How To Film a Protest With a Drone

Wondering how to legally film a protest with drones? Learn the formula in order to remain safe and legal to film protests with drones from above. 

Drone pilots offer significant value to society, journalists and even small business owners as protests rage across the country. As many journalists want to show the whole picture, drones are now commonly being used to film a protest from the sky. Drones can show the scope of a protest, or when the protest turned ugly.  This could help society truly identify the many players at work during the protests. 

How can drone pilots film legally during Protests?  Well please understand your first amendment right does not apply to taking flight into the airspace. This additional layer indicates there are rules to follow when accessing the national airspace. When flying a protest with a drone, pilots need to ensure they follow the rules to avoid erroneous arrests.  If you find yourself flying a protest, ensure that you remember you not only have the responsibility to keep everyone safe, but you have a responsibility to represent drone pilots as well. 

Let’s discuss a typical list of rules that need to be followed when flying a protest. 

1. Do not fly in a TFR. (temporary flight restriction) (Federal Crime) 
2. Do not fly over people
3. You need an FAA Part 107 Certificate (Don’t forget Drone U Members get free access to our 16 hour Part 107 course)
4. Do not fly over moving vehicles
5. Do not fly in a “careless or reckless manner” (This is the FAA’s Catch-all rule) 
6. When flying in Controlled Airspace.. Acquire an FAA Authorization via LAANC.
7. Do not fly over 400 feet
8. Do not carry hazardous objects
9. Do not deliver or drop objects

Let’s break down these steps and discuss what is really necessary to actually fly drones during a protests.

Can drone pilots fly a drone over a protest during a TFR? No…

1. TFR’s: Drone pilots are well aware of temporary flight restrictions as they are the surest way to get in trouble as a pilot. Typically some law enforcement has been requesting TFR’s from the FAA to inhibit flight.  You can request for a TFR exemption. 

How do you find out if there is a temporary flight restriction? 

There are numerous ways to see where TFR’s are located.  We recommend the FAA’s website, even though it is rather outdated.  We recommend this route because some flight applications take a long time to populate TFR’s. Even DJI’s GO 4 will just let people takeoff in a TFR if the TFR hasn’t hit the system just yet. 

Flying a drone inside of a TFR is the most egregious action a drone pilot can take.  When flying in these areas, pilots face much more serious consequences. Due to the National Defense laws that surround TFR’s, drone pilots face federal offenses from Federal Law Enforcement (FBI).  As a drone pilot, this is one rule that has serious consequences you do not want to face. 

Do not fly over people. 

2. Don’t fly over people. Whether you are flying a drone as a hobbyist or as a commercial pilot, you cannot fly over people. Which leads us to our next point about flying drones as a Part 107 pilot instead of as a hobbyist.  

Flying a drone is not like buying a camera from Bestbuy.  You do not simply just buy it… and fly it.  There are many rules to access the airspace. Frankly, the rules are much more restrictive if you are a hobbyist or flying for recreational purposes.  While history was more favorable for hobbyists, the FAA has cracked down recently on recreational pilots.  

Part 107 Pilots have more freedom to fly drones at protests. 

3. Part 107.  let’s be honest, this is a commercial operation, even if you sell your footage to the news guess what you just sold the footage to the news… Whether you are shooting footage to upload to YouTube or you are selling footage to the news…  That is a commercial operation.  

Frankly, it is a no-brainer to fly under Part 107.  With the increased freedom and legitimacy garnished by law enforcement, you will want an FAA Remote Pilot Certificate. 

This part 107 certificate to garnish authorization, instantly,  to fly in controlled airspace.  If you’re protesting in a large city, chances are, you’re in controlled airspace. 

Looking at the protest in Dallas, most of the airspace is in controlled airspace. The FAA has also implemented a TFR until “further notice.” So following these guidelines, if you were a part 107 pilot you could fly in dallas, but not in the TFR. 

Part 107 pilots also offers you the opportunity to acquire waivers.  Waivers that allow you to fly over people or flying over moving cars. 

As you can imagine, not being able to fly over people will make flying protests very difficult.

Due to the fact that you cannot fly a drone over people, our flight area is limited.  With such a limited flight area, I’m recommending pilots choose to fly over rooftops.  You can capture really awesome footage when flying safely over rooftops. Frankly, as long as you have a part 107 certificate,  do not fly over people, and you’re not in a TFR… Law enforcement doesn’t have much credence to arrest you. 

What type of drone is the best to film a protest? 

Mavic 2 Zoom: The Mavic 2 Zoom is a powerful little drone.  Quiet and clandestine this drone can’t be heard from say 75 feet away.  The drone is small, compact and can travel well. The drone also offers exceptional zoom, even up to 6x zoom at 1080p video. We love this drone as well because it has older firmware that can be unlocked to allow for additional flight modes. 

Mavic 2 Enterprise:  All of the benefits featured above get better with the Mavic 2 enterprise. The drone is literally identical to the Mavic 2 zoom, except the drone has accessories.  Send messages to protestors via a speaker, or showcase you’re a safe pilot by constantly strobing from your location. We also love the Mavic 2 Enterprise because it has attitude mode built in.  Understand, DJI is very weird about buying this drone…. so you may have to order the enterprise drone from a dealer. We recommend a DJI store, like DJI NYC, Multicopter Warehouse or Drone Nerds. 

DC burning building during protest by Drone U Member Ben Burgess

Do not fly over moving vehicles

Yes, it is as dumb as it sounds, and frankly I haven’t seen the FAA enforce this rule a single time.  If you’re flying over a stationary vehicle, it is technically legal. Flying over a moving vehicle though is something else.  This rule is honestly questionable at best, due to the fact that the FAA allows “transversing” people for all public safety.  This is funny because public safety has the least amount of training on drones, statistically speaking. 

Do not fly in a careless or reckless manner. 

This rule is the catch-all for aviation inspectors from the FAA.  What is careless and reckless? Well your subjective interpretation is pretty common. Ask yourself when flying, could i avoid causing injuries and damage when crashing?  As you fly around think of where you can dump the drone in case of an emergency.  

Do not fly over 400 feet

When flying a protest, do not fly over 400 feet.  You are allowed to fly 400 feet over the highest point of a building, as long as, you’re within a 400′ radius of the building.  Please note, the 400′ over a building rule does not apply if you’re in controlled airspace. 

Do not carry hazardous materials or drop items from the drone. 

It is vital to understand drone delivery can only take place under certain circumstances.  Drones are not allowed to carry hazardous material so don’t carry anything period. 

Give way to manned aircraft.

If a helicopter shows up to a protest, understand that the helicopter has the right of way. According to 14 CFR [91:11]9 section C, a helicopter can fly at any altitude that allows for  a safe landing. Which essentially means a subjective conclusion on the ability to safely land the aircraft. 

As drone pilots, we must yield to all other aircraft. Breaking it down, if a news helicopter takes flight into the same airspace that you occupy…you must land or get out of the way. I personally prefer landing, because there are too many unknown unknowns when helicopters and drones fly in close proximity. 

While we have seen questionable incidents of helicopter flying during the protests, this does not justify your poor behavior as a pilot.  Albeit, as drone pilots, you are ultimately responsible for your aircraft. You cannot sink to any other pilot’s level. It doesn’t matter how egregious someone’s flight maneuvers may be.  You must rise above. 

How to help the protest, small businesses or law enforcement with your drone. 

Before we get into how we can protect small businesses, let’s hit these other points and then talk about how small businesses can use drone pilots to protect themselves their businesses and provide a permanent record for insurance to speed up the claims process.

How can drone pilots protect small businesses? Well from verifying an alarm to providing permanent record of damage.  Drone pilots can also help by providing persistence surveillance systems.  Drones could actually be one of the most valuable tools to help protect small businesses today.

One of my friends works at a company called Easy Aerial which has created a persistent surveillance system.  This system will help alarm companies verify calls.  A verified alarm call will deploy officers in a much faster time.  False alarms represent 95% of calls, which is why verification is so important to improve police response time. Droning the business could mean the difference between Busted out windows and an entire store looted.  How, due to the response time. Drone improves response times by law enforcement by providing verified alarm notification. 

Drone pilots have an opportunity to aid PEACEFUL protests and document when they turn ugly.  Drone pilots could also showcase the beautiful actions of human beings.  By showcasing the true value of equality showcasing police and people working together. 

Drone pilots have an opportunity to showcase a beautiful message, but also cause a lot of damage to the protest itself.  Thus you have a large responsibility as a pilot flying a protest. 

If you decide to fly a protest…fly safe.  You’re not just representing a message or a protest.  You’re also representing other drone pilots, so remember you are ultimately responsible… no matter what. Be smart. 

Thanks for reading this, and thanks for supporting Drone U & the Ask Drone U Podcast.