Pilot agreement

You are an independent business

This agreement is between you and Astral Pic ("we"). The operator's legal name and postal address will be published here before the first booking. You accept it by ticking the agreement box when you submit your application. The version you accepted (2026-10-v1) and the time are stored with your pilot profile.

You are an independent contractor running your own drone business, not an employee, agent or partner of Astral Pic. In practice that means:

• You choose which jobs to accept, which packages to offer, your base, your radius (10 to 50 miles) and your hours. Astral Pic never assigns you a job. Declining or ignoring an offer carries no penalty and there is no acceptance rate, ranking or score.
• You may work for anyone else, including other platforms and your own clients, at any time. Astral Pic is not exclusive.
• You supply, maintain, register and insure your own aircraft and equipment. Astral Pic does not provide aircraft, insurance, uniforms or branding, and does not reimburse travel or expenses.
• You may bring a visual observer or an assistant at your own cost. The person who manipulates the controls must be you (see What you confirm).
• You decide how to fly within the shot list, the law and your own judgment. Astral Pic gives you a shot list and a delivery format, not instructions on how to fly.
• You are responsible for your own taxes, licenses, permits and business registrations. Astral Pic does not withhold tax and does not provide benefits, workers' compensation or unemployment insurance.

Astral Pic is a venue that connects you with customers, collects the customer's payment as your limited payment collection agent, and passes your share on. The customer's payment to Astral Pic counts as payment to you. Jobs that come to you through Astral Pic are paid through Astral Pic; do not ask a customer to pay you directly for one.

Pay

Package jobs. Each package has a published payout that is printed on every offer before you accept. At version 2026-10-v1 the payouts are:

Off-menu jobs. Construction progress, events and weddings, multi-site work, commercial roofs and anything else that is not a package comes to you as a quote request. You name your payout ($50 to $5,000) and the customer sees your payout divided by 0.8, rounded up to the dollar. If the customer accepts your bid, that payout is the price of the job.

When you are paid. A job is approved when the customer approves the delivery, or 48 hours after you deliver if the customer says nothing, or when Astral Pic approves it on the customer's behalf. We pay your payout within 7 days of approval. Payment goes through Stripe to a Stripe Express account that we set up and invite you to by email after verification. Stripe collects your tax identity and bank details; Astral Pic never stores them. Your dashboard shows each payout as due or paid with its reference.

Platform fee. Astral Pic's fee is the difference between the customer price and your payout: 20% of the customer price at launch. We may change the fee with 30 days' written notice by email. The planned step is to 25% once a metro's weekly fill rate has passed 90% for four weeks in a row; if that happens we will say so 30 days before it applies, and jobs you have already accepted keep the payout printed on the offer.

Cancellations. If a customer cancels after 5 pm the day before the window starts, you are paid half of your payout. If they cancel inside 4 hours of the window, or you arrive and cannot get access, you are paid the full payout. A weather or airspace release pays nothing and costs nothing. See Releases, cancellations and marks.

Taxes. You are responsible for your own income and self-employment taxes. Where the law requires it, Astral Pic or Stripe issues a Form 1099 for what you were paid.

What you confirm, and what we check

By applying and each time you accept a job, you confirm that:

• You hold a current FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate and are at least 16 years old.
• You completed the initial knowledge test or the FAA recurrent training (ALC-677) within the last 24 calendar months, and you will complete it again before it lapses.
• Every aircraft you fly for an Astral Pic job is registered under Part 107 (not the recreational exception), is labeled with its registration number, and broadcasts Remote ID.
• You carry at least $1,000,000 of third-party liability insurance that covers commercial drone operations, and you will keep it current while you accept jobs. If a customer asks to be named as an additional insured, tell them whether your carrier can do that and what it costs. Astral Pic does not require it. If a job description asks for it, accept or quote only if you can provide it.
• Every document you upload is genuine and current, and you will tell us at help@astralpic.com if any of it lapses, is suspended or changes.
• You personally are the remote pilot in command on every Astral Pic job. You will not send someone else to fly it.
• You will carry your remote pilot certificate, a photo ID and your drone's registration on every flight. 14 CFR 107.7 requires you to show the certificate and ID to the FAA, NTSB, TSA or any federal, state or local law enforcement officer who asks; Astral Pic also asks you to show them to the customer on request.

What we check. A person at Astral Pic looks at your Part 107 certificate, your recurrent training or knowledge test certificate, your certificate of insurance and the photo of the registration label on your aircraft, and searches your legal name in the FAA's public Airmen Inquiry. "Verified" on your profile means that check was done and when. It is not a statement by the FAA, it is not a background check, and it does not transfer any responsibility for the flight from you to Astral Pic. We may ask to see current documents again at any time.

When something lapses. If your recurrent training date or your insurance expiry passes, your dashboard warns you 30 days ahead and then blocks you from accepting jobs until you upload a current document and we have checked it. Flying an Astral Pic job without current recency, registration, Remote ID or insurance ends this agreement.

Job rules

These are the terms of each job you accept. They are written for the customer's protection, the public's and yours.

1. Do not fly before payment is confirmed. A job becomes flyable only when your dashboard shows the payment as confirmed by Astral Pic. Before that, do not travel to the site.
2. Call the customer the day before to agree the time inside their window. Daylight only unless the quote says otherwise.
3. Complete the go/no-go checklist before launch: payment confirmed, airspace authorization reference recorded where the address needs one, weather inside limits (wind under 20 mph sustained, visibility over 3 miles, no rain), no temporary flight restriction over the address, aircraft registered and Remote ID on.
4. Get your own airspace authorization. Where the address is in Class B, C, D or surface Class E airspace, obtain LAANC or DroneZone authorization yourself before the flight and record the reference in the checklist. Astral Pic's airspace flag is an approximate hint from a table of airports; your check is the one that counts. Never fly a job you cannot do legally.
5. Fly only the job scope. Keep the camera on the subject property. Do not film neighboring homes, interiors through windows, or identifiable people beyond what the job needs. Follow the shot list; where a shot cannot be taken safely or legally, skip it and say so in your delivery note.
6. Launch and land from the subject parcel or from public land where you have permission. Never from a neighbor's lot or a homeowners' association common area without consent.
7. Over people. Fly over people only with an aircraft that meets one of the Category 1 to 4 standards under 14 CFR 107.39, or under an FAA waiver, and never hold sustained flight over an open-air crowd except with a Category 1, 2 or 4 aircraft broadcasting Remote ID. Without one, keep the aircraft off non-participants and open-air crowds, including at events and weddings. At submit you confirm this in these words: "I will only fly over people with an aircraft that meets one of the FAA's Category 1 to 4 standards, or under an FAA waiver, and never hold sustained flight over an open-air crowd except with a Category 1, 2 or 4 aircraft broadcasting Remote ID." Tell the customer before you bid on an event if that limits what can be filmed.
8. Critical infrastructure. Do not overfly refineries, substations, water plants, ports, military sites or similar facilities. If a job sits next to one, re-plan or decline.
9. Upload within 24 hours of the flight. Upload every file through your dashboard and mark the job delivered. A Roof Check also needs your short written note on what you saw. If editing genuinely needs longer, tell the customer in the job thread.
10. Changes. The customer may ask for one round of changes within 48 hours of delivery when the files fall short of the package description. Re-edit or, if a shot would need another flight, say so plainly.
11. Use the job thread for day-of details and keep the customer's phone number, address and access notes for that job only. Delete them when the job is done.
12. Your word is final on safety. If a customer asks you to do anything that is unsafe, illegal or outside scope, refuse. That is never a mark against you.

Releases, cancellations and marks

Releasing a job. You can release an accepted job back to the board at any time from your dashboard, with a reason. The job returns to other pilots at the same price.

• Weather and airspace releases are free. If you cannot fly because of weather, visibility, a temporary flight restriction or a denied authorization, use "Weather no-go" to ask the customer for a new window, or release with that reason. No mark, no fee. The customer pays nothing extra.
• Schedule or other releases inside 24 hours earn a mark. A release for a schedule or other reason inside 24 hours of the start of the customer's window is recorded as a mark on your record. Release earlier than that and there is no mark, but release as soon as you know so another pilot can take the job. Two marks in 90 days pause your account until you have talked to us. Marks are kept with your profile and are not shown on your public pilot card.
• Unpaid customers. If the customer has not paid within 24 hours of your acceptance, you can keep waiting or release the job. A release counts under the rule above by its reason and timing; if you release because the customer did not pay, say so in your note to us at help@astralpic.com and a person looks at it before any pause.
• Declining an offer you have not accepted is always free and is never shown to the customer.

Customer cancellations. The customer can cancel free until 5 pm the day before their window starts. After that you are paid half of your payout because you held the time. Inside 4 hours of the window, or if you arrive and cannot get access, you are paid the full payout. Astral Pic keeps nothing from a cancellation. Report a no-access visit in the job thread the same day so the record is clear.

Accidents and incidents

If an Astral Pic flight involves a serious injury or loss of consciousness, or property damage other than to your aircraft that costs more than $500 to repair or replace, you must report it to the FAA within 10 calendar days as 14 CFR 107.9 requires, and tell Astral Pic at help@astralpic.com the same day. Also tell us the same day about any flyaway, crash, near miss with a crewed aircraft, police contact or complaint from an occupant or neighbor, whether or not it meets the FAA threshold.

Stop the flight and secure the site first. We may pause your account while we understand what happened. You remain responsible for the flight, and your insurance, not Astral Pic, responds to any claim.

Footage license

The pilot owns the copyright in the photos and video they create. Once payment is confirmed and the delivery is approved, the pilot grants the customer a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use, copy, edit and publish the files to market, sell, lease, finance, insure, inspect, repair, build or document the property named in the job, including sharing them with agents, brokers, MLS services, contractors and insurers for that property. The pilot may show the work in a portfolio without the address. Astral Pic may show a delivery as a sample only when the customer has ticked the consent box. Clicking "I agree" on these terms is the signed writing for this license.

In plain terms: you keep the copyright. The customer gets a broad license for that property, which is what real estate, roofing and construction clients need. You can show the work in your portfolio without the address. You confirm that you shot the files yourself and that nothing in them infringes anyone else's rights. If the customer wants to use the files outside the license, that is a separate deal between you and them.

Conduct and privacy

• Be on time, be clear and be polite. Introduce yourself to whoever is at the property and tell them what you are about to do.
• Follow the privacy law where you fly. In Texas, Government Code chapter 423 allows capturing images of private property with the consent of the owner or lawful occupant, which the customer's attestation provides for the subject property only. Florida Statute 934.50 requires written consent to record private property or its occupants where privacy is expected. Other states have their own rules; you are responsible for knowing them.
• Do not fly impaired, do not fly at night or in civil twilight without the anti-collision lighting and training 14 CFR 107.29 requires, and do not exceed 400 feet above ground except within 400 feet of a structure as the rules allow.
• Treat every customer the same. Do not refuse, release or price a job because of who the customer is.
• Use customer details only for the job. Do not contact a customer afterwards for marketing, and do not share their address, phone number or access notes with anyone.
• Reviews you leave about customers are private to Astral Pic staff and should be factual. Customer reviews of you feed the review count and average rating on your public card; the text of a review is stored as a public record but is not shown on any page today.
• Keep your profile honest: your real first name, your own photo, your own aircraft.

Ending this agreement

Either side can end this agreement at any time. You can simply stop accepting jobs, or email help@astralpic.com to close your account. We can pause or close your account for a breach of this agreement, lapsed or false documents, two marks in 90 days, an unresolved incident or conduct that harms a customer or the public, and we will tell you why.

When the agreement ends, finish or release any accepted job, and we still pay you every payout that is due. Your documents are kept for three years after your account closes and then deleted, as the privacy policy says. The footage licenses you granted on completed jobs continue.

Liability and disputes

You are responsible for your flights, your aircraft, your compliance with FAA and state law, and your conduct at the site, and you will cover Astral Pic for claims and reasonable legal costs that come from recording outside the job scope or from a breach of the rules above. Astral Pic is responsible for running the service and paying you what is due. To the extent the law allows, Astral Pic's total liability to you for anything connected with this agreement is capped at the fees Astral Pic kept from your jobs in the six months before the claim or $100, whichever is greater, and neither side is liable to the other for indirect or consequential losses. Nothing here limits liability that cannot be limited by law.

Disputes between you and Astral Pic work the same way as in the customer terms: tell us first by email with the job id; if that does not settle it, either side sends a written notice of dispute and both sides have 60 days to resolve it; after that the dispute goes to binding individual arbitration run by the American Arbitration Association, with a small claims court carve-out for either side. You can opt out of arbitration by emailing us within 30 days of first accepting this agreement. Texas law governs this agreement.

Changes and acceptance

If this agreement changes, the new version is posted here with a new version number and effective date and emailed to active pilots at least 30 days before it takes effect, except that a change required by law may take effect sooner. Accepting a job after the effective date means you accept the new version. Jobs you accepted earlier keep the version and payout they were accepted under.

You accept this agreement, the customer terms as they apply to each job and the privacy policy when you tick the eight attestations and the agreement box on your application. Questions before you do: help@astralpic.com.

The operator's legal name and postal address will be published here before the first booking.