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> You can likely monetize Youtube for incidental footage during your flights without a commercial drone license It's a grey area I agree; but if you're filming

by scoot 6y ago

> You can likely monetize Youtube for incidental footage during your flights without a commercial drone license It's a grey area I agree; but if you're filming your flights with the intention of putting the videos on YouTube and monetizing them, that's arguably commercial use.

aeternum 6y ago
It is a grey area, but if the FAA goes after drone pilots for this, then they should also go after the many student and private pilots who monetize their training and flight videos.
- danaliv 6y ago
  Fair warning to anyone thinking of taking advantage of this gray area: the FAA is very, very strict when it comes to interpreting whether something is a commercial op. Pilots, for example, are considered to be getting compensation when they log flight hours, even if no money changes hands. (If this sounds ridiculous, you’ve never had to build 1500 hours. Every tenth is solid gold.)
  - redis_mlc 6y ago
    > Pilots, for example, are considered to be getting compensation when they log flight hours, even if no money changes hands. The above comment is so vague that I won't even comment on it. Depending on the details, it could be either correct or not. 1) For example, if I fly an airplane, I can take real estate photos that I sell myself as a private pilot. That's how many new pilots funded further training back in the day. There are several other business activities that private pilots are allowed to do. 2) Most pilots log all hours flown, without concern for whether being paid or not. (The only required logged hours are to meet various currency requirements, but I've never seen anybody do minimal logging.) So when interpreting FAA drone rules, I would carefully read them with the understanding of how airplane and airspace rules reply, hence my original post above. If you don't know why and how the FARS were written, then you're probably wrong, as most of the posts above appear to be uninformed. The most important thing to know about FARS is that they're intended to separate traffic. So if your drone is in an airspace where other aircraft are flying, you likely have a violation. If you recall a couple years ago, drone pilots griped about 400' or 500' AGL max. Well, look at a sectional chart to see why. If you can't read a sectional chart, you shouldn't be flying drones near a city or airport.

by scoot 6y ago

aeternum 6y ago

It is a grey area, but if the FAA goes after drone pilots for this, then they should also go after the many student and private pilots who monetize their training and flight videos.

danaliv 6y ago
Fair warning to anyone thinking of taking advantage of this gray area: the FAA is very, very strict when it comes to interpreting whether something is a commercial op. Pilots, for example, are considered to be getting compensation when they log flight hours, even if no money changes hands. (If this sounds ridiculous, you’ve never had to build 1500 hours. Every tenth is solid gold.)
- redis_mlc 6y ago
  > Pilots, for example, are considered to be getting compensation when they log flight hours, even if no money changes hands. The above comment is so vague that I won't even comment on it. Depending on the details, it could be either correct or not. 1) For example, if I fly an airplane, I can take real estate photos that I sell myself as a private pilot. That's how many new pilots funded further training back in the day. There are several other business activities that private pilots are allowed to do. 2) Most pilots log all hours flown, without concern for whether being paid or not. (The only required logged hours are to meet various currency requirements, but I've never seen anybody do minimal logging.) So when interpreting FAA drone rules, I would carefully read them with the understanding of how airplane and airspace rules reply, hence my original post above. If you don't know why and how the FARS were written, then you're probably wrong, as most of the posts above appear to be uninformed. The most important thing to know about FARS is that they're intended to separate traffic. So if your drone is in an airspace where other aircraft are flying, you likely have a violation. If you recall a couple years ago, drone pilots griped about 400' or 500' AGL max. Well, look at a sectional chart to see why. If you can't read a sectional chart, you shouldn't be flying drones near a city or airport.