The Drones Have Arrived: New Businesses

With the flick of a lever, pilot Steve White sends the six rotors on his Cinestar Hexacopter spinning, then calmly lets the unarmed aircraft rise to about 20 feet.

The pilot is looking upward at the commercial drone. The Hexacopter is looking down at White. The craft’s Blackmagic Cinema Pocket video camera is poised to record movie-quality footage from a platform so stable not even the eastern April breeze shakes the frame.

This isn’t just White’s movie, it’s his dream several years in the making. His three unmanned aircraft range in price from $2,000 to $5,000. His photo equipment is top notch.

“It’s been a goal of mine,” White said, as he worked his radio controls and scanned an iPad mini screen for his drone’s bird’s eye view. “I want to do aerial photography. I’ve done it for myself for a long time and now I want to do it professionally.”

White is awaiting approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to pursue aerial photography commercially. And given how few commercial endeavors the federal government has so far permitted, White’s exemption from rules otherwise banning commercial uses of unmanned aircraft would be kind of a golden ticket for White, whose day job is Gallatin County commissioner.

Roughly a half-dozen Montanans have applied or received federal exemptions to fly unmanned aerial vehicles commercially. The authorization from the Federal Aviation Administration has the entrepreneurs sharing rarefied air with the likes of Amazon, which was green-lighted earlier this month to test package delivery. There have only been 224 such exemptions issued in the U.S.

Those granted exemptions by the FAA are ecstatic. It takes months to receive approval under FAA Section 333. Those who get the OK are only allowed to fly unmanned aircraft lighter than 55 pounds at altitudes no higher than 400 feet and within eyesight of the pilot. The FAA scrutinizes everything from the technical specs of an applicant’s unmanned aircraft system to his flight manual and his plans for recovery should things go wrong.

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