Insurance required or not?

Good afternoon all,

Probably already answered elsewhere but I can’t seem to find an answer to this noib question.

I’ve been asked if I can take some photos of a property for reasons of showing the property boundaries on (Google earth isn’t clear enough).

I’m not taking any payment for this as I’m just glad to be out using my drone and its just a favour.

Do I still need to take out insurance as if I was charging?

Many thanks in advance

Rich

CAP722 section 1.4

3rd party insurance is required, unless the flight is for ‘sport or recreational purposes’ only.

If you set out to take photos for someone else on their instructions, then I don’t think that could be considered sport or recreation.

But …

If the purpose of your flight is purely recreational (you are out to have fun and take some pics for yourself), and someone afterwards happens to see your photos and says ‘hey, they are cool, could I have some’ then I think that would be in the spirit of the 'rules.

That said, insurance meeting EC 785/2004 isn’t expensive. You used to be able to buy it by the hour (not sure about who does that now after Flock left the market)

Coverdrone is about £80 a year for me. Gives £1000000 third party insurance + covers loss of drone. Needed to fly when in other countries by law. A must have to me for peace of mind, wouldn’t be without it in any flying situation.

You’ve got a Mini 2, same as me and my Coverdrone annual insurance with £2M public liability is under £60. Worth getting, whether you are going to take the property photos or not.

Just adding a reminder / note for anyone new that hobbyist insurance is not the same as commercial insurance and that a hobbyist policy often won’t cover you for commercial use.

Check the T&Cs carefully.

2 Likes

I joined the fpv to get insurance, that was only about £20 and worked for recreational flying at property.