We love getting asked to cover community events, especially those requiring more skills than simply flying a drone. For this event, it involved a constantly moving 2+ hour tour of the San Antonio Missions by a group of Ford Model T’s, plus a photo shoot on the tarmac of Stinson Field Airport, we gladly accepted the challenge. The Ford Model T’s were built in the 1920’s and have a top speed of 25-35mph, but when trying to leap frog them each time in order to be set up and ready to fly or record, was a challenge.
First up, was obtaining permission by the airport ATC / management to do the photo shoot using drones. Second, was applying for a FAA airspace waiver in order to fly out on the tarmac, near the primary terminal building in Class D airspace, in a ZERO AGL area. AGL = Above Ground Level, in other words, don’t fly there. Third, once we obtained authorization from the first 2 steps, then it was time to contact DJI’s Flysafe department to get their unlock license for the 2 drones we planned to utilize. That didn’t happen until the night before the event. Talk about cutting it close? But we didn’t apply for everything until only 4 days before, so getting FAA approval was dicey. We worked with the amount of advance notice that we had been given. We did do a drive thru of the route prior to accepting the assignment, plus performing an in person visit to the airport before contacting them for authorization.
If you need video or photo coverage of your event, feel free to reach out to us via the contact info at the top of this page. Our rates are very competitive and we know you will be happy with the results.
Here is the video from the Airport photo shoot…
Here is the video from the Missions Run… Note, the Missions are part of the National Parks System, thus drones are prohibited and we used a camera instead. So this video is partly photo slides with some video from places where drones were allowed to be flown.