Frequently Asked Questions:
Is it legal to operate drones commercially? 
Com­mer­cial drone oper­a­tions are legal as long as you have a Part 107 cer­ti­fi­ca­tion. This allows us to fly com­mer­cially across the coun­try. If you use a drone for any sort of busi­ness you are required to have this cer­ti­fi­ca­tion.

Why do you cost more than the other guys?
We under­stand our ser­vices don’t quite fit every bud­get. We do what we can to make things afford­able, but that’s not always pos­si­ble. If you decide to use another busi­ness that may have lower prices, please insure that they have insur­ance and autho­riza­tions to legally per­form the ser­vice.
What types of drone services do you offer?
We offer a broad range of drone aer­ial ser­vices includ­ing (but not lim­ited to):- Com­mer­cial and Res­i­den­tial Aer­ial Pho­tog­ra­phy and Videog­ra­phy– High-​End Real Estate Mar­ket­ing– Drone Cov­er­age for Sport­ing and Live Events– Emer­gency Response– Live­stock Mon­i­tor­ing– Golf Fly­overs & Map­ping– Aer­ial Drone Asset Inspec­tion

What kind of experience/training do you have?
We have been fly­ing drones since the begin­ning when you had to build them from Wii video game con­trollers. We also have to pass a test from the FAA to obtain our pro­fes­sional certifications. Beyond fly­ing, we have par­tic­i­pated in hun­dreds of hours of classes from safety to video production. You’ll have a hard time find­ing a bet­ter edu­cated staff than ours!

 Are you able to fly in non-ideal weather?
Yes, we are able in many cases. How­ever, what is pos­si­ble and what we are capa­ble of are dif­fer­ent things. Our aer­ial drones can fly in some of the harsh­est weather con­di­tions includ­ing winds of up to 20 mph, while still pro­vid­ing smooth and pre­cise oper­a­tion. How­ever, before all flights we con­duct a pre­flight safety check to ensure safety is main­tained at all times. We’ll try as hard as we can to make your shots when orig­i­nally sched­uled. Often it is good to set an alter­nate time in case weather does not per­mit fly­ing.

Are you able to fly at night?
Only approved oper­a­tors are legally allowed to fly with­ing 30 min­utes of twi­light. Prior waivers are needed for night oper­a­tions. Con­tact us with your ideas and we’ll talk about our options.

Where are you located and what areas do you service?
We are located in Man­hat­tan Ks but will ser­vice where we are needed. That being said, we LOVE to travel! If you want to get us on a project that is requires a plane or a long drive then all we ask is that you pay basic travel and lodg­ing expenses. We are great at find­ing deals and do not charge a pre­mium for this.

What about safety?
Safety is our para­mount con­cern at Drone Works. We have a com­plete safety sys­tem imple­mented. We will not fly over the heads of peo­ple who are not active par­tic­i­pants in the pro­duc­tion or in inclement weather (pre­cip­i­ta­tion, high winds, etc) and we use a Visual Observer to pro­vide an addi­tional level of on-​site safety. Our pilots are sea­soned and respon­si­ble oper­a­tors with expe­ri­ence on an array of equip­ment and have cre­ated safe yet incred­i­ble, inno­v­a­tive shots.

How fast can you fly?
Up to 60 mph. There is very lit­tle occa­sion for us to try to fly that fast though. 

What is the maximum operating distance?
Pilot has to be able to see the ori­en­ta­tion of the drone video plat­form (UAS unmanned aer­ial sys­tem), so there has to be always unin­ter­rupted line of sight between pilot and the drone. The max­i­mum radius is about 300 yards from the pilot. Our birds can also be piloted from a mov­ing vehi­cle to extend their range, such as for fol­low and pur­suit shots, dolly shots, mov­ing vehi­cle shots, etc. The radio range for the con­trols is up to 2km, far­ther than our abil­ity to see. We do have the abil­ity to fly first per­son view on some of our drones, how­ever oper­a­tional lim­i­ta­tions are set by the FAA. Call us to dis­cuss your spe­cific pro­duc­tion and we will work out exactly what we can and can­not do based on con­di­tions and hard­ware used.

What do your drones cost?
We are not in the busi­ness of sell­ing them, but any­one can buy a hobby grade drone for about a thou­sand dol­lars or even less for less capa­ble drones. To be able to use it for HD video, true cin­e­matog­ra­phy appli­ca­tions, pro­fes­sional shots and posi­tion­ing, it takes lots of cus­tomiz­ing and lit­er­ally years of prac­tice! It impor­tant to under­stand that in wrong hands any RC heli­copter or drone can be extremely dan­ger­ous. Own­ing the drone does not make you a good pilot.

How long do batteries last?
With one bat­tery KS Drone Works can fly about 6 – 20 min­utes depend­ing on the drone model, weather, winds, etc. Also, we have sev­eral drones /​UAS birds that have quick change bat­ter­ies. Often we can change a bat­tery, power up and be back in the air within 2 min­utes or less. We carry mul­ti­ple bat­ter­ies for each video drone we fly. Actual bat­tery charge time can take about 3 – 5hours each. Keep in mind that time air­borne (TA) is the total time includ­ing ini­tial run up that the drone is live and rotors are in motion. This includes run up, travel to shot, posi­tion­ing, shot, and return to land time.

How does wind affect your drones?
Wind above 8 – 10 mph makes it dif­fi­cult to have steady shots and we try not fly in winds above 12mph. In this area, that often means fly­ing oper­a­tions in early morn­ing or evening. Most oper­a­tions do not require you to be present dur­ing film­ing, but may require you do some setup in order to get the best footage.

How hard is it to fly a drone?

Depend­ing on what you do with it, fly­ing is either pretty easy or very dif­fi­cult. First, to oper­ate com­mer­cially, the busi­ness and the pilot must have FAA cer­ti­fi­ca­tion. Cur­rently all drone pilots must be Part 107 cer­ti­fied. Fly­ing a drone and effec­tively pilot­ing it for cin­e­matog­ra­phy /​videoraphy pur­poses is a skill set of it’s own. Being able to get the drone in the air and snap a pic­ture is only the begin­ning. The sec­ond requires knowl­edge of how to frame and build shots, posi­tion the cam­era and bird, motion and in-​air engi­neer­ing of shot design and much more on top of hav­ing good skills as a pilot. Our pilots obvi­ously are great at both pilot­ing and shoot­ing incred­i­ble jaw-​dropping video sequences.
 What are the current FAA Restrictions?
  1. Our pilots must main­tain a visual line of sight with the drone at all times. 
  2. Fly­ing must be done dur­ing day­light hours, with the only excep­tion being 30 mins before sun­rise and 30 min­utes after sun­set. 
  3. Max­i­mum alti­tude is 400 feet above the ground or a struc­ture. For exam­ple, if we are film­ing a 150 ft build­ing, we could fly 550 ft high directly above the build­ing. 
  4. We can­not fly over the heads of peo­ple who are not directly par­tic­i­pat­ing in the oper­a­tion. 
  5. We can­not fly within a 5 mile radius of an air­port with­out prior autho­riza­tion from the FAA. IMPOR­TANT: Please note that oper­a­tions near an air­port are restricted areas that some­times need prior autho­riza­tion from the FAA. There is a process through the FAA where we can obtain a Cer­tifi­cate of Autho­riza­tion. These appli­ca­tions can take up to 90 days, but the FAA has announced an app that will allow instant COA. If you have a project located in restricted air­space, reach out to us as soon as pos­si­ble so that we can sub­mit for clearance if we do not already have it. To check your project’s spe­cific loca­tion, please visit this inter­ac­tive map: https://​app​.airmap​.io

Are you insured?
Yes, we are insured by the leader in the indus­try who spe­cial­izes in cov­er­ing drones for gen­eral lia­bil­ity and hull dam­age. We are also insured with sep­a­rate pro­duc­tion insur­ance.


This FAQ is only a tiny por­tion of ques­tions that you may have. We want to answer every­thing we can to make your project per­fect for you. No ques­tion is too small. We under­stand that your con­cerns about where you spend your dol­lars. Rest assured, we do every­thing we can to make sure you are fully informed before work begins. We also revi­sions to your project as part of your pack­age if the ini­tial pack­age isn’t quite what you were wanting.

We will con­sult with you and pro­vide check­lists to help pre­pare things on your end.

Contact Us
If you’re inter­ested in learn­ing more about the capa­bil­i­ties of our UAS ser­vices, feel free to con­tact us and ask. We will pro­vide you with the best prices, details, and staff imple­ment drone services in your project or busi­ness operations.

Info@Kansasdroneworks.com 
(785−414−8976 
Manhattan KS 66502