Questions that come up before every show
The same handful of things get asked on the first call, in the venue car park, and again at 22:00 during teardown. Here is how we answer them.
How many drones do we actually need?
It depends on the shape, not the crowd size. A clean logo or a two-line message reads well from around 60 aircraft. Complex figures with fine detail, or anything meant to be legible from 300 metres away, usually want 150 and up. We would rather cut a transition than stretch a fleet too thin.
What does CAA Part 101 cover, and what does it not?
Part 101 sets the operating rules for the flight itself: the RPL, the operator certificate, the airspace and the separation distances. It does not cover the venue's own safety plan, the municipality's event permit or the insurer's requirements. Those sit alongside it, and each one has its own lead time.
How far ahead should we start planning?
For a small wedding display, four to six weeks is comfortable. A stadium or harbour show with 200-plus aircraft needs closer to three months, mostly because of airspace coordination and the paperwork chain. The choreography itself is rarely the bottleneck.
What happens if the wind picks up?
Every show has a wind window agreed with the client beforehand. Coastal sites are the tricky ones: a steady 8 m/s is workable, gusts above the fleet's rated limit are not. If we call it off, the sequence and the flight plan carry over to the backup slot.
Can you fly over a crowd?
Not directly overhead, and not in a way that puts the public under the flight volume. The display is positioned so the audience watches from outside the operating area. On a harbour front that means working with the walkways and the sightlines, not against them.
How do you handle batteries across a long show?
We rotate in blocks and log every pack by cycle count, charge state and last flight. A 300-aircraft show is a battery logistics problem as much as a choreography one. Nobody wants a fleet grounded mid-sequence because a pack was pushed one cycle too far.
Still weighing a drone display against fireworks, or need the operator paperwork explained in plain terms? The support desk takes those questions, and the contact page is the fastest route for a specific date.
