We are looking for someone in the Virginia area that can do some aerial stills (rc heli) of a resort property next week (week of Sept. 24). You must be insured and comfortable flying over water. Please let me know if you are interested.
Andy here's a possible work around for insurance. I'm coming at this from a film background and typically this is how we handle things. We also work with dangerous gear, stunts, explosions all the time and it's insured. Form a production company. Get a yearly production insurance packet out of LA or a company that does motion picture insurance. This binder will cover just about any production situation including aerials. There is however a cost to this which I'm not sure but it used to be around 16k a year and that was a few years back. One way to mitigate the cost would be to form a company with several members and hire out from that entity so everyone shares in the cost of the binder. Over here in Italy we had issues with this as well and all the RC guys were freaking out because they could only get recreational insurance. I contacted one of the companies that does film insurance and our deal is the moment that the bird is hired on any legitimate production it goes under the production company's insurance binder so it's covered for damage and liability. Also they're nowhere as sue happy over here as they are in the states. Hope this helps.
Good ideas, Mark. I know several folks who have got insurance using similar means. The big problem is that technically commercial flying is banned by the FAA right now, so I'm concerned that there'd a loophole that the insurance companies might use to avoid coverage. Most policies exclude unlawful activities, I've been told. Andy.
Right now the laws over here up in the air. There's a first draft on the table and it would appear that anything over 20kg would need to be registered with the the FAA. The other rub is that all aircraft has to be flown line of sight which for mot of my needs is ok.
well, here in France anything flying for a commercial purpose has to be registered with french FAA (DGAC), doesn't matter if you're flying a 1000g machine with a GoPro fixed to it... Chances are the same rules will hit every country around the globe very soon, EASA (european FAA) has something in the pipeline already... Plus you need a real scale pilot licence to fly anything commercially, but you don't need to have any special RC flying skills, in fact you could be the most dangerous RC noob flying a 12kg CS8 with Epic, as long as your machine is registered and you have your licence it's ok We live in a crazy world...
You'd think that having approximately the same problem in every country would lead to approximately the same regulatory solution. Somehow I don't think so..... It still amazes me that every car I have ever driven in numerous countries around the planet has the accelerator on the right hand side.... Andy.
yep accelerator always on the right hand side even though the steering wheel travels from left to right When it comes to different cultures going for different regulations, let's hope you are right because what we got here in France is a real brake to the industry...
Jean-Luc it seems to be a universal truth that if a bureaucrat is clueless when asked a question the easiest answer is to say AUCUN NEIN NO NEJ NÃO EI You get the drift?
yes indeed Gary, we good willed and working french citizens definitely are the hostages of our blind and costly bureaucracy. A shame really that a handfull of clueless people working daily on protecting their privileges can destroy such an emerging business in the middle of the international crisis that struck us all. Honestly, I keep moving forward here in France but have lost some of my original enthusiasm... Good for me that most my assignments are shot abroad Jean-Luc