ScottF

I concur with @Dave Pitman. We were asked to do a project near an airport and we asked the FAA drone representative here in Denver if we could tether it and avoid the Part 107 requirements and we were told that we could not. We then asked if we put a camera on a pole that is the same height and proximity to the airport (75' AGL) if that would create issues and they said no, we could do that.

Hey @AprilRamone, welcome to the world of UAVs and to the forum; there are a lot of great people in here with experience and a helpful attitude. I own Colorado Aerial Imaging and have been flying drones in the Denver Metro area for a little over 3.5 years, primarily performing inspections. I'd be happy to help you understand the local Colorado and federal regulatory rules as well as the equipment options. DJI owns the market share of drones in the world and they have very good products. The Mavic 2 Pro or Zoom are great drones for hobbyists and "prosumer". They cost about $1,500 without extra batteries, cases, ND filters, etc. I'm not sure what your budget is and your skill level, but you might consider finding something less expensive to learn on if don't have a lot of experience. Another option would be to contact a local American Modelers Association (AMA) club and see if you could visit their flying field and ask to fly a club member's drone at their flying field. They have wide open spaces that are legal to fly in, so you wouldn't have to worry about where to fly and you could try before you buy. Another solution would be to go to DJI Colorado, a store near Park Meadows Mall in Lone Tree, CO where they have a small indoor cage that you could fly their demo drones. The store has knowledgeable staff. The cage is pretty small, it really only allows you to get a sense for how noisy the drone is, but other than that, you're pretty limited on what the cage flying will provide for you. But, as @Philip Moore more suggested, flying over the wedding, while it's in progress, might be distracting unless you had the Zoom version which would allow you to fly higher. And as @Av8Chuck suggested, during a wedding, I think it would be difficult to transition from doing all of your normal photography shots and then transitioning to the drone. Drones are great for creating that establishing, scene setting shot, but I think your money shots are still those on the ground. So, you may want to consider adding a drone photographer, someone specifically dedicated to the drone shots to your team. Keep in mind that in order to fly professionally, the pilot will need to have an FAA Part 107 certificate (which is not hard to get especially if you use UAV Coach as your training aid). You'll also want to have drone liability insurance and spend some time figuring out the local laws. For example, it's illegal to takeoff or land in any Denver city parks and we have quite a few airports around the Denver Metro area which puts another limit on the areas that you can fly. @Isabella | UAV Coach provided the link that has some good resources to figure out those local laws. Feel free to reach out to me and I'll be glad to help.

I'll be at Xponential. Hope to see you guys there.

Beautiful! Well done!

Welcome @TriniDP. I'm sure you'll find a lot of good information in here to help you on our path.

@Dustin Wise Great job forwarding the information from AirMap. What AirMap has done on their site will confuse everyone out there. You've done a great thing here by helping to improve our community by making this information available to the rest of us. Thanks

Welcome to the group @Scott C Burns. There's a lot of experience in these forums and we're glad you're here to add yours.

@JBR LIFE Photography Thanks for posting these details. DJI's firmware is the THE most frustrating part about using their equipment. You would think they would have better quality assurance. This is why many people consider them to be an expensive toy manufacturer, not a professionals drone. But, at the same time, they have all of our business, so they must be doing something that is just better than the competition.

@Av8Chuck based on your comment above, I think you're taking my post a little more literally than I intended. My intent was more inline with the other comment you made when you said, "You made a valid point that hobbyists probably wouldn't think about running into a skydiver over a stadium..." Again, the point I was trying to make was more along the lines of, "all pilots need to check the airspace for TFRs before they fly using one of several apps that we've all talked about in these forums (AirMap, Skyward, etc)" and here's an extreme example". Thanks for poking at my post to force me to clarify.

Unfortunately, yes. http://bfy.tw/Exai

Here's another example that hobbyists probably don't think about when flying their drone near a stadium.

Hey Bill, you may be interested in this YouTube segment for a STEM education event that we supported in a rural area of Colorado. It's a long video segment (just linking to the segment on drones) and I'd encourage you to take the time to watch the other pieces. My former aviation battalion was even featured in this STEM event. Eads has a population of a few hundred people, so to have this much turn out for it was pretty awesome. Good luck in your STEM program. Let me know if there is anyone I can put you in touch with to share lessons learned.

@Spitfire76 is correct. If the airspace you were flying in was controlled airspace (e.g. Class E surface, Class D) then the FAA MUST approve your flight. The only approved way of getting that approved (until LAANC) is available at your airport, is to submit your request using their online web portal. https://www.faa.gov/uas/request_waiver/request_operate_controlled_airspace/ (On this page, you can select either Authorization or Waiver.) If you are Part 107 qualified and the airspace you are flying in is UNcontrolled airspace (even if it is within 5 SM of the airport), you do not need to contact the airport manager. Contacting the airport manager is only a requirement if you are a hobbyist.

@B Ervin Welcome to the community forums. We hope that you find a lot of good information here. Feel free to search for questions in the forum and if you don't find the exact question you're looking for, pose your own. There are a wide range of experience levels in here, but everyone is willing to share their experience and opinions.

@KirkI agree with you; LAANC doesn't look like it will help me in the near term (next couple of months) since the UAS Facilities Maps that they have published (which will lead up to the LAANC approval areas), let alone the beta test sites, are not in areas that I need approval in. I submitted via the FAA Airspace request website on 18 March 2017 for Class E surface and Class D near KAPA. The Class E surface controlled airspace near KAPA should NOT be a difficult approval process. But it covers 86 square miles of territory that I consistently have to turn work down for. Last week, I turned down 4 jobs because they all fell within this Class E sfc boundary. @LarryB We're all really hopeful that the FAA will be able to get this Fast tracked through Congress. But, if you are a commercial operator, trying to make a go at this, I recommend you contact your Congressional representatives. I've done my part by having three conversations with local Denver FSDO reps, a conversation with an FAA rep in a regional office in Texas, and finally contacting my U.S. Congressional representatives and senators. In turn, they opened up a congressional inquiry for me. It only takes a few minutes to jump on to their website and tell them your story and how it's affecting you and your business via their online forms. As a first step, you can find out who to contact by checking out this website: U.S. Congressional Representative and U.S. Senators A couple of button clicks later, you too can make your voice heard.