The trade: working with drones

The chapters

• Chapter 1 · Sell the result, not the flight
  Whoever sells flight hours competes on price with anyone who owns a drone. Whoever sells an answer the client knows how to use competes on something else. First chapter of “The trade”.
  Sources checked on 13 October 2026

Use cases

A real job, from start to finish: scenario, risks, category, sequence, mistakes, what to deliver and what proof to keep.

• The last reconnaissance with a small drone
  Before the flight with the big drone, a drone under 250 grams goes round the area. At low risk you see cables, obstacles, people, wind at height and signal. That flight is an operation too, with its own rules.
• The roof after the hailstorm
  An owner, a contractor or an insurer wants to know what damage the hail has done. The result is documentation that holds up in front of the loss adjuster: every roof slope, every damage, with date, position and a scale.
• Searching for a person at night with several drones
  A missing person, darkness, a large area. Several drones with thermal cameras split the area into sectors, each with its own pilot. First of all you know under which rules you are flying: it depends on who is leading the operation.

The rules country by country

What changes from one country to another, with the national sources. Each sheet is written in the language of its country.

• Italy · Ricerca e soccorso con i droni: le regole in Italia

How it is written