As an existing r/c photographer (of 7 years) I get weekly phone calls from people wanting me to set up there machine (or company) for them... including a commercial weed sprayer 3 weeks ago who had seen some stuff on the internet and was willing to throw NZ$30K / 15K euro into some bloke to build:
2 x 6 liter fpv spray machines with gis/gps control (capable in geothermal and coastal rock-face conditions), recovery chute and grapple system to help recovery using LiSO4 batteries - IN TWO MONTHS. All spray and copter development in TWO MONTHS.
I'm too busy with my fulltime job to do anything like that so I did a non-sales approach and spent some time with him, sharing some facts (like the grapple only worked in Thunderbirds). He has btw found a local (to him) guy who is willing to take on the challenge of taking his money...
There is room for a good multicopter shop in NZ but it scares me when the need for sales far out-weighs the want to help. There are so many shops out there "making a killing" on poor unsuspecting people with $$$ and a "I saw it on the internets" attitude...
As for "there is a NZ quad shop". News to me - but I am 120Km from them. I think I'll wait for them to put a real address and phone number on their website...
I do hope they understand the frequency restrictions and CAA.101 rules (like LOS flying) in NZ and share it with their customers. I did coffee with CAA last week and the "easy to fly 1Km" fpv stuff scares them...
Pete
Pete,
I myself have been in the industry for many years and have built alot including aerial photography platforms, octocopters etc.
We would be more then happy to help clients with builds, and ofcourse share advice, tips and tricks etc its all part of the service.
As for the CAA rulings, I myself will be a certified CAA pilot in 2 weeks judging ny medicals come through, however we are well aware of the CAA regulations regarding safe flight, height restrictions etc