taking pictures from the sky

On Fri, 16 May 2008 11:48:30 -0500, Gig 601Xl Builder
wrote in
:

wrote:

But aerial photography where the photographs are for sale is clearly
a flight made for the sole purpose of making money and the flight is
essential to the photography so it requires a commercial.



I can't find it any more but there was that list of opinions from the
FAA chief counsel that while not having the effect of law was a pretty
damn good idea of how the FAA was going to treat a given situation.

For some reason there is a memory stuck in my head there was an opinion
in there that stated that the FAA or at least the Chief Counsel did
feel that when flying for professional photography the flying was
incidental to the photography and hence legal for a private pilot.

P.S. If anyone knows where that list of opinions is archived please
chime in. I'd really like to bookmark it.


The answer below may be what you were looking for:


http://faculty.chicagogsb.edu/john.c...61_72205 .doc
QUESTION: I just had a question regarding pilots who received
their commercial license prior to the limitation/ restriction
requiring them to have an instrument rating before they could fly
for compensation (i.e., issued prior to the November*1, 1974
effective date when Part*61 was revised requiring
Instrument?Airplane rating). Are they grandfathered in, or to fly
for hire, are they required to go out and get the instrument
rating?

ANSWER: Ref. §*61.133(b); Yes, a person who holds a commercial
pilot certificate with the airplane rating but without the
instrument-airplane rating issued prior to November*1, 1974 are
grandfathered in

However, if the question you’re asking is whether a person may fly
for a Part*121 or Part*135 operator flying airplanes, the answer
is no. Because note in both provisions of §*61.133(a)(1)(i) and
(ii), the words “. . . is qualified in accordance. . . and with
the applicable parts of this chapter that apply to the operation .
. .” For example, if a person holds a commercial pilot
certificate with an Airplane-Single-engine Land rating, but does
not hold an Instrument-Airplane rating. Then per §135.243(b)(3),
it requires a person to hold an Instrument-Airplane rating. But
certainly, the pilot may continue to perform some commercial
operations (that are not applicable to Parts*121 or 135
operations), such as photography flights, pipeline patrols, etc.
where there is a carriage of persons or property for compensation
or hire.

This answer is based on previous policy letters that were issued
on November 20, 1973 and October*9, 1974.
{Q&A-305}


Apparently inspector Lynch created several of these FAQs:

http://www.soaringsafety.org/pilots/FAQ_Glider.doc
http://trifocus.net/~casey/pt141faq.doc