Aerial Photography: The opportunities available to drone operators are enormous, ranging from aerial photography for promotional purposes to recording the topography of a large site for surveying. To capture or survey commercially requires a PfCO, permission to fly from the CAA. This isn’t a cheap or easy process and I completed the training recently over an intensive 4 day course, which included a theory exam and a flight test.
The flight test was nerve wracking and each pilot had to perform a series of manoeuvres in front of an examiner, the day was windy and unfortunately out of the 15 test pilots that day, 3 crashed their expensive toys into trees.
After the 4 day course you have to submit to the CAA with the fees an Operations Manual which is is specific to you and your drone, again this was time consuming gathering all the necessary information for this and in it’s preferred format.
My license is on it’s way and will be ready to fly commercially very soon.