Irresponsible drone operators reflect badly on all of us. At least in the US, most news reports of drone incidents do not draw careful distinction between amateur and pro operations, and many of my fellow citizens have no idea that there's a distinction, or don't care.
To MrTVR: Yes, it bugs me too, primarily because of the many disadvantages I face as a law abiding licensed operator when trying to compete with unlicensed rogue operators. I know I lose some business to those folks. But I don't lose much sleep over it. The majority of my business comes from long time loyal customers, who value not only the quality of my work, but the overall way that I operate my business: that I show up on time, deliver the work when promised, listen to their needs, treat them fairly, etc. I prefer working with those sorts of clients anyway.
You would crap your pants at the email I received a couple days ago. I have to set this up.
Me and my business partner did the aerial for the promotional video for a lighting company called Citelum. It was complicated because not only did we have to get a night waiver, but it was in Class C airspace. This was before LAANC. They used this video to sell their lighting solutions to our home town. The video producer was a friend of mine, who I recommended, who did a great job.
Here's the video.
The GOOD news is, Citelum got the contract to replace all the HPS streetlights with LED's, which undoubtedly was a multi-million dollar contract for them. Needless to say, they were VERY pleased with the entire production process and the results. They had promised us that if they got the contract, that they would hire us to shoot a bunch of before/after shots throughout the city. Great.
Fast forward a couple months later, and we start to see LED lights popping up all over the city, but no call from Citelum. Hmmmm... So my partner reached out to them, and we were kind of brushed off. They finally called us about a month later to do some quick overall shots of the city. They seemed displeased that we were only able to shoot from 400' AGL, which was actually closer 800' because of a 400' hill we hovered over. Needless to say, they seemed to fall off the face of the planet. Whatever. I assumed they would call us when they wanted to move forward. Needless to say they wanted us to shoot downtown, which requires night and Class C waivers, which raises our price.
Well a couple days ago I received the following letter.
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My name is Hayden De Jong. I am with ANP Lighting, an indoor/outdoor lighting company located in Montclair, California. Our company has light fixtures installed along Central Ave, in Albuquerque NM. Very soon, we are enhancing those light fixtures with updated LED technology.
We are interested in getting an aerial photographer out to the area to get some before and after night time shots of our fixtures from above. That way we can show off how the updated LED fixtures perform, compared to the old fixtures. The goal is to focus on how well the updated LED lighting illuminates the street, compared to how not so well the old technology illuminates the street.
A lot of the fixtures have been updated already on central, such as the ones located between Girard Street and Jackson Street. But, we still have some fixtures that need to be updated. Those fixtures are located off of Central on 1st Street, 2nd Street, 3rd Street, and 4th Street. So we need someone to take the "before" photos/video fairly quickly.
Then, once the fixtures are updated, we would need someone to go back and take the “after” photos/video. The company that is doing the updates (Citelum) is holding off on the updates for now, until we can get an aerial photographer to the area to get some content.
There is one problem, because the area we would like to shoot is within 5 miles of an airport, the FAA requires a waiver to fly in that area at night. I’ve been told that that particular waiver will take months to obtain, and we don’t have the time for that. So, because of that we would need someone who is willing to go out there and get the photos/video quickly, without the waiver.
The best time to get these photos/video would be late at night or early in morning. That way there’s little to no traffic on the streets.
If you would please respond with an estimated Quote, if possible, and contact me back, it would be much appreciated. I can also assist you with more specific information such as photos of the fixtures, a map of where they’re located, as well as some examples of photos/videos were looking for, when needed.
Thank You for your time. I’m looking forward to hearing back from you.
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Needless to say, me and my partner are a little pissed. He plans on handing this over to the local FSDO office Monday. Jerks.
D
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) - none of it has been through planning system or building regs approval... aka all the 
