18 February 2025

By Dan Dierking

My story begins going way back to about 1992—yes, I know, it shows my age (LOL). I starting flying R/C airplanes and helicopters in college. I joined a local R/C airplane club and I was immediately hooked. This was back in the day when there was only nitro powered aircraft using NiCad battery packs and AM/FM transmitters/receivers. You had to use frequency crystals in both the transmitter and the receiver in the aircraft. They both had to be on the same channel. If you were flying at a local R/C airplane club, no two aircraft could fly on the same channel at the same time. With today’s technology, you just bind your aircraft to your controller. I built my first balsa airplane from a kit in my college dorm with the help of one of the veteran airplane club members in the club that I belonged to. It was a Carl Goldberg Eagle 2 high wing trainer. I’ve belonged to several R/C airplane clubs over the years. I have even been the vice-president as well as president of a few of the clubs. I also taught a few people to fly R/C airplanes and at one point I was a sponsored R/C helicopter pilot for Gohbee, but unfortunately, they went out of business in 2009. 

Around 2002, when I saw other people starting to mount point and shoot cameras on helicopters, I just had to give it a try. I started with a Thunder Tiger Raptor 50, then I moved up to a nitro powered Align TREX 600 then finally I moved up to a TREX 600E once electric helicopters became more streamlined. I also had an R/C kite that had a point and shoot camera mounted on it. Unfortunately, the kites are no longer being made. Next, I moved to tri-copters and then to quadcopters. That was before they were even called Drones. I’ve mounted cameras on several airplanes over the years and even dabbled with long range flight using R/C wings as well. 

I’ve always had a passion for flying as well as photography/videography. I started out in my aerial photography journey by taking photos of parks and neighborhood houses in my subdivision. Some of my first jobs included aerial photos of a BMX race track, churches, daycares and paint ball fields. Less than a year after the Part 107 certification came out which I believe was in 2016, I acquired my Part 107 certification in early 2017. I continued to do jobs on a part time basis as my full-time job as an IT Systems Administrator wouldn’t allow me to go full time flying drones. I was never comfortable quitting my day job to do aerial photography/videography full time. I also obtained my Missouri Real Estate license twice, once back in 2003 and again in 2022. Mainly so I could pay myself to buy a new house. Again, I was never able to keep up with it and retain my realtor license due to my full-time job. 

I also tend to switch around between different hobbies a lot. According to my wife, I have more hobbies than anyone she has ever known. I will get bored with one or more of my hobbies and switch to something else for a while. Here are just a few of the things I’ve either done over the years or that I am currently doing: flying ultralights (a go-cart with wings), flying gyrocopters (what James Bond flew in the movie You Only Live Twice), performing as an amateur magician ( started performing magic in college as well to help me get over the fear of being in front of a crowd), flying R/C airplanes and helicopters (true me, I have owned quite a few over the years), racing R/C cars, FPV drone racing, 3D printing (which I still do the 3D print parts and accessories for my drone), sublimation printing, laser engraving with CO2 and fiber lasers, machine embroidery, pixel Christmas light displays, motorcycle riding and ATV riding. I always seem to come back to my drone aerial photography/videography.  

Before I got into taking aerial photos and video, keeping up with the radio control theme, I raced R/C cars. I built a couple outdoor offroad race tracks and even a couple indoor offroad race tracks. The first being inside a greenhouse that had closed down and the second indoor race track was in an indoor archery range. Even though I thoroughly enjoyed racing R/C cars, it was a very competitive hobby, but flying R/C airplanes, helicopters and drones was my true passion. 

I’ve owned mainly DJI drones over the years including a DJI Phantom 1, DJI Phantom 4, DJI Mavic 2, and a DJI Inspire 1 V2. I’ve also owned an Autel EVO II Pro, a 3DR Solo as well as a number of cinematic drones for doing indoor fly-through work including a DIATONE MXC Taycan duct 3-inch cinewhoop, a few BetaFPV and Emax cinewhoops as well as a few others. Currently I have a DJI mini 4 Pro, a DJI Neo and a DJI Avata 2 in my arsenal. My main focus is Real Estate, residential and commercial FPV flythroughs and construction, but we will see where things will take me. 

I really enjoy taking aerial photos and videos for clients using my DJI Mini 4 Pro, but over the last few years I have preferred doing real estate fly throughs (residential and commercial) using my cinematography FPV type drones like my DJI Avanta 2 and my DJI Neo. I think some of the reasons are that the FPV drones are more challenging to fly and require more skill and are just not as common as regular aerial photography/videography. 

A little bit more about me personally now. I have a prosthetic leg. I was born with a birth defect and had to have my right foot amputated when I was a year and a half old. I have been very fortunate and have never let it slow me down. Most people don’t even notice I have an artificial leg. I have a BS degree in Industrial Technology (engineering). I got into this field as I am always tinkering with something. I am currently an IT Operations Manager for a small company in the St Louis, MO area. I’m married to my very supportive wife. I have a 19 year old daughter in college and a 16 year old son in high school. I couldn’t ask for any better kids. I also have two fur babies (cats). Annie is my very spoiled cat and Bella is my wife’s cat, she’s spoiled as well, LOL. 

I’ve tried to retain a lot of photos and videos that I have taken over the years. Unfortunately, I haven’t done the best job. I do have several videos on my YouTube channel, https://www.youtube.com/@3dmanaerials. I hope to continue to do aerial photography/videography and indoor fly throughs for years to come. I’ll continue to improve my flying skills to produce better results for my clients. I am very excited to see the future of this business. It will be interesting to see how the FAA shapes this industry with things like remote ID. My only hope is that these changes allow this industry to grow rather than hurt all of the Part 107 certified pilots.