The short answer
There is no objectively “best” drone company in Austin, and every company that ranks for that phrase is asserting the title about itself. That is not a useful answer for a producer with a shoot date.
What is verifiable is a company’s record. Four numbers and one list settle almost every hiring decision:
- How many years it has worked scripted sets — not how many years it has owned drones
- Its aviation liability limit, and whether that limit is standing or bought for your job
- Whether it can staff Local 600 union and non-union, so the answer does not change mid-prep
- Whether FAA and film-permit work happens in-house or gets pushed back to your production
- Which productions it has actually flown, named
CineDrones has worked sets since 2013, carries $5 million in aviation liability plus workers compensation, supplies both Local 600 union and non-union crews, handles FAA authorization and coordinates local film permitting in-house, and holds aerial or on-camera drone credits on more than forty productions. We work Austin as one of ten markets, and the full aerial toolkit that operates out of Los Angeles is available here.
Ask every company on your list for the same five things. The ones that answer in specifics are the ones to call back.
What Austin specifically demands
Austin has no single film permit and no municipal drone ordinance worth the name — Texas preempts those. What Austin has instead is an active state surveillance statute that a federal appeals court restored in 2023, and that is the thing to plan around.
There is no single Austin film permit
The City routes by department: Transportation & Public Works for right-of-way, Parks & Recreation for parks and waterways, Austin Public Library, and the Austin Center for Events for large public events. Austin-Bergstrom’s own filming programme is currently on hold due to facility and staffing constraints. The Austin Film Commission is a Visit Austin marketing body and does not issue permits. State-owned property, including the Capitol grounds, goes through the Texas Film Commission.
Drone work needs APD sign-off before a permit issues
Commercial UAS requires an approved Austin Police Department Special Events Unmanned Aerial Operations Request, minimum 5 days in advance. The right-of-way film permit itself needs 3 business days, with no fee. Parks run 7 days, or 14 for large-impact productions. The Public Library is 21 days.
Texas has an enforceable drone surveillance statute
Texas Government Code Chapter 423 prohibits capturing an image of an individual or privately owned real property with intent to conduct surveillance, and restricts flight over critical infrastructure and sports venues. A federal district court struck those provisions down in 2020, but the Fifth Circuit reversed in October 2023 in NPPA v. McCraw, and they are in force. There is no filming-specific exemption. Aerials that put private property in frame need the property owner’s authorization, handled in prep.
Texas preempts local drone rules
§423.009 voids any political subdivision’s ordinance regarding the operation of an unmanned aircraft, with narrow exceptions for special events, the subdivision’s own UAS use, and facilities it owns. The practical read: the APD special-events approval maps onto the special-events carve-out, and the Austin Film Commission’s restricted-area list should be treated as operational guidance rather than all of it as independently enforceable local law.
Named restricted areas
The Austin Film Commission lists Austin-Bergstrom’s five-mile zone, Camp Mabry, Circuit of the Americas, dams and power stations, and Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium, plus event TFRs and Texas State Parks. Unsafe operation is a Class C misdemeanour under Austin City Code § 13-1-14(B)(3).
The airspace
Downtown Austin, the Capitol, the Congress Ave bridge, Zilker Park, Mueller and Austin Studios all fall outside any FAA facility-map grid — no LAANC authorization required at those points. Austin-Bergstrom’s Class C dominates the south and southeast with a block of 0 ft cells and a mix of 50 to 400 ft ceilings. The trap is northeast: every grid cell around Austin Executive at Pflugerville is LAANC-disabled, so authorization there has to go through FAADroneZone rather than LAANC — a schedule problem if it is discovered late.
Rules change. Treat the above as a briefing for planning conversations rather than legal or regulatory advice, and confirm current requirements with the relevant authorities and your insurer before you shoot.
The checks that apply everywhere
Regardless of market, the same seven questions sort a working aerial department from a pilot with a drone.
- The insurance floor is $5 million, and it should already be in place. Most studio productions will not accept an aerial vendor below it. A company that has to buy up for your shoot is telling you what level it normally works at. Ask for the certificate in prep, and ask whether workers compensation is carried too.
- Part 107 is the entry ticket, not the qualification. Every legal commercial pilot holds one. What separates companies is the hard operations — flying over people under the FAA’s Subpart D categories or a waiver, at night, beyond visual line of sight, and inside controlled airspace.
- Local 600, both ways. Signatory scripted work generally requires the aerial camera position to be filled by an ICG Local 600 member; commercials and non-signatory work usually do not. The failure mode is hiring a company that can only staff one way.
- Permitting done, not delegated. Airspace and ground are two separate approvals from two different bodies. If a vendor sends the paperwork back to your line producer, price that time into the bid.
- Redundancy, because aircraft come down. Ask what happens when the primary aircraft is out of service at 2pm. Ask the same about the pilot.
- Payload range, because the shot picks the aircraft. Heavy-lift for a full-size cinema camera — the Freefly Alta X carries RED and ALEXA Mini. Mid-size stabilised for aerials that intercut with A-camera — the DJI Inspire 3 shooting 8K full-frame on swappable DL-mount lenses, and the Inspire 2 with the Super 35 X7. FPV for continuous moving shots through spaces nothing else fits, carrying anything from a GoPro up to cinema cameras. A company with one aircraft will tell you your shot suits that aircraft.
- Named credits, not logo walls. “We’ve worked with Netflix and HBO” is a claim any company can make after one day of second-unit work. A named production list is checkable.
The long version of each check, written for the Los Angeles market, is here.
The credit list
CineDrones has provided aerial cinematography, on-camera prop drones, stunt drones or aerial lighting on productions including:
Ozark · 9-1-1 · SEAL Team · Jack Ryan · Bosch · Goliath · Castle Rock · Doctor Sleep · NOS4A2 · Mayans M.C. · Modern Family · NCIS: New Orleans · American Horror Story: Cult · Fear the Walking Dead · Station 19 · The Politician · The Resident · Runaways · Raising Dion · Good Trouble · The Gifted · 24: Legacy · American Housewife · The Fix · The First 48 · Hell’s Kitchen · The Grand Tour · Basketball Wives · Shahs of Sunset · Bizaardvark · I Feel Bad · Kevin (Probably) Saves the World · Making It · The Leisure Seeker · Trial by Fire · First and Last · Spartan · TKO · You’re the Worst — and NFL broadcasts.
Two are written up in detail — what the production needed, what it took to fly, and what that demonstrates: 9-1-1, where we brought the look and the aerial design to the show from day one, and Ozark, where the aerials carried feel and drama into the visual language of the series.
When to hire somebody else
We would rather say this in prep than take a booking and disappoint a producer.
- If the job is real estate, weddings or single-operator social content, an aerial department is the wrong purchase. You do not need Local 600 crews and a $5M policy to shoot a listing.
- If the job is inspection, survey or mapping, hire a company that does that work. We fly for camera.
- If the schedule allows no rehearsal for a complex FPV move through a practical location, the honest answer is that the shot should be flown a different way, or the schedule should change.
- If the only thing that matters is the lowest number on the bid, someone will always be cheaper. What we will not do is quote a crew and a safety plan we would not actually staff.
How to run the comparison
Send every company on your shortlist the same message:
Shoot dates, location, and city. What is your standing aviation liability limit? Can you staff Local 600 and non-union? Who files the FAA authorization and who coordinates the film permit? What aircraft would you bring for this shot, and what is the backup? Name five productions you have flown.
The replies sort themselves. Specific answers with numbers and titles come from companies that have done the work.
Frequently asked
Do I need a permit to fly a drone commercially in Austin?
There is no single Austin film permit — the city routes applications by department. For drone work specifically, you need an approved Austin Police Department Special Events Unmanned Aerial Operations Request submitted a minimum of 5 days in advance before a permit will issue. A right-of-way film permit needs 3 business days and carries no fee; parks need 7 days, or 14 for large-impact productions. State-owned property including the Capitol grounds goes through the Texas Film Commission separately.
Does Texas law restrict filming private property from a drone?
Yes. Texas Government Code Chapter 423 prohibits capturing an image of an individual or privately owned real property with the intent to conduct surveillance, and restricts flight over critical infrastructure and sports venues. A federal district court struck those provisions down in 2020, but the Fifth Circuit reversed that ruling in October 2023 in NPPA v. McCraw and the provisions are currently in force. There is no filming-specific exemption in the statute, so aerials that put private property in frame need the owner’s authorization arranged during prep.
Do I need LAANC authorization to fly a drone in downtown Austin?
Generally not at the point of flight — downtown Austin, the Capitol, the Congress Avenue bridge, Zilker Park, Mueller and Austin Studios all fall outside any FAA UAS facility-map grid. Austin-Bergstrom’s Class C airspace covers the south and southeast of the metro with ceilings ranging from 0 to 400 ft. The scheduling trap is northeast of the city: every facility-map grid cell around Austin Executive Airport in Pflugerville is LAANC-disabled, so authorization there must go through FAADroneZone rather than LAANC, which takes considerably longer.
More on this market: drone cinematography in Austin · aerial cinematography · FPV drone pilot · Local 600 drone operators
CineDrones is a Hollywood-based aerial cinematography company working in Austin and nine other markets nationwide. FAA Part 107 certified, $5M aviation liability, Local 600 union and non-union crews, flying since 2013.
Send us the shot and the dates — 310-905-9195. We will tell you what it takes, and we will tell you if it should be flown a different way.
