The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Tuesday issued permits to use drones to monitor crops and photograph properties for sale, marking the first time permission has been granted to companies involved in agriculture and real estate.
The two exemptions to-date on the current ban for commercial drone flights were granted to Advanced Aviation Solutions in Star, Idaho, for "crop scouting," and Doug Trudeau with Tierra Antigua Realty in Tucson.
Trudeau's exemption authorizes him to fly a Phantom 2 Vision+ quadcopter to "enhance academic community awareness and augment real estate listing videos," the FAA said.
Real estate companies have been eager to gain permission for drone use to photograph and make videos of pricey properties, making this a landmark decision for the real estate industry and Southern Arizona.
We asked Trudeau what it took to reach this milestone and what exactly was involved in getting to be first in the country to achieve FAA exemption to operate a drone for real estate use.
Trudeau says he first began using a 1.7-pound drone in late 2013, but stopped when the FAA warned, in June 2014, that real estate agents using a drone to capture footage of a home is a “commercial use”, and therefore prohibited. So Trudeau contacted the FAA and began the process for an exemption.
“The whole thing took 177 days in what is normally a 120-days, and cost a few thousand dollars,” Trudeau told us. “The largest cost was in time.”
Much of the credit for seeing it through Trudeau attributes to Tucson-based AUV Fight Services located at Tucson International Airport where he has been training for his own private FAA pilot license.
For the time being, Trudeau’s Phantom 2 Vision+ quadcopter will need to be flown by someone with a valid pilot license. The FAA permit requires drone operations to include both a ground "pilot" and an “observer”. The pilot must have at least an FAA private pilot license and a current medical certificate, and must keep the drone within line of sight of the operator at all times.
Since the announcement Tuesday, Trudeau has had several offers from Tucson pilots ready to help. He has also been invited to speak at the UAS Commercialization Industry Conference in Washington, DC and contacted by the National Association of Realtors as they plan to print an update on drones for all Realtors as soon as next week.
“This is a milestone breakthrough for the technology and our region. Most people don’t know much about this technology or the commercial applications, so all eyes will be on Southern Arizona now,” Rafael Gaytan, President of AUV Flight Services said.
The Association for Unmanned Vehicles Systems International (AUVSI) has been predicting the impact of commercial applications of drones for some time. Its Economic Impact of Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration in the United States report printed shows the economic benefit of UAS integration. AUVSI’s findings predict that within the first three years of integration more than 70,000 jobs will be created in the United States with an economic impact of more than $13.6 billion. The benefits grow through 2025 when they foresee more than 100,000 jobs created and an economic impact of $82 billion.
While the AUVSI projects more than 100,000 new jobs by 2025, they also go on to say it will be states that create favorable regulatory and business environments for the industry and the technology that will likely siphon jobs away from those states that do not.
The Report is also broken down by state and the Economic Impact projected for Arizona shows 2,800 new jobs projected in 2015. To view the full report click here: New Economic Impact Report Full