If you had told me a few years ago that I would become an FAA-certified drone pilot and start a company built around cinematic aerial media and FPV flying, I probably would have laughed at you.
It certainly wasn’t part of some carefully laid-out business plan.
It actually started with a trade.
I had a laser engraver that I wasn’t using much anymore, and I ended up trading it for a drone. At the time, I wasn’t thinking about starting a business. I wasn’t thinking about commercial work, cinematic FPV, or where any of this might eventually lead.
I just thought having a drone would be pretty cool.
Turns out, that trade changed a lot more than I expected.
Seeing Things Differently
From the first time I started flying, there was something about it that grabbed me.
Part of it was simply learning to control the aircraft. I’ve always enjoyed learning how things work and getting better at something that requires a little skill. But what really hooked me was what I could see through the camera.
Places I had driven past a hundred times suddenly looked completely different from a few hundred feet in the air.
Landscapes changed. Buildings changed. Familiar places became interesting again.
I started realizing that a drone wasn’t just a flying camera. It was a way of showing people something they couldn’t normally see.
And without knowing it at the time, I had stumbled onto the idea that would eventually become the foundation of Stone & Sky:
Perspective changes everything.
Somewhere Along the Way, It Got Serious
Like most hobbies I get interested in, I wanted to learn more.
I started learning about photography and video. I started paying attention to composition, camera movement, light, editing, and how different shots worked together.
Eventually, simply flying around and getting cool footage wasn’t enough.
I wanted the footage to tell a story.
That also meant deciding whether this was going to remain a hobby or become something more. If I was going to do commercial work, I wanted to do it correctly. So I studied for and earned my FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate.
That was one of the first moments when this started feeling real.
I wasn’t just a guy who owned a drone anymore.
I was becoming a drone pilot.
Stone & Sky
From there, Stone & Sky Adventure Media began taking shape.
The idea wasn’t to become another company that simply showed up, put a drone in the air, took a few pictures, and went home.
I wanted to create something more cinematic.
Something that could make you feel like you were there.
Something that could help a business, an organization, or even a person tell their story from a perspective they couldn’t get from the ground.
As Stone & Sky developed, so did I.
I kept flying. I kept learning. I started taking editing more seriously. I learned more about filmmaking and storytelling. And somewhere during that process, I discovered something that completely changed the direction I wanted to go.
FPV.
Then I Put on the Goggles
Traditional camera drones let you put a camera almost anywhere in the sky.
FPV lets you fly the camera.
That’s a very different experience.
Instead of watching the drone from the ground while looking at a screen, you’re wearing goggles and seeing what the drone sees. You can fly through a doorway, down a hallway, around an object, over a ridge, through a building, or follow something in motion in one continuous flight.
And then I started learning to fly in full manual mode.
That’s when everything clicked.
Manual FPV is difficult. I’ve crashed more while learning it than I probably did during all my previous drone flying combined. I’ve spent hours in the simulator flying through gates, practicing turns, learning throttle control, and trying to make movements smoother and more deliberate.
And I’ve loved every minute of it.
There was a point during all that practice when I realized:
I found my lane.
This was the kind of flying I wanted to become really good at.
Not because FPV looks cool—although it absolutely does—but because of what it makes possible as a storytelling tool.
An FPV drone can take someone on a journey instead of simply showing them a location.
That’s what excites me.
Why I Became a Drone Pilot
Looking back, I don’t think there was one moment when I decided, I’m going to become a drone pilot.
It happened one step at a time.
I traded something I wasn’t using for something I thought would be fun.
Fun became curiosity.
Curiosity became learning.
Learning became a certification.
And somewhere along the way, flying drones became something I genuinely cared about.
Eventually, it became Stone & Sky Adventure Media.
I’m still learning. I’m still improving. I’m still building the business. And every time I put the goggles on or launch a drone, there is something else I want to get better at.
But now I know where I’m heading.
My goal is to build Stone & Sky into a name people recognize for cinematic aerial storytelling and immersive FPV work—first here in East Tennessee, and eventually far beyond it.
That’s a pretty big goal for something that started with an old laser engraver and a trade.
But then again, sometimes all it takes is seeing things from a different perspective.
Perspective Changes Everything.
