Commercial Drone Insurance in Texas

Three coverages to review before the next job

A drone policy is usually built from three parts, and the limits, deductibles, and exclusions of each are set separately. Review all three together, then check how they fit with the policies you already have.

Drone liability

Unmanned aircraft liability addresses your legal responsibility for covered bodily injury or damage to other people's property arising from insured drone operations: a rotor strike at a jobsite, a drone that comes down on a parked car, a crowd at an event. Ask whether defense costs sit inside or outside the limit, how the policy treats flights by employees or subcontracted pilots, and whether operations over people, at night, or near airports are restricted. Liability does not, by itself, pay to repair your own aircraft.

Hull: the aircraft itself

Hull coverage is physical damage insurance for the scheduled drone. Depending on the form, it may apply in flight, on the ground, in storage, or in transit. Check the scheduled aircraft and serial numbers, the insured value, the deductible (often a percentage of the hull value), and the covered causes of loss. Theft, flyaway and loss of signal, mechanical breakdown, and wear are not automatically covered, and a flyaway over water is the loss operators most often discover is excluded.

Payload and ground equipment

Cameras, gimbals, thermal sensors, LiDAR units, and RTK modules can be worth more than the aircraft that carries them. Payload usually needs its own schedule and values. Ask about ground stations, controllers, spare batteries and propellers, and coverage while equipment is detached, in the truck, or at a client's site. Payload coverage does not insure cargo you carry for customers.

The policies you already have

Most general liability policies exclude aircraft, including unmanned aircraft, and a homeowners policy excludes business use. Review the actual forms before relying on either. Three other gaps come up on nearly every review: personal injury coverage for privacy and trespass allegations, professional liability for a mapping, survey, or inspection deliverable that turns out wrong, and non-owned aircraft coverage for rented or borrowed drones. Each is a separate coverage or endorsement, and each is easy to assume you have when you do not.

Who flies for a living in East Texas, and what changes the review

The operators we hear from most in Longview, Tyler, Marshall, Kilgore, Hallsville, Gladewater, White Oak, and Henderson fall into a handful of groups, and each one changes the questions the underwriter asks.

• Real estate and listing photography. Flights over neighborhoods raise the Texas Chapter 423 privacy questions below; licensed brokers have a statutory exception, the photographer they hire may not.
• Roof inspections and construction progress. Flights over active jobsites with workers underneath; general contractors will ask for certificates and additional insured status. See our roofing contractor and contractor insurance pages.
• Mapping, surveying, and inspection deliverables. The exposure is the data as much as the flight. If a client builds on your map or acts on your inspection, that is a professional liability question.
• Pipeline, utility, and tower inspection. Critical infrastructure rules apply, and the pipeline or utility you fly for usually needs to be the party the statutory exception covers.
• Agricultural imaging and spraying. Imaging is one review; spraying is another, with heavier aircraft, Part 137 agricultural operations, and chemical drift exposure. Pair it with farm and ranch insurance.
• Events, weddings, and sports. Sustained flight over open-air crowds is tightly restricted under the FAA's operations-over-people categories; tell us before the booking, not after.

Deliveries, heavy aircraft, and flights beyond visual line of sight need a specific review of both operating authority and insurer eligibility. Describe every use, including work near people, roads, power lines, and industrial sites.

FAA Part 107, Remote ID, and Texas Chapter 423

Three sets of rules shape both your authority to fly and how an underwriter prices the risk. None of them is an insurance requirement, and none of them is replaced by an insurance policy.

Part 107: certificate, recurrent training, night, and crowds

14 CFR Part 107 covers commercial drones under 55 pounds. The remote pilot in command holds a Remote Pilot Certificate and completes the FAA's free online recurrent training every 24 calendar months, which replaced the in-person recurrent test in 2021. Since April 21, 2021, routine night flights are allowed for pilots with the night training when the aircraft carries anti-collision lighting visible for at least three statute miles. The same rule created four categories for operations over people; sustained flight over an open-air assembly is the most restricted case. Controlled airspace near an airport needs an authorization, and flights beyond visual line of sight need a waiver. Underwriters ask for the certificate, the waivers, and the aircraft's category because they define what the policy is being asked to cover.

Registration and Remote ID

Every drone flown under Part 107 must be registered with the FAA; the 250-gram exemption applies to recreational flyers only. Registered drones must broadcast Remote ID unless an exception applies, either built in or through an attached broadcast module. Expect the registration numbers and Remote ID method to appear on the application, and keep them current; an unregistered aircraft is a coverage argument waiting to happen.

Texas Chapter 423: the privacy rule most operators have not read

Texas Government Code Chapter 423 makes it a Class C misdemeanor to use a drone to capture an image of a person or privately owned real property with the intent to conduct surveillance. The civil side matters more to a business: the property owner or tenant can sue for $5,000 for all images captured in a single episode, $10,000 for disclosing, displaying, or distributing them, actual damages if done with malice, plus court costs and attorney's fees to the prevailing party. The statute lists exceptions, including capture with the property owner's consent, flights by or for an electric or gas utility, telecommunications provider, or pipeline operator, and work by a Texas-licensed real estate broker, registered professional land surveyor, or licensed professional engineer, each on the condition that no individual is identifiable in the image. Flying below 400 feet over a critical infrastructure facility without authorization is a separate Class B misdemeanor.

The Fifth Circuit upheld the chapter in October 2023 and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review that decision in October 2024, so it is enforceable today. For insurance purposes this is a personal injury and defense-cost exposure that standard drone liability forms do not necessarily address. Read the current text at the Texas statutes site, and tell us which exception, if any, your work falls under.

Certificates for contractors, venues, and property managers

Existing clients can request a certificate of insurance. General contractors, property managers, event venues, utilities, and municipalities often require one before you fly, and many ask for additional insured status, a waiver of subrogation, or specific liability limits. Include your insured business name, the certificate holder's exact name and address, the recipient's email, the project or event, the location, and the deadline. Send the full insurance requirement so we can compare it with the policy.

A certificate is evidence of coverage in force on the date issued. It does not amend the policy or give the holder rights beyond the policy and its endorsements. Additional insured requests need an endorsement and insurer approval, so send the contract wording before you accept the job.

Start your drone coverage review

Tell us your renewal date (or that you are new to this), what you fly, what the aircraft and payload are worth, and the kinds of work you do. Contact greg@gregagency.com or call the agency to arrange the pilot certificates, aircraft list, and client requirements needed for the review. Please do not put Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers, payment information, or medical details in the general quote form.

You can also select Business Insurance on our short quote request form and describe your drone operations when we follow up. Requesting a quote does not bind coverage.

What affects a drone operator's premium?

Insurers rate drone operations on the kind of work and where it happens, the number and value of aircraft and payload, pilot certificates and hours, claims history, limits, and deductibles. Flights over people, at night, near airports, over critical infrastructure, or beyond visual line of sight each move the number, as does an aircraft over 55 pounds or any spraying. Hull premium tracks the insured value, so insure the drone for what it would cost to replace, not for what it cost new three seasons ago.

Policies are often written on an annual basis with a scheduled aircraft list, but some insurers offer per-flight or short-term coverage for occasional operators. Compare the annual cost against how often you actually fly for hire, and tell us about new aircraft during the year; an unscheduled drone is usually an uninsured drone.

Two claim scenarios to discuss before buying

Loss of signal over the lake. During a shoreline listing shoot, the aircraft loses its control link and flies off over the water with a camera and gimbal worth more than the drone itself. This raises the hull form's flyaway and loss-of-signal exclusions, whether the payload was scheduled, and whether the controller logs will be required to prove the loss. Many operators learn here that the drone was covered for a crash but not for simply disappearing.

The neighbor and the listing photos. A photographer shoots a Longview home for a broker's listing. The neighbor, visible in a backyard in two frames, sues under Chapter 423 for the capture and the online distribution of the images and seeks attorney's fees. This raises personal injury coverage, defense costs, and whether the broker's statutory exception reaches the photographer the broker hired. Ask how the policy treats invasion-of-privacy allegations before the first listing, not after.

These are hypothetical illustrations, not client claims or promises of payment. The facts and the issued policy determine whether coverage applies.

What to have ready for a drone quote

• Legal business name, location, entity type, and years in operation
• Types of work, operating territory, and expected annual flight hours or jobs
• Each aircraft's make, model, serial number, FAA registration number, Remote ID method, and insured value
• Itemized cameras, sensors, controllers, ground stations, and spare equipment with values
• Pilot certificates, recurrent training dates, experience, and any FAA waivers or airspace authorizations
• Requested liability limits, deductibles, and any client or venue insurance requirements
• Use of rented or borrowed aircraft, subcontracted pilots, night operations, flights over people, or spraying
• Five years of loss runs and your current declarations pages, including the general liability policy's aircraft exclusion

Reviewed by Greg Williams, Texas-licensed independent insurance agent and owner of Greg Williams Insurance Agency, Longview, TX. Last reviewed October 2026.