B2P: Business to Pilot.

The idea is to connect businesses with interesting locations, products, or services to FPV pilots and embolden new strategic partnerships. The information on this page has an intended audience of a business owner, land owner, or business considering collaboration with FPV cinematography.

What is FPV?

FPV stands for First Person View. FPV flight is possible exclusively because of cameras in the front of the drone sending back zero latency video feeds. The returned video feed is most commonly fed into goggles where the pilot or spectator is virtually strapped to the front of a high performance drone.

What makes FPV different from a DJI Phantom?

A lot of things. One key difference is how FPV pilots build and maintain their drones.

Very important is how FPV drones do not rely on accelerometers or auto-stabilization, generally referred to as "acro" or rate style flying. Using a raw form of flight the pilot and drone together fight gravity, wind, and positional needs in real time as if driving down the highway in an automobile. The rate style of flight allows flips, rolls, stalls, spins, and quite interesting results.

The video above came from "the flow" of that particular flight with super-cross riders. The combination of fast, fast moving, and acrobatic is what makes FPV cinematography powerful.

FPV flight has no return to home, obstacle avoidance, or fallback to safely land. The pilot assumes all control of the aircraft including quality of data signal, quality of video feed, spotters for air and ground, and on screen display information and flight feedback.

Another key element in most FPV capture is how the HD camera is attached to the aircraft. Cameras do not use any stabilization and are fastened on the frame to survive punishing G-force and inertial delinquency. FPV flight can also act like a boom or robot assisted shot but come from and go to places unique to a drone.

The above footage was captured by a drone that weighed about the same as a regular iPhone.

What makes a good shoot?

First the obvious such as scenic areas, beautiful landscaping, and anything beach. The flight style likes to "poke and dive" meaning ascend through terrain like the tree canopy or fall with a tall object respectively. Any terrain where a highly agile and greatly over powered small machine with a camera can go sounds like fun.

Office buildings often have open and meticulously maintained common areas and parking lots, very fun. Any non-swampy tropical beach-having or influenced area should work. Any well manicured outdoor area including farms can provide stunning lines and flight patterns.

If you were going to be that squirrel high on cocaine with a jet pack, what would your ideal nut farm look like?

Rapid Fire Q&A:

• How fast do these drones go?
  • We are not allowed to break 100mph in the US. So, 99.9mph is the official correct and sanctioned answer. The world record for drones of this type is around 150-170mph (let's we looked). Back in reality, a 2" drone of ours has a max speed around 40mph and a 5" drone can easily exceed 60mph. Pushing past 70mph changes the build and flight and has a drag racer profile.
• How long are flights?
  • Typically 3 minutes. They range from 2 minutes to 6 minutes generally, depending on the build of the drone and the style of the flight.
• How much do these weigh?
  • The smallest HD drone we fly weighs around 135 grams, or less than 5 ounces. In other words about the same as a regular sized iPhone. A 5" drone ranges from 550-700+ grams (1.25-2+ lbs).
• Can you fly in the wind?
  • For sure. When flying a 5" drone winds up to 20mph do not have a serious impact. Anything over 30mph will require a pilot to account for wind in a serious manner. We have flown in winds up to 60mph, that was interesting. The effects of wind to flight for smaller drones is more severe while larger drones can run well in high winds.
• How much room do you need?
  • We have had fun on a 1/4 acre as well as 40 acres.
  • Generally speaking 1-5 acres of generally open terrain is ideal. More acres means more fun.
  • Under 1 acre the layout and opportunities for flight can make or break a session.
  • Generally all potential locations are examined on a case by case basis. All FPV pilots are constantly scouting for new parking lots, valleys, parks, farms, office spaces, or beaches.
• Is it legal?
  • Yes, but there are a lot of rules and some are are fuzzy still. We try to stay on the "overly safe" mindset.
  • The FAA is the first test for a location, request permission is necessary, before using the air space.
  • Then we look for any flag on a municipal level, these can be hard to find. Generally if we use private land, don't violate any privacy, and are mindful of some local regulations that can be problematic we are ready to fly.
• How about insurance?
  • We use traditional hull insurance and/or insure on a per-session basis (there's an app for that!).
• How much does this cost?
  • Nothing, we just like to fly and expand our network of locations. In return we publish sexy videos from most sessions and give you some free footage!

So now what/why do I care?

Caring is up to you! As social creatures who are excited about this technology we encourage everyone to take another look at drones and experience FPV. We aim to provide an engaging crossover and are excited to meet new people and fly new spots. Every pilot in FPV is thankful for the views, flights, and new perspectives FPV provides. No FPV pilot will ever look at trees the same way. Passion of this type should compel any forward thinking person to reach out and get to filming! Start with an email.