What Bloomfield Hills clients use aerials for
Bloomfield Hills covers about five square miles of land, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and the city describes itself as a community that values quiet, rural residential properties. That shapes the aerial work. Luxury listings and custom homes are the natural fit, because a drone is the only practical way to show a house on a large wooded lot, the grounds around it and how private it is from the road.
The city’s own description names three institutions: the Cranbrook campus, the Bloomfield Hills Country Club and the Bloomfield Open Hunt. The country club, founded in 1909, opened an expanded course designed by Harry S. Colt in 1915, according to the city. Clubs like these commission aerials of their grounds for membership materials and course projects, always on their own terms and schedule.
Cranbrook and other private land
Cranbrook is the landmark people most want to see from above, and it is the one place we will not fly. Its 319-acre campus, founded by George Gough Booth and Ellen Scripps Booth, includes work by Eliel Saarinen and Albert Kahn and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989, according to Cranbrook Art Museum. Cranbrook’s campus policy says it does not currently allow aerial photographs over the campus and that drones are not permitted there except for its own drone club. Professional photography is allowed only when scheduled through its Business Services Office. For clients who want Cranbrook in a story, the path runs through Cranbrook itself.
The same principle applies across the city. Michigan’s PA 436 of 2016 bars local rules on drone flight, but it gives no right to use private land, and state law also bars capturing images in violation of a reasonable expectation of privacy. We launch only with the owner’s permission and frame tightly on the client’s property.
Airspace around the city
On FAA data, Bloomfield Hills is uncontrolled Class G airspace at the surface, with no facility map grids and the Detroit Metro Class B floor at 4,000 feet above sea level. No LAANC authorization is needed below 400 feet. Oakland County International’s control tower and Class D airspace sit to the northwest in Waterford Township, starting about 3.8 nautical miles from the city’s nearest edge. Oakland/Troy Airport, a non-towered field, is about 2.5 miles east. Neither requires an authorization for a Bloomfield Hills flight, but both explain the small planes you see overhead. We check B4UFLY or a LAANC app on the day of every flight, because airspace and temporary restrictions change.
Light, seasons and Woodward
Wooded lots mean shadows. We time flights for when the sun is on the front of the house and high enough to clear the trees, which often means late morning. October color is the peak season for estate listings, and a clean snowfall shows off architecture that summer leaves hide. Woodward Avenue runs through the city, and on the third Saturday in August the Woodward Dream Cruise passes through Bloomfield Hills. Part 107 limits sustained flight over moving cars, so we film it from the side of the road.
Planning a Bloomfield Hills shoot
Send the address, what the footage is for and a date window. We confirm airspace, the owner’s permission and any club or institutional approvals, then send a fixed quote. See our Detroit drone photography page for how we fly, real estate drone photography for listing packages and FPV drone video for one-take flights through a home. When you are ready, contact us.