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Thanks for your reply. Your example of someone who often flies near
by in a 172 is exactly the idea I had in mind. I would hope they
could use something a little better than an I-phone though. But they
certainly don't need a $70,000 purpose made aerial camera. Most any
"point and shoot' camera $200 or more is going to give better results
than an I-phone. At the altitude you would fly in a 172 you may need
to snap more than one photo, there is nothing wrong with that.

Granted I could pay the $500+ to have pro do this. For about the same
price I could get on a plane, fly down there and see for myself. The
thing is I really don't want to spend $500 to see a bunch of dirt. I
am 99.999999% sure that is all I will see. The photo is just to
appease a paranoid family member. At this point it may not matter any
way. If I can't convince this one family member her concerns are not
valid by the end of the month (this Wednesday), it will go to court,
and what would have been a small pay day (about $400 per family
member) will end up being a legal fee liability for all of us.

In the end I don't even care if it is a shot from the air. If I can
find someone in the area willing to drive over there and take some
photos from the road that would be fine too. Still trying to get
someone to do that too.

Chris W.

Fair enough. As long as you are not the paranoid one I’ll let it go :-)
There’s another little catch though. The fact that you are offering
compensation, however small, probably makes the assignment illegal for a
private pilot, who could theoretically face certificate action. There are
differing views on airwork and snapping pictures, but the fact that you
published a compensation offer on a public forum probably means that anyone
without a Commercial certificate would (or should, in my opinion) shy away
from it. I frequently snap some pictures with a handheld digital while flying
alone, and so does just about anyone I know, but I would never do so on
assignment, even for free. If a friend wants some pictures of his house I
would probably propose that we go up together and I fly and he shoot, or vice
versa, but not for compensation. So unless you know someone flying out of
Pecos Muni, with whom you could set up a deal like that, you’re probably
going to have a hard time interesting any private pilots.