The FAA finally granted me an exemption for drone photography. At this point I'm guessing it's ok to market and charge for related services if I want to? I read months ago that even if they grant you an exemption you still would need a pilot's license to use the drone for commercial purposes, which sounds pretty absurd to me but wouldn't be surprising since this is the federal government we're talking about.

Re-read your approved exemption. It requires a pilot license just like all of the others do.

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Phantom Help Posted at 2015-8-18 03:16
Re-read your approved exemption. It requires a pilot license just like all of the others do.

"Under this grant of exemption, a PIC must hold either an airline transport,
commercial, private, recreational, or sport pilot certificate. The PIC must also hold a
current FAA airman medical certificate or a valid U.S. driver’s license issued by a
state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, a territory, a possession, or the Federal
government."

LOL, ok so utterly useless. Gotta love federal bureaucracy, someone wasted time reviewing my case for 5 months. So I can legally fly my drone but I can't make money taking photos from it because I can't fly a plane.

cayers13@gmail. Posted at 2015-8-18 05:25
"Under this grant of exemption, a PIC must hold either an airline transport,
commercial, private,  ...

Come on, you can't blame the feds for your misinterpretation of what you were going to receive.  I think the pilot license requirement will go away one of these days and you should be good to go.  It seems very crazy to expect the PIC to have a regular pilots license.

It would be great if you could tell us the steps it took you or an example of a request (yours?) that did receive approval. Looks like the good news may soon be: "There's an App for that", B4UFly from the FAA which is currently in Beta. I am also an iOS developer, should have tried to get into that beta!  I am not a licensed pilot. I started flight school to earn private pilots license just so I could do Aerial video, but drones can capture better footage! Cost of just the private pilot license? $10 Grand! That instead could buy a few high end drones!