Who flew the drone, and under what certificate?
I'm Chris Abt, an FAA Part 107 certified remote pilot in West Grove, Pennsylvania. I document roofs and property for insurance claims, and I have no stake in the settlement.
That independence is the point. Imagery from the contractor's own crew is easy for a carrier to call self-interested. A certified third party with logged flight data and unmodified originals is not.
Certificate
FAA Part 107
Remote pilot
Insurance
$1M commercial
Additional insured on request
Flying since
September 2022
Municipal work, Franklin Township
Based
West Grove, PA
Same-day when weather allows
Most roof imagery is produced by someone who gets paid if the claim goes through.
That is not an accusation, it is a structural fact, and a desk adjuster is trained to notice it. Photos shot by the roofing crew arrive attached to an estimate from the same company. The carrier does not have to prove anything is wrong with them. It only has to raise the question.
There is a second problem underneath it. Commercial drone flight requires a Part 107 certificate. Plenty of crews fly without one, and it never matters until a file is contested. Much of this region also sits under controlled airspace, where a flight legally requires LAANC authorization that only a certificated pilot can obtain.
I am not the contractor, not the adjuster, and not a party to the settlement. I fly, I document, and I hand over the record.
A record, not a photo album.
Every property is delivered with the imagery and the flight record that accompanies it. This is the format.
Property documentation record
Specimen · format only- Property
- Subject address, as flown
- Flight window
- Start and end time, local, to the minute
- Pilot certificate
- FAA Part 107 certificate number
- Aircraft
- Make, model and FAA registration number
- Max altitude AGL
- Logged, in feet
- LAANC authorization
- Number, where controlled airspace applies
- Conditions
- Weather, ceiling and visibility at time of flight
- Frames delivered
- 25 to 35 typical, RAW and JPEG, unmodified
- File integrity
- SHA-256 per file, listed in the manifest
Chain of custody
Originals are delivered exactly as recorded. No cropping, retouching, color correction, rotation or resampling, and embedded metadata is left intact. The hash manifest lets anyone confirm later that nothing changed after capture.
A sworn affidavit of authenticity.
When a file is headed for appraisal or litigation, I can provide a written affidavit swearing to who flew, when, under what certificate, and that the delivered files are unaltered originals, with the SHA-256 manifest attached as an exhibit.
Sworn before a disinterested notary, never myself. Available as an add-on for $95.
Coverage in a standard set
- A
Context
Wide property oblique and a street elevation that ties the imagery to an address.
- B
Overview
Overhead orthogonal of the full roof, plus four corner obliques at matched altitude and angle.
- C
Per slope
Each roof plane shot square to the surface, close enough to resolve individual shingles.
- D
Penetrations
Chimney and flashing on all faces, vent boots, skylight curbs, valleys, ridge and hip lines.
- E
Soft metals
Gutters, downspouts, drip edge, vent caps, condenser fins. The corroboration an adjuster looks for on hail.
- F
Flagged areas
Anything called out in advance gets two frames, perpendicular and oblique, for extent and depth.
Where I stop
I capture and describe. I do not diagnose. Nothing I deliver states the cause, origin, extent or monetary value of any condition in the imagery, and I do not annotate or label damage in the files.
Interpretation is your work, and in Pennsylvania it is licensed work. Keeping that line clean is also what makes the record worth having.
Flat per property.
$325per property
Chester and Delaware County, Pennsylvania
$375per property
New Castle County, Delaware and Cecil County, Maryland
The first property is free. Send an address and I'll shoot it at no charge, so you can look at a real set before deciding whether this is worth anything to you.
Same-day capture when weather allows. Overcast is better than sun for surface condition, so a gray day is not a delay. Certificate of insurance naming you as additional insured provided before the flight on request.
Four or more properties a month: $275 and $325. See the full 2026 schedule.
Send me one address.
That's the whole ask. Give me a property, tell me anything specific you want covered, and I'll fly it and send you the set. If it isn't useful, you've lost a phone call.
Ready to take flight?
Tell me about your project and I'll come back with a quote, usually within one business day.
- Call or text
- 610-410-9705
- info@zigzagaerial.us
- Service area
- Southern Chester County, Pennsylvania. Insurance and claim work also covers Delaware County PA, New Castle County DE and Cecil County MD.