USA Seen Any Non Licensed Pilots Working Commercial Gigs?

[FlyaDrone]

Have any of you become aware of non part 107 pilots making money flying jobs in your territory? I have only flown recreational so far, and only on our Class G designated airspace private farm property. I am anxiously awaiting delivery of my I 2 + X5S with an opportunity to gain logged stick time so as to eventually assist with commercial flights for a local ongoing drone business. The owner has told me several times that he has run across non licensed pilots getting paying jobs flying local sites most often within regulated airspace. In fact I have seen obvious aerial drone footage shown on our local TV stations specifically showing footage of vehicles in motion while pitching the purchase of a new vehicle.

My pilot friend has caught even more of these operations going down. We live in a small population market and any drone business lost to non licensed hobbyist pilots is an opportunity wasted. Obviously the FAA has no where near enough personnel hired to police this situation. So pirated, paying commercial flight time is setting a very low pay rate expectation (I can get my cousin to fly this job for less than what you quoted), and most often not insured too.

Any of you pilots ever "drop a dime" to the FAA on this type of behavior?

Any suggestions on how to handle this type of activity?

 

[Casey53]

I don't think you can do much about it, nor will the FAA likely get involved unless someone gets injured.

Same as you, I've seen a lot of these car lot ads lately with drone aerials and they are within our airport radius and unlikely they have gotten a waiver in time for their Xmas ads. I doubt if many of them have a 107 either and could be one of their mechanics who happens to have one as a toy to impress his boss. TV news is doing a lot of it too and I doubt they have waivers in time to launch and will yell "Freedom of the press" or something and cops look the other way. Our fire department had drones flying at night looking for illegal fireworks and I seriously doubt if they had a late-night waiver or over peoples head one. Entire 107 setup is laughable in the amount of time lost in dealing with the FAA where the Hobbyist can call the local tower for a quick okay, but the 107 has time-consuming hoops to jump through just to make it a legal and payable job - and by the time you do all that, the job has been handed off to a hobbyist who does it for less or even free.

Much like tree trimmers who operate without a license or insurance, and probably 90% fall in that category too according to my tree trimmer who gets really ticked off about them cutting into his action. Same goes for amateur photographers vs. the local pros, street food vendors in front of restaurants, etc.

Welcome to the real business world.

 

[licensed pilot]

Have any of you become aware of non part 107 pilots making money flying jobs in your territory? I have only flown recreational so far, and only on our Class G designated airspace private farm property. I am anxiously awaiting delivery of my I 2 + X5S with an opportunity to gain logged stick time so as to eventually assist with commercial flights for a local ongoing drone business. The owner has told me several times that he has run across non licensed pilots getting paying jobs flying local sites most often within regulated airspace. In fact I have seen obvious aerial drone footage shown on our local TV stations specifically showing footage of vehicles in motion while pitching the purchase of a new vehicle.

My pilot friend has caught even more of these operations going down. We live in a small population market and any drone business lost to non licensed hobbyist pilots is an opportunity wasted. Obviously the FAA has no where near enough personnel hired to police this situation. So pirated, paying commercial flight time is setting a very low pay rate expectation (I can get my cousin to fly this job for less than what you quoted), and most often not insured too.

Any of you pilots ever "drop a dime" to the FAA on this type of behavior?

Any suggestions on how to handle this type of activity?

"Any of you pilots ever "drop a dime" to the FAA on this type of behavior?"

Yes. A complete waste of time. Feds wanted the drone owner's name and a ton of other identifying information.

I'm a retired cop; it would be like me telling the burglary victim, sorry mam, but w/o the burglar's name, address or a photo we can't help you. The feds have no interest in leaving their cozy offices investigating any drone reports and look at your reporting as a nuisance.

 

[LevitatedMedia]

"Any of you pilots ever "drop a dime" to the FAA on this type of behavior?"

Yes. A complete waste of time. Feds wanted the drone owner's name and a ton of other identifying information.

I'm a retired cop; it would be like me telling the burglary victim, sorry mam, but w/o the burglar's name, address or a photo we can't help you. The feds have no interest in leaving their cozy offices investigating any drone reports and look at your reporting as a nuisance.

Too true... not to mention did you see the outcome of the Casey Niestat case where there was complete and utterly disgusting violations and the FAA stated that "they could not find substantial evidence linking Casey as the drone operator".... So to me that means, if no one has any proof I was the one holding the sticks - no charges can come to me.

 

[licensed pilot]

"FAA Enforcement" is an oxymoron when it comes to UAS. And it will get worse with the feds attempting to divest themselves from those pesky drones and trying to give it all back to the states and cities, calling it the UAS Integration Pilot Program. Whatever happened to "we are the FAA and only the FAA can regulate the national airspace?"

 

[ReadyKilowatt]

"Any of you pilots ever "drop a dime" to the FAA on this type of behavior?"

Yes. A complete waste of time. Feds wanted the drone owner's name and a ton of other identifying information.

I'm a retired cop; it would be like me telling the burglary victim, sorry mam, but w/o the burglar's name, address or a photo we can't help you. The feds have no interest in leaving their cozy offices investigating any drone reports and look at your reporting as a nuisance.

Then again, a few years ago after a smash-and-grab robbery I was told to "check out the local pawn shops" to see if any of my stuff showed up. I said "isn't that your job?" and was basically told they don't have the time nor resources to bother, and that I should just file an insurance claim. But plenty of time to run speed traps on the highway...

It seems that's the way enforcement works anymore.

 

[kadmow]

Well, the UAV industry and related parties (licensed and unlicensed, AMA etc.) called the Feds on their Right to police the airspace (constitutional or otherwise), now you have got to deal with the fall out. Better marketing to potential clients re. liability, dealing in commercial proceeds of amateur (non commercial) aviation etc. lol. Now we see local jurisdictions making up local airspace law (no jurisdictional rights)...

 

[CSpenceFLY]

In regards to the comments about the FAA wanting evidence. How would you like that to work? They could come to you because you are the only "known" drone owner in the area and blame you for illegal or harassing behavior. Wouldn't you like them to have to actual have evidence against you to charge you? This very thing happened to me. Some people in my area were claiming they were being harassed by a drone and I am the only known operator in the area. The only thing that kept it from getting out of control was my previous contact with the sheriffs department regarding helping them with education. To this day I have been unable to prove my innocence to two people on my street.

 

[licensed pilot]

It's called "investigating." If you were not the culprit, then what's the harm? answering a few questions?

 

[AK Vet]

I see illegal flying all the time in my town. I live in a small Alaskan community so calling out an individual publically doesn't fly well (pun intended) because everyone knows each other and we have to work together. So I have learned to make anonymous reports via the FAA Hotline. FAA Hotline Reporting Form

 

[Dave Pitman]

Yes. A complete waste of time. Feds wanted the drone owner's name and a ton of other identifying information.

In my experience, it makes no difference if you provide the FAA with a name and contact including published video of the crime. It's probably not written, but their policy seems to be - see and do nothing unless there is harm and the media gets involved.