State your goal

State your goal is something I have said to clients that were struggling with what they think they need and get them focused on the desired end result instead of the process to get there.

The process to get there is my problem.  I also use it on myself in an effort to simplify what I am trying to accomplish.

The goal for me here is to be able to do aerial coverage of farm, ranch and equestrian facilities as well as the odd golf course fly through tour...

With that in mind I put together a set of criteria and did some research as well as leveraging my own knowledge of video production techniques and content distribution.

• Most of our work ends up on the web.  That means we don't need to fly a RED or an Alexa.
• A hexacopter with gimbal and camera is about $13K+.
• A quadcopter with HD camera can be had from about $200+.  The low end sans gimbal.
• Almost all quadcopters restrict a 360 degree view due to landing gear. 
• Quadcopters with retractable landing gear are pricey.

Add to this that the closest I have ever been to flying anything is in GTA.  Years ago I read a book on flying called Stick and Rudder so the ideas of yaw, pitch and roll were not new.   I had the theory but ZERO practice.

I am also VERY aware of how dangerous any kind of helicopter type of vehicle is.  Consider this:

Safety is of the utmost importance here.  In order to be safe we have to educate ourselves on the topic at hand.  Listen to the advice of the experts.  Always act responsibly.  Always be a positive ambassador to the UAV community at large.

If someone had been standing in front of that door when the UAV crashed, that person would have gone to the hospital.  As a responsible UAV pilot we must all work towards never, ever placing someone at risk like this.

This means flying your UAV only in areas that are legal and safe.  Sadly, the pilots that upload footage from a UAV taken over people on a beach or at a festival or anything of that nature is just downright irresponsible.  Four or more spinning blades make for a nasty weapon should the UAV go out of control.

Within the current FAA rules, there is a section 333 that a professional user of UAV equipment will need to file an exemption for.  I will talk about that process in a later post as I make application for the exemption.  Currently, the FAA is a bit overwhelmed with requests for this so they are taking a while to process.

In the mean time, I have a lot to learn and a lot to cover.

In the next installment, I will talk about the different UAVs that were considered as well as our current front runner.  The use of a mini-UAV to learn to fly will also be discussed.  part of my goal here is convey my process to hopefully ease the pain for others that are considering this as a tool.