RAW Digital Group flies drone photography and video in Mackinac Island, MI, with FAA Part 107 certified pilots from its Detroit studio. Published starting prices are $450 for aerial photos, $1,500 for aerial video and $2,500 for FPV fly-throughs, with travel to Mackinac Island quoted per project.
Updated
What clients want from Mackinac aerials
Resorts, hotels, wedding venues and tourism businesses on and around Mackinac Island all want the same view: the island rising out of the Straits, Grand Hotel on its bluff, Fort Mackinac above the harbor and the Mackinac Bridge on the horizon. That frame is what makes Mackinac Island aerial photography so sought after, and the rules for getting it are strict. The island bans cars and relies on horse-drawn traffic, and the city’s drone ordinance names the safety of those horses as its reason for regulating drones.
Two permissions before any island flight
The first is the city. Under Chapter 38, Article IX of the city code, no one may fly a drone in the airspace about the City of Mackinac Island without a permit from the city council. Applications go through the city clerk, and the council reviews the location and timing against the risk to horses used in commercial activity, along with the drone’s size, weight and noise, the purpose and FAA compliance. A 2016 version of the ordinance reached one mile over Lake Huron; the city repealed it in 2019. A permit can be revoked by the chief of police if a flight is unsafe.
The second is the state park. More than 80 percent of Mackinac Island is state park property, according to Mackinac State Historic Parks, and a park commission policy recorded in 2015 bans drones from the airspace over its parks without permission. The parks say they review professional requests carefully and more often than not decline them. The Mackinac Island Tourism Bureau says approval is needed from both the city and the parks, that the police department should be notified in advance, and that permission is rarely granted.
State law gives the island one specific tool. A 2019 amendment to Michigan’s drone law (2019 PA 32), which UpNorthLive reported was aimed at Mackinac Island, lets a community that bans nonemergency motor vehicles prohibit drone flights that knowingly interfere with horses used in commercial activity.
Why the FAA part is easy
According to FAA Class Airspace data, the island, the bridge, Mackinaw City and St. Ignace are all Class G at the surface, with Class E starting at 700 feet, and there are no facility map grids in the Straits. Mackinac Island Airport, owned by the park commission, has no tower. On airspace alone, a Part 107 drone videographer could fly here without LAANC. On Mackinac, that simply is not the question that decides the shoot.
The mainland plan: bridge and Straits
When island flights are not approved, the practical answer is to split the work. We film the island at ground level with the property owner’s permission and capture the aerial layer from the mainland. Private shoreline property in Mackinaw City and St. Ignace gives views of the bridge and the Straits, with the island in the distance. We keep the aircraft off Mackinac State Historic Parks land in Mackinaw City, including Colonial Michilimackinac and Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse, and off Straits State Park unless the DNR has given written permission. Near the bridge, we coordinate with the Mackinac Bridge Authority and stay clear of I-75 traffic.
Summer brings the most light and the busiest streets, docks and ferries. Early mornings offer calmer water and fewer people, which matters for any permitted flight.
Planning a Straits shoot
Tell us what you need to show and your date window. We map what is possible under the city ordinance, the park policy and the owner’s rules before we quote, and we pair Straits work with Petoskey or Traverse City trips when timing allows. See our Detroit drone photography services, including hotel and resort aerials and waterfront drone photography, or contact us to start.