August 3, 2015

U.S. Department of Transportation, Docket Operations West Building Ground 

Floor, Room W12-140

1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE

Washington, DC 20590 

Dear Sir or Madam: 

Pursuant to Section 333 of the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 (the 

Reform Act), I, Kevin Robinson, owner of SkyEye Photography, hereby apply for 

an exemption from Federal Aviation Regulations (FARs) detailed below to allow 

for commercial operations of a DJI Phantom 3 Professional four rotor UAS with 

an attached DJI Gimbal Mount holding a 4K UHD Camera for the purpose of 

aerial photography and video for a variety of industries. 

As the Reform Act allows the FAA to “establish requirements for the safe 

operation of such aircraft systems in the national airspace system”, I, Kevin 

Robinson use of the Phantom 3 Professional will provide the following benefits 

and enhance or provide an equivalent level of safety. 

1. The Phantom 3 has a maximum takeoff weight of less than 3 pounds and thus 

offers a lightweight, small and compact video platform compared to manned 

aircraft.

2. The Phantom 3 offers significant safety, noise, emission, security and 

environmental benefits not available to larger manned aircraft. 

3. The Phantom 3 has numerous safety features such as Failsafe mode, 

automatic Return home feature should signal between PIC and UAS be 

interrupted, GPS based altitude and distance locks, Flight Limits function and low 

battery warnings. We feel that these features addressed in more detail below and 

in the Phantom 3 User Manual provide an equivalent level of safety. 

4. Operations utilizing the Phantom 3 Professional will provide a benefit to the 

general public and serve the public interest by providing the service of aerial 

photographic images and video to numerous businesses and individuals for 

considerably less than the previously only available option of utilizing manned 

aircraft at an equivalent level of safety. 

The	Aircraft,	Operations	and	an	Equivalent	Level	of	Safety	

1. The safe operation of the UAS will be the first priority before, during and after 

every operation.

2. The UAS pilot will have the required sports Pilot certificate and will be

considered the PIC whether flying or supervising and will be responsible for the 

safe operation of the UAS at all times. 

3. The DJI Phantom 3 has a maximum takeoff weight of 1300 grams or 

approximately 2.9 pounds. It has a diagonal length of 590mm and a maximum 

speed of 16 meters

per second.

4. The UAS utilizes GPS/GLONASS location and is controlled by a 2.4 GHz 
transmitter. 5. All UAS operations will be conducted at Visual Line Of Sight 

(VLOS) at no more 

than 400 feet AGL.

6. No UAS operations will be conducted within 5 NM of an airport.

7. No UAS operations shall occur over densely populated areas, large 

assemblies of people, stadiums, government buildings, power lines, or major 

roads.

8. All nonparticipating persons shall be a minimum of 500 feet from the UAS.

9. If a nonparticipating person comes within 500 feet of the UAS, flight operations 

will cease immediately.

10. All UAS operations shall take place during daylight hours under conditions 

equivalent to Visual Flight Rules (VFR) with the UAS no more than 3/4 NM from 

the PIC.

11. All UAS operations will have a PIC and a Visual Observer (VO) present and 

all operations will be within line of sight (LOS) of the PIC and VO.

12. The UAS will yield to all manned aircraft at all times.

13. All required permits and permissions will be obtained from local and state 

government should they be required.

14. A pre-flight inspection by the PIC will be performed prior to each flight to 

assure that the UAS is safe for flight. A post-flight inspection will also be 

performed as an added level of safety.

15. At no time shall the UAS be operated with missing or manufacturer 

unapproved parts, or in any condition that could pose a hazard to any other 

aircraft or structure or person on the ground.

16. Prior to all UAS operations a pre-flight meeting will be held by the PIC to 

determine the parameters of flight in a given location, any hazards present, 

weather conditions, safety procedures at the specific location and approximate 

duration and route of

flight.

17. The PIC will have accumulated and accurately logged a minimum of 25 hours 

total time as a UAS rotorcraft pilot with a minimum of 10 hours as a UAS pilot 

with a multi-rotor UAS and 5 hours as a UAS pilot operating the same make and 

model of UAS to be used for operations under the exemption.

18. The Phantom 3 UAS will utilize GPS/GLONASS location, auto return home 

and will never be operated at below 20% batter capacity. 

The DJI Phantom 3 UAS is a small and safe sub 3-pound plastic and composite 

aircraft utilizing four propellers driven by a 4480 mAh LiPo 4s 15.2v smart battery 

with a MAX flight time of 23 minutes. The remote control/transmitter operates at 

2.4 GHz. The aircraft’s software has been set to FAA regulations of 400’ ceiling 

and recognizes zones around airports and forbids flight within 1.5 miles of the 

center of a type A airport, and outside the 1.5 miles up to 5 miles the altitude 

increase from 35’ to 400’ in a conical fashion. For example: at 1.5 miles out your 

limit is 35’ and at 3.25 Miles from the center the max altitude AGL is 217.5’. I 

think this feature is great and allows those who wish to take photos with their 

drone at say 10’ AGL 2 miles from an Airport; they are more than safe in doing 
so. The incorporated FLY SAFE technology also restricts flights in areas deemed 

not permitted by the FAA, for example Washington D.C. 

The aircraft will automatically return to point of origin or descend in place should 

signal with the transmitter be lost. The UAS is unmanned, operates at low 

altitudes, does not run on combustible fuel, has very low decibel level noise 

emissions and has a small payload capacity and short flight time, thus 

significantly reducing current risk levels involved with utilizing manned aircraft for 

aerial photography.

The exemption requests follow below. The DJI Phantom 3 User’s Manuals links 

are as follows: 

Quick Start Guide: 

http://download.djiinnovations.com/downloads/phantom_3/en/Phantom_3_Professional_Quick_Star

t_Guid e_en.pdf 

User Manual: 

http://download.djiinnovations.com/downloads/phantom_3/en/Phantom_3_Professional_User_Man

ual_v1. 0_en.pdf 

Sincerely,

Kevin Robinson 

SkyEye Photography 

3812 Hunters Trail

Mesquite, Tx 75150

2kevo2@gmail.com

469-734-8444