My Story
My name is Zachary Elliott (that’s me to the left). I created The Legal Drone because I felt like there was a need for an approachable way to learn about the laws in the United States on flying your drone for money. I know there are a lot of resources out there on getting your Part 107 license, but I’ve had experience with Part 107 from a lot of different angles (see my story below) and thought I could add something different.
I became a pilot when I was in college at Middle Tennessee State University and was part of the first group of students to go through a program where we learned to fly on brand new glass cockpit Diamond DA-40s. Because of this program, which partnered with NASA, I was able to get my private pilot’s license and instrument rating in under 100 hours and just a single check ride.
After college, I went to law school, graduated and got licensed to practice law in Ohio. In 2014, after I became licensed to practice law in the state of Ohio, a photographer friend of mine approached me to see if I could help him get a drone license. He had been trying to do some work for local realtors, who were afraid of the legal consequences of doing work with drones. They had all heard horror stories of realtors getting in trouble for working with unlicensed drone pilots. This was back when flying a drone commercially was still sort of the wild west and you had to have some type of manned-pilot’s license. I told him I’d do some research and get back to him.
A few days later I called him back to tell him that unfortunately, you had to have your pilot’s license to fly drones commercially but luckily, I had my pilot’s license! Instead of him getting a license, what if we teamed up to create a drone services company?
And with that LostPeak Media was born. LostPeak has been around since 2015 and we’ve had the opportunity to work with real estate brokers, innumerable local businesses and one huge internet service provider. Here’s our demo reel we created.
We’ve also had the chance to film some pretty cool footage, like this controlled implosion at an old power plant.
In my opinion, the world of commercial drone services is still sort of hit or miss. One of our biggest challenges with growing LostPeak has been the fly-by-night drone operator that undercuts us because they aren’t licensed and don’t carry insurance. Not only does this make our industry look bad, but because I sometimes have to tell a client I need FAA permission to fly a specific job (which could take months), we’ve seen a lot of potential clients go with the lower-priced, illegal operator.
I still think there’s a need for education, not only of drone pilots, but for companies looking to incorporate drones into their business and the public at large. My experience as a private pilot, attorney, Part 107 pilot and drone services company owner places me directly in the right position to help with this endeavor. This is the purpose of The Legal Drone. I’d love to hear from you if you ever have any suggestions or comments.
Just so that it is clear, my lawyerly duty requires me to let you know that I’m not providing legal advice here. If you need a licensed attorney, please go hire one. This site is for research purposes only. Check out my full Terms of Use here.
