So drones, huh? Well, once again I'm no stranger to being late to the party. One, I don't like parties to begin with. Two, I'm still mentally recovering from that Kessler Cineslider purchase back in the early 2010s to go along with my Canon 7D that Phillip Bloom told me about. Speaking of good 'ol Phillip Bloom, this week I'm finally replacing my tried and true (but very past its prime) Miller DS20.
But back to that drone party thing.
Towards the end of last year, I caved and joined Team Drone. Over the years I've lost work because I'd not jumped on the bandwagon sooner, so after a few months of eye-balling a couple of different ones, I ended up buying a DJI Mavic 2 Pro at the closest BestBuy. I got home, unboxed that nonsense, and headed straight back to that BestBuy because the dude in the blue shirt and khaki pants didn't mention also needing to buy memory cards. I also bought an extra battery, another set of propellers, and a tacky carrying case out of spite. "That'll show 'em," said the guy who just spent even more money on a toy camera that flies through the air.
Oh, and a quick Google search pointed out that the Chinese dude behind DJI is about my age and is worth about a billion dollars more than me considering DJI has 70% of the consumer drone market. While he was building drone prototypes in his college dorm room, I was, well, not doing anything that cool or profitable.
Turns out those flying chainsaws are great and probably too easy to get into. Gravity always wins and I've already crashed a few times – the first one being pretty rough. Luckily that unplanned landing was easily fixed with a multitool. Thank goodness for muscle memory from all the mechanical nonsense I broke and tried to fix as a kid at my grandparents' place.
There's a 500+ page handbook of aviation goodness I've started reading in preparing for the Remote Pilot with a small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) rating test. I'm already bulking up on my acronyms and learning about weather patterns, but I've yet to come across the sections on "Properly Filming Arial Footage to Effectively Open and Close Documentary Films" or "That One Shot Every YouTuber with a Drone Does."
Soon enough I'll be adding "Pilot" to my DP resume and wearing out Kenny Loggins' "Danger Zone" every time I unpack that remote-controlled widow maker from its tacky fanny pack of a case. I'm currently accepting call sign suggestions to embroider onto my bomber jacket.
All kidding aside there are steps I'll need to take to be doing this drone nonsense professionally and above board. For sure the FAA-Certified Drone Pilot test is on my short list of to-dos along with insuring this spinning plastic death from above for commercial use. I've had production insurance for years, but my insurer shot me down a few months ago when I reached out about covering drone use. There are other options, but I've not gotten there yet.