I've been researching FAA regulations and law for some time now, figured there are quite a few aviation experts here that could possibly help me out. I'm in the private forestry consulting industry with dealing's in real estate for rural and recreational landsale operations. Our area of operations is predominately southern Arkansas, but we do get occasional prospects in eastern Texas and northern Louisiana.
Our company purchased a "DJI Phantom 2 Vision +" for the purpose of videoing and photographing rural property to enhance our advertisement as well as gather timber management data from the air. Up until now, realtors had been allowed to use quadcopters for advertisement as long as there was no direct charge placed for the service. Recently, state and FAA law to my understanding requires UAS operators to be certified commercially (i.e. Sportsman's pilot license - minimum), registered with the FAA, and to be exempted from Section 333/Title 14 code in order to fly quadcopters for business application.
As this is a greatly needed asset for our business, I'm checking around for tips and tricks from those who have earned their non-virtual wings should I decide to go the pilot training route. Is there a license in progress or instated purely for commercial UAS operations? I've heard it could take another year, I'm pinched because full flight training is really overkill for this purpose - not much desire to get my own private plane. I understand I'll need to get aviation insurance for my quadcopter as well. Do any of you think applying on my own or going through a aviation firm/lawyer would be the best way to get exempted and settled with the FAA?
Any more details and information would be extremely helpful! I've got quite a collection of digital documents, but these regulations seem to change day by day.
