What Ann Arbor businesses film from the air
Aerial work in Ann Arbor clusters in a few places. Downtown Main Street, Kerrytown and the State Street district drive apartment, office and retail marketing, where a view from 200 to 400 feet shows a renter or tenant how close a building sits to restaurants, campus and the Huron River. Commercial property along Washtenaw Avenue and around Briarwood Mall needs clean site, parking and access shots for leasing packages. Along the river, Argo and Gallup parks and the Metroparks upstream give developers, event producers and outdoor brands a green backdrop that reads as Ann Arbor at a glance. Contractors use repeat flights from the same points to document progress for owners and lenders.
Most of the city sits in Class D airspace
According to the FAA’s Class Airspace data, Ann Arbor Municipal Airport (ARB) has Class D airspace from the surface to 3,300 feet MSL, and it reaches well north of downtown. Our checks put downtown, Central Campus, North Campus, Michigan Stadium, Gallup Park and Briarwood Mall inside it. Every commercial flight there needs FAA authorization, which we request through LAANC.
The ceiling on that authorization is what shapes the shot list. The FAA’s UAS facility map allows 400 feet over downtown, the Diag and North Campus, 100 feet near Nichols Arboretum, 50 feet around Briarwood Mall and the State and Eisenhower area, and 0 feet over the Michigan Medicine hospital complex. A leasing shoot near Briarwood that needs a high overview does not fit a 50 foot grid, so we either design the coverage around lower angles or file a separate FAA request well ahead of the date. The Class D ends near the city’s northern edge, and around Barton Hills the surface airspace is uncontrolled Class G. The tower at ARB is part-time, but we treat the Class D as active for planning and confirm status on the day.
University property and game days
Two limits in Ann Arbor have nothing to do with the airport. The University of Michigan’s Regents’ Ordinance, Article XVI, bars drones from operating, taking off or landing on or over U-M property without a written waiver, and U-M’s Division of Public Safety and Security says violations can bring a civil infraction, misdemeanor, fine or impoundment. The City of Ann Arbor’s filming page says the city does not require its own drone permit, but asks crews to contact U-M public safety before any flight over university property. For buildings next to campus, we launch from private land and keep the flight path off university property.
Michigan Stadium seats 107,601, according to Michigan Athletics, and the FAA stadium flight restriction closes the airspace within 3 nautical miles of it from one hour before kickoff to one hour after every home football game. Downtown is about a mile from the stadium and North Campus is about 2 nautical miles away, so home Saturdays are off the table for central Ann Arbor. Our stadium TFR guide explains how the rule works.
Light and seasons
October brings color to the Huron River corridor from Argo to Gallup, but it overlaps with football season, so we book weekdays and away weekends. Summer is the easiest time for full, green campus-edge and river views. The Ann Arbor Art Fair, which its organizers say draws nearly half a million visitors to 30 city blocks downtown over three days each July, rules out most downtown flight paths that week because Part 107 limits flying over crowds. For facades, an hour after sunrise or before sunset gives the most even light, and Part 107 allows twilight and night flights with anti-collision lighting when a building looks best lit up.
Planning an Ann Arbor shoot
Send the address, date window and what you need to deliver. We check the ARB facility map grid for that block, U-M property lines, the Michigan home schedule and the landowner’s permission before we send a fixed quote. See our Detroit drone photography services, including real estate drone photography and construction progress flights, or contact us to start.