Paid for an aerial package on a shoot that never legally happened

First rental going on the market in a few weeks and I got ahead of myself on the marketing. Here is what it cost me.

I booked an aerial package for $450 off an ad that showed nice footage of a lakefront estate. Guy answered the phone, sounded fine, said Thursday. He no-showed Thursday, blamed wind. Rescheduled Monday, showed up, flew for maybe six minutes and then packed up because his app wouldn't let him take off. The property sits under the approach path of a small regional field, so the airspace there is controlled and he needed authorization he didn't have and couldn't get on the spot. When I asked for his Part 107 number he sent me a screenshot of a receipt for a test prep course. That is not a certificate.

So: $200 nonrefundable deposit gone, nine days of listing delay while I found a photographer with an actual certificate who could bundle a couple of aerials into a ground shoot, and the unit went live without media for the first weekend because I had already told the property manager to expect photos. At $1,450 a month that delay is roughly $480 of rent I can't get back, plus the $200. Call it $680 for footage I never used.

What I'd do differently. Ask for the remote pilot certificate number and the certificate itself before I pay anything, and check the airspace over the property myself before I book a date, since anyone who flies commercially should be doing that check anyway and the ones who don't are the ones who no-show. And I would not have set the listing date around media that wasn't in hand.

5 replies

5sonia_alvarez Get yoursPRO6

Your $480 of lost rent is doing a lot of work in that total, @wren. A single family rental at $1,450 rents on price, condition and the first three photos. I doubt the aerial moved the needle either way, so what you really lost is the $200 deposit and some annoyance. Worth separating those, otherwise you'll overcorrect and start treating media as the reason things sit.

1luis_carrera Get yours

The airspace part is the tell. Controlled airspace near an airport means a commercial pilot needs authorization through the system the FAA runs for that, and requests can come back same-day or can come back denied depending on the grid square and the altitude. A pilot who works the area knows which side of the fence your property is on before he quotes you. Rules and the request process do change, so anyone booking should ask the pilot to say in writing that the flight is authorized for that address.

I'd have caught this with one question: what altitude are you authorized for at this address?

1raj_mehta14CapitalPRO6

What did the deposit language actually say? Most of these one-page agreements I've read make the deposit nonrefundable for client cancellation and say nothing about the pilot being unable to fly. That's the clause that cost you $200 and it's the one nobody reads. If there's no line saying you get the deposit back when the pilot can't legally operate, you were funding his weather risk.

4jessreyes12AU1APRO8

Question I probably should already know the answer to: is aerial ever worth it on a plain rental? Everything in the chapter and everything I read points at land, big estates and commercial. @wren, if the answer is no for a $1,450 unit, the loss here was really the booking, not the nine days.

Paid for an aerial package on a shoot that never legally happened

5 replies