How might a drone help a friend expand his aviation business?

[Old Aviator]

I apologize in advance for this long post.

I have a friend who owns a small aviation business that primarily flies people around our beautiful area to see the scenery or to look at real estate. His primary aircraft is an open cockpit WW II trainer. When I asked him how things were going he explained that business was slow in the winter. What struck me is that you can often see so much more detail in the winter: clear skies vs. summer haze, clear water showing gradations of water depth, details of land topography and rare finds of abandoned structures now overgrown but not obstructed by leaves on the trees, etc.

When I went to his website I found that some of the shots were of the landscape as seen on the other side of his wing or over the front cowling but most were from another plane looking at him and his passenger flying in his plane. My thinking is that his potential customers would want his website to show what they will see when they fly with him: unobstructed panoramas with bank angles and views as if they were Superman flying around for fun. In other words, the types of shots captured by a drone.

So, I finally get to my point: I believe he should consider a way to attach a drone (without rotors) within a clear container secured on the aircraft where it would have an unobstructed view, then have a Part 107 drone pilot control the gimbal and camera shots from the other cockpit. He could fly his plane as he normally does and have drone-capable visual recordings of his flights to show on his website. He might then become a commercial drone pilot himself, do his own camera work, and provide his passengers an edited copy of the recording of the flight they had with him or he might post a typical adventure on YouTube.

I am very interested to hear if this is possible and, if possible, what you think of this idea.

 

[Former Member]

What you are trying to do would be difficult, and there has to be a better way. The Mavic gimbal will always try to find the horizon and be level, so even if you could control it, it will still have a mind of its own. Im thinking that there are manually controllable gimbals that you could attach a Gopro to that can do the same thing and not try to fight what you are trying to accomplish. Also, with a Gopro, you would be able to capture another important element of advertising and that would be the sound of the engine and peoples reactions while flying (editing out the regurgitation, of course).

 

[Mossiback]

What @Thunderdrones said plus the drone yaw would be controlled by the plane, not the drone operator. All the drone operator could do is control the up/down angle and camera controls. I also question if the drone operator would have to be 107 licensed, sense the drone itself would not be flying.

As for real estate, a drone would work better than a plane unless the property were many square miles. For this use you would need to be 107 licensed.

 

[kadras]

Not exactly what you want, but here's some information for ideas. Video of a 1944 Supermarine Spitfire taken from a Mavic Pro mounted on a 1945 Grumman Avenger. The Mavic was attached looking out rearwards with the camera gimbal out in the open air and the gimbal controlled from the navigators position using the standard Mavic controller. The post goes into more detail.
Warbird air to air video using Mavic Pro

 

[Mossiback]

You would also need to factor in the increased wind speed striking the camera/gimbal. You could protect it with the plastic dome but of course that would degrade the quality of your recordings.

EDIT: The dome may get blown off, exposing the gimbal to the high wind.