case for a while now. A guy I know was mentioning this about a year ago. He was saying that someone saw him flying his plane with video recording equipment onboard and they wanted to hire him to record a function/event that they were involved in managing. He said he couldn't for the reason you're talking about. Apparently from what he said, if you're doing it for income/revenue/paid business, it puts you in a totally different category compared to Joe Blow just out flying his plane with a key chain cam mounted on it for chitz & giggles.