Good Neighbor Podcast: Auburn and Opelika

Ep.#77: From Hobby to Hustle: Matthews Fly Aerial Imaging

• Susannah Hodges at Village Centre Press

Share episode

We talk with Jess Matthews of Matthews Fly Aerial Imaging about turning a love of aviation and photography into a family-run drone business that serves real estate, events, and local organizations. We explore FAA rules, the Part 107 license, practical use cases, and the personal story that fueled her leap into entrepreneurship.

• origins of Matthews Fly Aerial Imaging as a family business
• what professional drone work includes across sectors
• FAA regulation, registration, and Part 107 licensing
• typical altitude limits and airspace awareness
• balancing entrepreneurship with family life 
• real estate, contractor, hotel, school, and event use cases
• new business status, service areas across AL, GA, and FL
• how to reach Jess on Facebook and by phone

Matthews Fly Aerial Imaging

706-577-6828

To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpauburn.com. That's gnpauburn.com. Or call 334-429-7404


SPEAKER_00:

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Susanna Hodges.

SPEAKER_01:

Welcome. My guest today is Jess Matthews, and she is with Matthews Fly Aerial Imaging. Welcome, Jess.

SPEAKER_02:

Hey, Susanna. Thank you so much for having me today.

SPEAKER_01:

It's my pleasure, and I have really enjoyed talking with you before we started our podcast about your business. And this is a family business, right?

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, ma'am, it is. I'm the owner, and of course, um, or one of the owners, and my husband is the other owner.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, okay, excellent. So tell me a little bit about what you guys do.

SPEAKER_02:

So we are um, as you said, Matthews Fly Aerial Imaging, and we do drone photography um for real estate, um, special events, uh, schools, even we've done a retirement community, um, construction sites, uh, pretty much anything that's aerial that could, you know, obviously aerial photography could be used in.

SPEAKER_01:

And I know that drone photography has really gotten uh very popular these days. It makes fantastic images. I bet y'all have a have a really good time looking at these images and making them for people.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, ma'am. Um, so my husband and I actually started um prior to this, we started our private pilot license. And both of us have kind of been aviation enthusiasts. So, and I've always been into photography. Um, I do a little bit of like scenic and wildlife. So it kind of brings both of those um hobbies together for me. And it's something that obviously my husband and I can do together, which is also fun. Um, but we've probably been flying drones for about the last five years or so, but it was just a hobby until recently we launched our business in August of this year.

SPEAKER_01:

Excellent. So that's very cool that y'all are both in aviation, and it does, it really does make a very a lot of sense to be into the aerial photography, but fortunately today you don't have to get in an airplane to do it, right? Right, right.

SPEAKER_02:

It's a lot easier to fly a drone than it is to fly an airplane. Um, I literally I have under 10 hours of flight time, so I have not like I'm still read like a student pilot.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02:

I've not um done my check right or anything like that. Um, it's a there's a lot more that goes on to it than people realize, but I feel like that's kind of the way that drones are too. There's a lot of regulations and laws um when it comes to drones. So um, and of course, you know, the FAA is constantly, you know, writing new laws and there's different things that we have to follow.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. Yeah. So tell me a little bit about um some of those uh myths or misconceptions that you've come across uh through, you know, about drone photography. And I guess one of those things is uh yes, it's it's regulated by the FAA, right?

SPEAKER_02:

That's correct. Um, so we um we kind of joke and say, you know, you don't play with the FAA. Um our drone happens to be registered through the FAA. And of course, um anytime you do anything, anything at all commercially or anything with it in exchange of payment, you have to have a Part 107 license. Um, and it is very similar to the uh written exam for your private pilot. So it's it's it's definitely harder than people probably realize. Um, and of course, you know, they have a ton of supplements out there for you to study with and everything, but you actually have to go and take it um at a at a test center. Um, we went to the Auburn, um, the Auburn Testing Center here. And um, yeah, you have to have a license in order to fly. And that is definitely something that a lot of people I think don't really understand. Um, because you know, if you do it, if you just do it for fun or a hobby, it's fine. You don't have to have that license. Um, but there is a lot more that goes into it, and of course, you know, you have to be aware of where you're flying because there's certain certain restrictions, you know, airspace restrictions, and then of course, you know, you you can't be flying too close to airports and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. You don't want to cause injury with hitting a plane or anything like that.

SPEAKER_02:

Absolutely. And with your when your drone's registered, obviously it can be tracked. So you can't, you know, you can't do things without them knowing about it.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. Yeah. So how high can a drone fly?

SPEAKER_02:

Um, so the typical is um up to 400 feet. Um of course, yeah. Of course, you can always get clearance and um, you know, you can talk to ATC and things like that, but typically within 400 feet.

SPEAKER_01:

And I would imagine that's high enough for you know what we would use it for, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, ma'am. For a lot of things that we do, we we definitely are uh usually under that threshold.

SPEAKER_01:

So you said this is a a family business. You and your husband do this together. What do you guys do for fun when you're not flying drones?

SPEAKER_02:

So we have two um two young girls, one 12 and one five. Uh, so they definitely keep us busy. Uh, we like to travel, uh, we like to attend sporting events, and our oldest daughter um cheers for her school. So we are uh always at uh local football games, and we watch um, I have two younger brothers who I love to go see play. So we're we're we attend a lot of sporting events, whether it's football or baseball, and sometimes basketball as well.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, that sounds like a lot of fun. You've got some some girls in the right age there where you can just get in the car and run and do fun things.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, ma'am.

SPEAKER_01:

So part of the reason I do this podcast is I like to encourage others to uh go into entrepreneurship. And so I like to ask people about what kind of um, you know, when you start a business, there's always hardships that are involved in that, whether it's personal or business-wise. Um, you can you just kind of have to expect you're gonna have to jump through some hurdles. But what's what were some of those things you came across when you were starting your business?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, absolutely. Um, anytime you make a change in any career path, it's definitely um, it's exciting, but it definitely comes with challenges. Um, I actually uh lost my mother in April of 2024. Um, she was actually my maternal grandmother, but I've I've caught her mom for the majority of my life. And um that's certainly one of the hardest things that I've been through personally, and um, I'm thankful that I've had my husband and my girls to lean on through that, of course. Um, and and I'm just I'm so grateful to have had that type of love and it kind of carries me through. But um, as I stated earlier before, when we were talking, I was in clinical research before um I did this. Uh, and I left, I left the company that I was working for, and I knew I've always kind of known that I've wanted to own my own business. Um, and of course, this brings a passion of mine and also a passion of my husband's and something that we can do together. Um, but he is actually in law enforcement. So um, of course, he has a full-time job. So this is this is usually done mostly by me. Of course, he comes and helps fly. And um, of course, I'm always make, you know, watch making him watch my edits and you know, take a look over at everything that I do. But um, it is that's kind of what drove after losing my mom, that's kind of what drove me to really lean into what I'm passionate about and focus on my dreams. I wanted to, I wanted to spend more time with my children. Um, I did a little bit of traveling with my job prior, um, and I knew that I wanted to have something that I could do from home, but also flexible enough to where I can attend every single school event and not miss out on um just their childhood.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. Just having that freedom of time is very important. And that was what drives a lot of people into working for themselves, is they do have that freedom to decide, you know, uh when they work and when they need to get off. So that is definitely a perk uh of owning your business. Um, so back to the business, you know, most people don't really interact or have any kind of thought processes really on maybe I should get a drone uh photography done. What are some of those events that really uh benefits from having drone photography so that people can kind of be thinking about their lives and how they could incorporate some drone photography?

SPEAKER_02:

So I think anytime you do anything um kind of outside, whether it is like a color, we recently did a color run for our daughter school or a homecoming parade or um any sporting event, of course, is fun. Um, but also anything when it comes to real estate. Um, we've recently done some things with a contractor that's done a retaining wall. We've helped him with a commercial. Um, we've worked with a retirement community, um, of course, hotels. They'll play, you know, they'll get really good aerial shots of their of their property. Um, apartment complexes is another great example of that. Um, and we've also done stuff just for our friends, um, people who have really cool um land, especially um up on the river, yeah, and taking really good shots. And, you know, you can you can frame that and you can just have that for your own personal use. Um, we like to uh we love going out on the boat, so we've got some pretty cool shots of um people surfing behind their boats and yeah, that would be beautiful. Doing some fun stuff, yeah. You can there's so many different things that you can do with it, and so I mean, just get creative with it and have fun. Um, and that's that's kind of what we like to do.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, what's one thing you wish people knew about your business that they may not realize?

SPEAKER_02:

So our business is very new. Um, we actually just launched, um, we actually have an LLC and we launched it in August of this year. So we've you know, we hit the ground of running, but we've only been in business for a few months now. And we um we are local to of course Obaleika Auburn area, Phoenix City, and Columbus. Um, but we are not, we don't have to just stay in this area. Um, we we've done some work in Florida as well, and of course, Georgia across the just across the river. So I'd love for people just to to hear about us. And um, of course, I will give you my contact information that we can share on our social media um and just definitely follow our page. And if you have any questions or um are just interested in learning about drone photography, I'd love to talk with people. I I love talking about it, and it's it's something that we kind of incorporate in our daily lives.

SPEAKER_01:

And speaking of contact information, how would someone get in contact with you?

SPEAKER_02:

So I um we we mainly use our Facebook page, and of course I'll share that. Um you can find it at Matthews Fly Aerial Imaging. And um any type of business-related phone calls just come directly to me. Um, and my number 706-577-6828. Again, that's 706-577-6828.

SPEAKER_01:

Excellent. Well, I've really enjoyed talking to you, Jess. Thank you so much for being uh a guest on the Good Neighbor Podcast.

SPEAKER_02:

Thank you so much for having me. It was such a pleasure to meet you.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast Auburn. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpauburn.com. That's gnpauburn.com. Or call three three four four two nine seven four zero.