Parks Tacoma · 2017-2024
Where Procedure Meets Creativity
Aerial Director / FAA Part 107 Pilot
Scope of Work
I led aerial operations for Metro Parks Tacoma, planning and flying drone cinematography in controlled airspace near an airport. As the FAA Part 107 pilot in command, I owned the full operation: airspace authorization, flight planning, on-site safety, and the creative direction of the aerial footage. I handled the compliance and the camera, delivering footage that met a municipality's standards on both fronts.
The Challenge
Metro Parks Tacoma needed striking aerial footage of a site that happened to sit in tightly controlled airspace, near an airport. That made it a different kind of shoot. Before a single creative decision, the flight had to clear a wall of procedure: FAA authorization, airspace coordination, and a safety plan rigorous enough for a municipal client in a regulated environment. The work had to be both fully compliant and genuinely cinematic, with no room to trade one for the other.
My Approach
I treated the regulatory side as the foundation, not an obstacle. As the Part 107 pilot in command, I secured the airspace authorization, built a flight plan that respected the airport's operations, and ran the shoot to a professional safety standard a municipality could trust. With that framework locked in, I had the freedom to be creative inside it: planning shots that used every foot of the airspace I was cleared for, and capturing aerial footage that felt cinematic rather than constrained. The result proved a point I care about. Procedure and creativity are not opposites. Done right, the discipline is exactly what makes the ambitious shot possible.
Scale
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