Aerial photography and video that clears the paperwork
Nine years flying Canadian airspace for councils, federal agencies, universities, manufacturers, farms, contractors and developers. Certified for advanced operations, and comfortable with the paperwork that controlled airspace demands.
Six kinds of client. Six definitions of useful.
Nine years of commercial operation across Canadian airspace, from rural fields to controlled-airspace urban sites. What changes between jobs isn't the flying. It's what the imagery has to prove once it lands on someone's desk.
Municipal & regional government
Infrastructure and public works documentation, road and bridge condition, park and facility planning. Council reports and tender packages need imagery that is dated, repeatable and defensible — not just attractive.
Agencies & universities
Environmental and shoreline monitoring, research support, campus and facility documentation. These jobs live or die on methodology: same altitude, same path, same conditions, every time, so the data actually compares.
Manufacturing & utilities
Roof, stack, tank and structure inspection without scaffolding, rope access or a shutdown. Often the real value isn't the photo — it's that nobody had to go up there to get it.
Farm & land operations
Crop and field survey, drainage and flood assessment, seasonal change documentation. Repeat visits flown from the same waypoints so the sequence lines up across a growing season.
Contractors & developers
Progress documentation on a fixed schedule, from consistent positions. Useful for draw reporting, dispute records and — once the build is finished — marketing it.
Real estate & marketing
Listing photography, elevated stills that show lot lines and surroundings, and short-form video cut for listings and social. Delivered graded and ready to use, or as a finished edit.
Not on the list? These categories overlap more than they differ. If you can describe the site and what the imagery needs to show, we can tell you whether it's flyable, what airspace permission it needs, and what it costs.
Why certification matters for your shoot
If your site sits in controlled airspace — and most urban sites do — the operation needs a written RPAS Flight Authorization from NAV CANADA, and the pilot needs an Advanced certificate to hold it. Flying closer than 30 metres to bystanders, or over them, has the same requirement.
An uncertified operator either can't do the job or does it unlawfully, which is a problem that lands on you as the client. We hold the certification, file the authorizations, and produce the site survey and risk assessment as part of the job rather than as an afterthought.
Ask any drone operator for two things: their Advanced pilot certificate, and the Transport Canada registration of the aircraft they'll fly. If either is slow to appear, keep looking.
Common questions.
How much does a drone shoot cost?
It depends on three things: whether the site sits in controlled airspace, how much flying time the coverage needs, and how much editing you want afterwards. A straightforward single-site shoot in uncontrolled airspace with lightly edited stills is at the low end. A downtown site needing a NAV CANADA authorization, or a project needing repeat visits across months, costs more. Tell us the location and what the imagery has to show and we'll quote properly rather than guess.
Do you need permission to fly over my property or site?
Airspace permission and property permission are two separate things. Airspace in controlled zones requires a written RPAS Flight Authorization from NAV CANADA, which we obtain. Access to the land itself is the property owner's to grant, so if you're commissioning a shoot on a site you don't own, that permission needs to come from whoever does. We'll tell you which approvals a given site needs before you commit.
How long does it take to get results?
Flying is usually a half day. Turnaround depends on the deliverable: lightly edited stills come back within a few days, a finished video edit takes longer. If a site needs an airspace authorization, allow lead time before the flight itself — NAV CANADA requests aren't instant, and applying at the last minute is how shoots get postponed.
What happens if the weather is bad?
We reschedule. Wind, precipitation and low cloud all affect whether a flight is safe and legal, and marginal conditions produce imagery you wouldn't want anyway. We monitor the forecast ahead of a booked date and will tell you early rather than on the morning.
Who owns the footage?
Worth agreeing in writing before the flight rather than after. Licensing terms vary with the job — a one-off marketing shoot and an ongoing documentation contract are different arrangements. Raise it when you enquire and we'll set out what's included.
Can you fly indoors or inside a building?
Indoor flight sits outside the Canadian Aviation Regulations, because CARs Part IX governs navigable airspace. That makes it a matter of site safety and the building owner's rules rather than Transport Canada's. It's often practical for warehouse, plant and large interior spaces — ask and we'll assess the specific site.
Get a quote
Tell us the location, the type of shoot, and roughly when — we'll come back with availability, cost, and whether the site needs an airspace authorization.
dronesviewcanada@gmail.com
Want to fly commercially yourself?
Start with the Advanced certificate. Our guide covers the exam; we run the flight review.
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