We publish our rates
Every product has a public number. This costs us margin on jobs we could have quoted higher. It wins us the agent who needed a figure at nine at night for a listing presentation, and that agent books six times a year.
About
A pilot's company that happens to sell imagery
MC Drones is the continuation of Max Drone Group, which has flown South Florida's coastline since 2016 for resorts, brokerages, associations, and property owners. Same pilot, same aircraft, same coastline — a sharper name and a much larger plan.
2016
flying commercially since
TEN YEARS19
age at private pilot certificate
4
capture methods on one aircraft — Indoor 3D, Exterior 3D, Thermal, Cinematic
$2M
aviation liability carried
Leadership
Max Cavella
Owner · Pilot in Command
Max earned his private pilot certificate at nineteen. He holds a degree in aviation science from Montana State University and completed his FAA private, instrument, and multi-engine requirements there.
He began flying drones commercially in 2016, delivering aerial photography and video through Vision Landscape Services, and has spent the decade since producing aerial content for resorts, real estate, and brand campaigns worldwide.
Why this matters more than it sounds. Most drone operators
hold a Part 107 certificate and nothing else. An instrument-rated pilot thinks about
airspace, weather, and risk the way aviation does — procedurally, in advance, with a
decision tree. It is the reason we tell clients an address is unflyable on the phone
instead of discovering it in a parking lot.
Structure
One pilot, one aircraft, four products
What we actually are today
MC Drones is Max Cavella, operating as Max Drone Media LLC, based in North Naples. There is no dispatcher and no marketplace between you and the pilot — when you call, Max flies the majority of jobs personally, on the Matrice 30T and the Avata 2 we already own.
Our hospitality relationships — including work for Marriott and Hilton properties — run on referral, built on a person rather than a logo, and remain healthy today. We are honest that this is a referral channel we are converting into a durable book, not a signed enterprise contract.
Independence is structural. We sell no roofing, take
no contingency, and have no position on what the data turns out to say — on the
intelligence side, that is the entire reason the work holds up to scrutiny.
How we operate
Four commitments, and what each one costs us
Any company can list values. These are the four we hold to specifically because they are inconvenient — which is the only reason they mean anything.
We sell no remediation
No roofing, no restoration, no engineering, no contingency fees. This closes off the most obvious adjacent revenue in our industry. It is also the entire reason an association board, a carrier, and a public adjuster will all accept the same file.
We publish the SLA number
96% on-time against our stated turnaround, measured monthly, reported quarterly. When we miss, we say so. A delivery promise nobody measures is marketing; a delivery promise with a published miss rate is an operating standard.
We say no on the phone
If the airspace will not authorize, if thermal will not answer your question, if a licensed surveyor is what you actually need — we say it before you book. The revenue we lose that way is smaller than the trust it buys.
Credentials
What we carry
- FAA Part 107 certificated remote pilot on every flight
- FAA private pilot certificate, instrument and multi-engine rated PIC
- B.S. Aviation Science, Montana State University
- $2M aviation liability, additional insured added on request
- LAANC authorization handled in advance; manual FAA filings where required
- Radiometric thermal with calibrated temperature scale on every survey
- RTK positioning and surveyed ground control on mapping work
Next step
Work with the pilot, not a dispatcher for a marketplace.
Max flies the majority of our jobs personally. When you call, that is who you are getting.