Skip to main content

FAA Allows First Real Estate Company To Use Drones For Aerial Photography

Phantom 2 Vision+ | DJI

Douglas Trudeau of Tierra Antigua Realty in Tucson, Ariz., today became the first real estate agent who can legally use a drone for real estate photography. If you have recently looked at the listings in your local MLS (or on Zillow and Redfin), you have likely seen plenty of images that could have only come from a drone. Under the FAA’s strict definition, however, those weren’t taken legally, as the agency still prohibits almost all commercial use of drones.

Trudeau, the FAA today announced, is authorized “to fly a Phantom 2 Vision+ quadcopter to enhance academic community awareness and augment real estate listing videos.” The Vision+ is currently the top-of-the-line model in DJI’s lineup of consumer drones (the $3,400 Inspire 1 doesn’t qualify as a consumer model in my eyes).

In addition, the FAA also granted another exception to Advanced Aviation Solutions in Spokane, Wash., which will use a fixed-wing eBee AG drone from senseFly for monitoring crops.

Tierra Antigua and Advanced Aviation Solutions can’t just take their drones for a spin, however. In addition to the pilot, there also has to be an observer around. The pilot also needs to have “an FAA Private Pilot certificate and a current medical certificate, and the UAS must remain within line of sight at all times.” Obviously, you can’t safely operate a Vision+ if you can’t answer these questions from the FAA’s pilot exam.

Today’s new exemptions bring the total number of companies allowed to commercially operate drones in the U.S. to 13 (there are a total of 14 exceptions for 13 companies now). That’s not a lot by any stretch of the imagination and the FAA actually got some pushback when it gave exemptions to a number of film companies earlier this year. The FAA says it has now received a total of 214 requests for exemptions.
Labels:

Comments

  1. Muhammad HassanDecember 15, 2017 at 1:04 AM

    I love the way you write and share your niche! Very interesting and different! Keep it coming! Dallas real estate aerial photography

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How To Hide Text In Microsoft Word 2007, Reveal It & Protect It

Sometimes what we hide is more important than what we reveal. Especially, documents with sensitive information, some things are supposed to be ‘for some eyes only’. Such scenarios are quite common, even for the more un-secretive among us. You want to show someone a letter composed in MS Word, but want to keep some of the content private; or it’s an official letter with some part of it having critical data. As important as these two are, the most common use could involve a normal printing job. Many a time we have to print different versions of a document, one copy for one set of eyes and others for other sets. Rather than creating multiple copies and therefore multiple printing jobs, what if we could just do it from the same document?  That too, without the hassle of repeated cut and paste. We can, with a simple feature in MS Word – it’s just called Hidden and let me show you how to use it to hide text in Microsoft Word 2007. It’s a simple single click process. Open the docum...
1 comment
Read more

Boom, the startup that wants to build supersonic planes, just signed a massive deal with Virgin

Have you heard about Boom? Boom is a relatively new startup that’s aiming to build something pretty crazy. They’re not building an app… or a social network… or even some new gadget for the Kickstarter crowd. Boom wants to build planes. Really, really, really fast planes. Specifically, they’re trying to design and build a supersonic passenger plane that goes 2.2x the speed of sound. If all goes to plan, they’ll be able to shuttle people from New York to London in 3.5 hours, and SF to Tokyo in 4.5. Sound crazy? I wouldn’t disagree. It’s worth noting that the company is in the very early days for something as intensive, massive, and hugely expensive as designing and producing a passenger aircraft. They’re still working on their first prototype, and hope to fly it by late next year. But it’s also worth noting that the team behind the plane has some serious talent in its blood: the company’s 11 employees have collectively contributed to over 30 aircrafts — having worked on thin...
Post a Comment
Read more

Build Your Own Awesome Personal 3D Avatar with Avatara

Do you use social networks and want to build your own awesome 3D avatar? Maybe you want to send someone a cute cuddly image of yourself (kind of)? Or maybe you have your own ideas of what you would do with an Avatar… Well look no further than Avatara which I discovered from the MakeUseOf directory . You can create 3d avatars out of pre-set up templates or create your own from scratch. To start, visit Avatara’s homepage . You will see this screen: Click Get Started to umm, get started! That will take you to this screen: You see that you can build your own Avatar using an uploaded head shot like the Obama one above (just an example, guys). Or roll with one of their awesome avatars. I chose to start with a blank avatar by clicking Start with a blank avatar at the bottom of the screen. That takes you to here: I clicked on the filter at the top and told it to filter out everything but male characters and then I saw this: I rolled with Buck and continued. You need to click Select...
1 comment
Read more