Anyone is allowed to fly a drone, I mean you can buy them from toy shops for less than £20.00. I personally find the ‘toy’ versions are incredibly difficult to fly but I’m not of the ‘gaming generation’ so I’m not skilled at using hand contollers whereas my 16 year old sone can flip and fly drones upside down.

There are two main types of drone pilots those that fly for recreation and those that fly for commercial reasons.

Put simply, if you want to earn money through drone filming you need to be licensed by the CAA in the UK. This involves a home-study course that you can do in a few days or months depending on how much time you have.

After studying part one you then go to a two-day classroom based course to cover and sit the theory test. After that it’s the task of completing the log and your flight test. It’sa lot of work and expensive, but for anyone serious enough in wanting to fly drones proessionally it’s an absolute must.

Commercial uses can range form simle tasks such as shooting at weddings (with prior permission of course!) right through to intelligence gathering leading to arned forces heavily relying on them. I read somwhere that the need for ground soldiers in war will no longer be required in years to come as drones and other technology will take over.

The first ‘drones’ were built during the First World War. And launched by catapult or flown by remote control

And Technology has advanced so much that they can be flown in tightest of areas without being picked up by radar.

Until recently film makers had to use planes and helicopters to capture scenes form above so this process was naturally expensive, imagine have to take several takes to get the right shots in a helicopter.

Now top Hollywood blockbusters have all the advanatages of using dones with high-end cameras to capture and create drama. Watch any action/adventure blockbuster and count the number of drone shots.

Officially drones are called Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) meaning aircraft with no on-board crew or passengers.

In most cases they are remotely piloted vehicles (RPVs) and are now used in everyday life including Police and fire services, weather monitoring and there is even the possibilty that delivery companies will one day use them for everyday deliveries.

One of the most useful aspects of drones is their use and affordability for businesses in their marketing.

Video content has boomed in recent years due to the popularity of mobile viewing devices such as phones and tablets. Social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are fast moving towards video posts rather than plain text or photos and as Google owns YouTube, websites that have video content on their websites are standing a better chance of increasing their online rankings.

There are countless figures to back up this boom in video and in particular companies are far more likely to sell a product or service after a potential customer has seen a video. Add some drone footage for dramatic effect and any business no matter how large or small can produce a blockbuster marketing film of it’s own!


There are thousands of drone pilots to help with marketing videos who can work with a number of different types of companies including production companies, advertising agencies, educational establishment’s right through to small one-man independent businesses that may require the smallest promo video for websites or social media.

With drone filming you can promote your business services and products with films that are breath taking and a full range of options to cover every eventuality. This starts with a 360 degree remotely operated camera gimbal means the craft can fly a required path.

A second ground station means the director and you can see the action in real time as it’s shot.

The UK limits to flying 400ft above ground level, and higher with permission to provide smooth and flowing shots. There’s also smaller craft that uses cameras such as a Go Pro for awkward indoor shots.