Unionville senior flying high with new business

EAST MARLBOROUGH » He’s only a senior in high school, but Tom Padula has started a unique business that he feels will take him to new heights.

Drones are a relatively new technology, and earlier this year Padula figured if he bought one, he could use it to take aerial photos and videos of property available for sale and sell it to real estate agents. He bought a Phantom 4 Pro drone, hooked it up to his iPad and set out to work. He even got permission from Unionville High School administrators to allow him to leave school at 11:36 a.m. each day to hone his new business.

So far, it’s gone so well, Padula doesn’t know what he will do when he graduates from Unionville School in May. His parents expect him to go to college.

“I’m trying to build a business, but if my business thrives, I’ll have until May to decide what to do,” Padula said.

Padula has already partnered with several bigname real estate agencies in Chester County, including ReMax of West Chester, Patterson-Schwartz and Berkshire-Hathaway.

“If you have a big property and your (real estate) agent is not getting aerial shots, that’s a selling point they aren’t using to their advantage,” Padula said.

Padula needed to obtain an FAA license to start his company. He goes out to the location, takes aerial photos and video of the property and surrounding area, and goes home to edit it with software such as Photoshop and Lightroom.

Padula’s drone has a range of three miles, but it cannot fly at night, cannot fly above 400 feet, and must be in his line of sight at all times.

Unlike a cellphone camera, a drone can fly overhead without a person noticing, peer directly into someone’s window or film private property from above. There has been legislation that would address more privacy protections against drones. The Drone Aircraft Privacy and Transparency Act has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives, but so far no action has been taken.

“Right now, invasion of privacy is a gray area,” Padula said. “You can fly a drone over any private property and no one can stop you.”

But more and more states are passing drone legislation. In Arizona, Louisiana and Utah, drone operators are now restricted from flying drones near police or firefighter activity. And in Oklahoma and Tennessee, operators can’t fly drones near some buildings, such as power plants.

But so far, the future looks bright for real estate aerial photography, and new businesses are beginning to form.

Padula shoots all video in high-resolution 4K. His standard price is $125 for aerial shots, and $195 for both photos and videos. His clients say the aerial videos help promote their listings.

“I’m starting to do indoor shots, but most shots are aerial,” Padula said. “This is a great business and I love what I’m doing.”

Padula lives in Pocopson Township with his parents and his sister, who is a sophomore at Unionville High School. Padula has a website at padulaaerial.com, and his email is Thomas@ padulaaerial.com.

FRAN MAYE – DIGITAL FIRST MEDIA Thomas Padula, a senior at Unionville High School, holds a drone he uses to take photos and images of houses for the local real estate market.