The short answer
There is no objectively “best” drone company in New York, 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 New York 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 New York specifically demands
New York is the most regulated drone market in the United States, and the gap between it and second place is not close. A production that treats a New York aerial like a Los Angeles aerial will miss its date by a month.
There is a mandatory NYPD drone permit, separate from the film permit
The Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment issues the film permit. The NYPD Unmanned Aircraft take-off and landing permit is a completely separate application at dronepermits.nypdonline.org, under NYC Administrative Code § 10-126 and Title 38 Chapter 24 RCNY. You need both.
Thirty days, not five
The NYPD permit requires at least 30 days before the first proposed take-off or landing. It drops to 14 days only if the applicant held a permit issued within the previous 180 days that was not revoked. There is also a community board notification requirement 48 hours before operations, with notices posted within 100 ft of the take-off and landing site.
Take-off and landing is only lawful at designated sites
Absent an individual NYPD permit for a temporary location, a drone may only take off and land at sites designated by the Department of Transportation or at NYC Parks–designated model aircraft fields. There are five of those fields in the entire city. Everything else is a permit application.
The insurance floor is higher than anywhere else
The NYPD drone permit requires $2,000,000 per occurrence and $4,000,000 aggregate, in both Commercial General Liability and drone aviation liability, with the City of New York as additional insured on a primary, non-contributory basis, plus a $150 non-refundable application fee. The MOME film permit separately requires $1M CGL, occurrence-based, filed 48 hours before the permit application, with a $500 fee per consecutive 14-day period.
Midtown has a new prohibited area
Prohibited Area P-75 covers a one-nautical-mile radius over Midtown Manhattan, surface to 1,000 ft AGL, continuously, effective 29 October 2026. No aircraft operates inside it without authorization from the Secret Service. Any Midtown aerial planned from late October 2026 onward has to be replanned around it.
The airspace
New York Class B airspace serves JFK, LaGuardia and Newark from the surface to 7,000 ft MSL across a 20-mile radius, amended effective 29 October 2026 to exclude the new P-75. Beneath it run the Hudson River and East River Exclusion special flight rules areas under 14 CFR Part 93 Subpart W — manned-aircraft procedures that define the low-altitude helicopter and fixed-wing traffic a drone unit is working underneath. That traffic environment, not the paperwork, is what makes a New York river aerial a serious safety plan.
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 special permit to fly a drone in New York City?
Yes — two of them. The Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment issues the film permit, and the NYPD separately issues a mandatory Unmanned Aircraft take-off and landing permit under NYC Administrative Code § 10-126. The NYPD permit must be applied for at least 30 days before the first proposed take-off or landing, drops to 14 days only for applicants who held a permit in the previous 180 days, and requires $2 million per occurrence and $4 million aggregate in both commercial general liability and drone aviation liability with the City of New York as additional insured. Take-off and landing is otherwise lawful only at DOT-designated sites or the five NYC Parks model aircraft fields.
How much insurance does a New York drone shoot require?
The NYPD drone permit requires $2,000,000 per occurrence and $4,000,000 aggregate, in commercial general liability and drone aviation liability, naming the City of New York as an additional insured on a primary and non-contributory basis. The MOME film permit separately requires at least $1,000,000 occurrence-based commercial general liability, filed 48 hours before the permit application is submitted. CineDrones carries $5 million in aviation liability as standard.
Can you still fly a drone over Midtown Manhattan?
Prohibited Area P-75 covers a one-nautical-mile radius over Midtown, surface to 1,000 ft AGL, continuously, effective 29 October 2026, and no aircraft may operate inside it without authorization from the Secret Service. Midtown aerials planned from that date forward need to be replanned around it. Bring the location list to prep early — this is the kind of change that turns a straightforward shot into a different shot.
More on this market: drone cinematography in New York · aerial cinematography · FPV drone pilot · Local 600 drone operators
CineDrones is a Hollywood-based aerial cinematography company working in New York 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.
