The Grinch hard at work in Houma
December 12, 2015
William Gautreaux
December 16, 2015
Kirk Voclain spent his Thursday flying back and forth from Houma-Terrebonne Airport to Thibodaux Municipal Airport with Charlie Hammonds.
Voclain rode with Hammonds, owner of Hammonds Flying Services, to log more flight hours in pursuit of a recreational pilot’s license. Voclain has no designs to start flying planes for fun once he completes his course.
Instead, Voclain, owner of Kirk Voclain Photography, is taking the appropriate measures to be able to fly unmanned aircraft systems, also called drones, as part of his business. Voclain is just one of many Americans hopping on the drone wave.
According to Laura Hubbard, senior manager of industry communications for Consumer Technology Association, the drone market heated up considerably this year.
“CTA market research expects 2015 to be a defining year for drones, with the category ideally positioned for steady growth,” Hubbard said. “According to projections, the U.S. market will approach $105 million in revenue in 2015 (increasing by more than 52 percent from 2014) with unit sales expected to approach 700,000, an increase of 63 percent.”
Most of those purchases will be for recreational use, which carries more lax regulations. Recreational drone flying does not require a pilot’s license, according to the Federal Aviation Administration website. Users are required to keep the aircraft below 400 feet and within sight at all times, and they cannot fly within 5 miles of an airport unless notifying the control tower beforehand.
There have been talks on the federal level to increase regulations on recreational drones to require each device to be registered and easily traced back to the owner. Drones have had their own share of bad press this year with a few incidents of drones flying near the White House.
For Voclain’s aspirations, he has got to earn at least a sport pilot certificate, which requires a minimum of 20 hours in the air. Once an individual has at least a sport license, he or she can apply for a Section 333 Exemption, which allows for commercial drone use. Voclain said he plans on earning a recreation pilot license, the next level, as a “happy medium.”
“I enjoy flying; it’s a hoot. But I have no reason to get the private pilot license. I don’t have a need for that. What I need the license for is so I can legally fly this thing for my business,” he said.
“This thing” that Voclain refers to is his drone, an Inspire 1 Pro made by DJI and listed for $4,500 on the DJI website. The four-propeller craft is on the higher end of the market, as a popular standard DJI drone called the Phantom retails for $700. Voclain’s features an attached 4K camera that stays stable even as the drone wobbles and turns. According to Voclain, as his device lifts off, it connects to 10 GPS satellites to monitor its flight and also keep it stable when idling in the air.
Voclain estimates the cost of earning his pilot’s license between $6,000 and $7,000, putting his total cost for drone photography well past $10,000. However, he said he considers what he will be able to do with his business worth the pretty penny he’s shelling out.
“There are some real estate connotations to this. Somebody might be selling their house and a view from the air makes all the difference in the world. I also see some potential for certain types of video usage,” he said.
Voclain said that he has done aerial photography since he started his business. However, he currently has to rent a plane or helicopter and a pilot, and file a flight plan.
“Certain businesses do have nice, aerial shots of their businesses, but it’s expensive to have that. Nowadays with this, it’s going to drop the price ridiculously a lot,” he said.
It also doesn’t hurt that the friendly folks at the FAA would have a thing or two to say to him if they found him using the drone for work without the exemption.
“If the FAA was to say ‘Oh, Kirk, what you’re doing is illegal,’ and fine me, the fine would be $10,000,” he said.
Voclain is not Hammonds’s only current student hitting the skies for the purpose of sending drones up at work with no legal hassle. According to Hammonds, he has an employee for local engineering firm T. Baker Smith working toward a license so he can use a drone in his line of work. Hammonds expressed concerns as a pilot about drones’ effects on airspace, but he does not see his students’ planned work as problematic.
“I think the drones are something we’re going to have to contend with. I just hope we’ll keep it at a professional level, especially Kirk and the engineering firm. These guys are professional-type people, I don’t anticipate any problems there,” Hammonds said.
According to the pilot teacher, the classes he offers gives the commercial drone users an idea of how to interact with airspace responsibly.
“It makes them understand our system. Our aviation system is complex, and they have to understand when you’re flying these drones there are limitations,” Hammonds said.
Voclain said that before his flights with Hammonds, he did not think his small remote-controlled aircraft would present a problem. He said that while flying over subdivisions to land, he began to understand that drones violating airspace by going too high or near an airport would have presented issues for his flight
“Just with the knowledge of that, you would never, just because I have the knowledge. You would never want it done to you, so you would never do it to somebody else,” Voclain said.
Hammonds said commercial drone pilots are not the source of his worries, but civilians who are unfamiliar with how airspace works give him caution.
“It’s the guys that are not professional, that don’t have to have a license, that don’t understand our system. That’s the ones you have to be worried about,” he said.
While Voclain holds the same fears about recreational drone users, and wishes the process to using his own for profit were not so arduous, he is excited for the opportunity once he flies through all the hoops.
Voclain said, “It’s the coolest technology. Who would have thought just a few years ago you could put a camera flying in the air with such high quality?” •
Houma photographer Kirk Voclain takes his Inspire 1 Pro drone for a spin. Voclain is taking pilot license classes so he can use his drone in his photography.
