Jeff Galindo Says He Is The First Realtor In Nevada To Receive Section 333 Exemption

The first Realtor in the state of Nevada has received a Section 333 exemption from the FAA allowing him to operate a UAV as part of his business.

The agency granted the exemption to licensed private pilot and real estate industry professional Jeff Galindo on April 17th, 2015. The exemption allows unmanned aerial vehicles to be flown for commercial purposes. Jeff Galindo said in a news release that he is the first real estate professional in the State of Nevada to be granted this rare exemption.

To date, the FAA has granted approximately 100 of these 333 exemptions to a variety of companies nationwide. This fact serves to underscore the extreme rarity of Galindo's exemption under which he is authorized to fly his unmanned aerial vehicle, a Phantom 2 Vision+ quadcopter, for commercial purposes. Galindo's unmanned aerial vehicles will be used to augment real estate marketing/listings with low altitude aerial photography and videography.

In granting the exemptions, the FAA considered the planned operating environments and required certain conditions and limitations to assure the safe operation of these Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) in the National Airspace System. Several key regulations are enforced – operations require both a pilot and observer, the pilot must have proper certification, and the UAS must remain within line of sight at all times.

Galindo noted, "This new generation of unmanned aerial vehicles reaffirms the age-old notion that a picture is worth a thousand words," Galindo said. "In the case of video, it's really more like a million words!"

(Image from file)

FMI: https://www.faa.gov/uas/legislative_programs/section_333/