RAW Digital Group flies drone photography and video in Midland, 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 Midland quoted per project.
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What Midland businesses film from the air
Midland’s aerial subjects start at the water. The Tridge, which the City of Midland describes as a three-legged wooden footbridge over the confluence of the Tittabawassee and Chippewa rivers, has a 31-foot central pillar and three 180-foot spokes, and its three-way shape reads instantly from above. The downtown riverfront, Chippewassee Park and the start of the Pere Marquette Rail Trail surround it, so developers, restaurants and event producers use it as a clear way to say “Midland” in one frame.
Corporate and industrial work is the other half. Dow says Michigan has been its home since the company’s founding in 1897, and its corporate center in Midland, the global headquarters, covers 150 acres with nearly one million square feet of buildings. The company’s Michigan Operations site covers 2,600 acres. Suppliers, contractors and employers across the region need drone video that shows scale, logistics and safety for recruiting, sales and investor decks. Dow Gardens, which began in 1899 as the Dow family’s home and now covers 110 acres, and the Midland Center for the Arts add cultural and hospitality content, while residential agents want aerial photography of homes near the rivers and parks.
Open airspace over most of the city
According to the FAA’s Class Airspace data, downtown Midland, the Tridge, Dow Gardens, the Global Dow Center, Dow Diamond and the Midland Mall area sit under Class E airspace that starts 700 feet above ground. A drone pilot flying below 400 feet there needs no LAANC authorization.
Two airports still shape the plan. Jack Barstow Airport, owned by the City of Midland about 3 miles northwest of downtown, has no tower, so we watch for low manned traffic on north side shoots. MBS International has a control tower and Class D airspace from the surface to 3,200 feet MSL in a circle about 4 nautical miles around the field. Our FAA checks put its western edge near the city’s far southeast corner, where LAANC is required and facility map ceilings are 400 feet. We run a boundary check for any address out that way.
Campuses, gardens and parks
In Midland the landowner usually matters more than the airspace. The Dow campuses are private and secured, so we fly there only with written approval. Dow Gardens charges admission and is the signature gift of the Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation, and we ask the garden before filming. City parks around the Tridge are busy with walkers and cyclists, and Part 107 limits flying over people, so we plan flight paths that stay off the crowd. State parks and recreation areas in the region need written DNR permission for any commercial drone use.
Light and seasons
The rivers look best from late spring through October, with full trees in summer and strong color in the fall along the confluence and the rail trail. Winter aerials suit industrial and corporate sites, where snow outlines rooflines, roads and parking lots. The city’s page on the Tridge notes that its arches now carry a programmable color-changing LED system, which makes twilight flights, legal under Part 107 with anti-collision lighting, worth scheduling. Because we travel from Detroit, we hold a backup weather day for every Midland shoot.
Planning a Midland shoot
Send the address, date window and what you need to deliver. We confirm the airspace, check campus, garden and park permissions and line up landowner approval before we send a fixed quote. See our Detroit drone photography services, including industrial drone video and waterfront drone photography, or contact us to start.