Question / Discussion Ive bought a DRONE!!

[Annie Beau]

had this idea for ages, ..property surveys, in particular roof inspections but there's not a CHANCE I'm climbing a ladder. Lots of really tall buildings/commercial properties where I live. Once I get the hang of it and get my head round what licences ill need my idea is to contact surveyors and insurance companies, or maybe even people who are selling/buying a house, do a quick flight over the roof zooming in on usual trouble spots such as chimney flashing etc,, write up an quick report (husband is in the building trade so he can help that at first). bung the footage, on an email and get paid. it sounds so easy!! BUT the rules and regs around drones are ridiculously complex.
Its also a very 'blokey' environment - all the training course website Ive looked at have pics of groups of men on these courses. And over the weekend I joined a drone facetwit group and got a couple of sarcastic answers to a simple question and a ;where do you live'...comment (I struggled not to reply 'in my coven with my cat and cauldron)
Any advice on drones, or any idea/critique about the idea most welcome (unless you're one of the dickheads on that FB forum)

 

[Jon]

Do you need a license to use a drone for professional recordings?

 

[Annie Beau]

Do you need a license to use a drone for professional recordings?

yeh, all rules changed at the beginning of the year so any one using a drone for commercial purposes need to have a licence /certificate that they've done some training, I think the one I need is A2 as my drone is less than 250g ..any heavier than that and you need a more intense course and different level of cert

 

[Annie Beau]

insurance as well, starts about £115 for a year covers third party in case I get distracted by something shiny and land it in someones green house

 

[Annie Beau]

Ive decided that I am absolutely pissing in the wind with this drone, its hard to understand, it nearly crashed into the sea, this was before I realised there is such a thing as a 'no fly zone' for MILES around where I live and I have been flying it in said no fly zone. Took it out of the box today for the first time in ages and couldn't get the flamin thing to take off.
I still want to do the same project though but not with the drone. You can buy a roof inspection pole and camera but its about 400 quid! It s just basically an extendable pole with a camera which you attach to your phone and the image picked on the camera is relayed to your phone. But I don't want to pay that kind of money...so how would I go about this? If I got a phone with a camera to stick on the pole, could I take a video (relayed to my phone ) and use still from it And would it work with Bluetooth to my phone?
Really annoyed with myself - a few weeks ago I put in an insurance claim for storm damage to my roof and the insurance company sent some one to photo graph it who was using one of these pole cameras. For the first day in about ten years I was ill and slept right through it, would've been a great opportunity to have a nosey!