Texas Drone Media is based in Waco. FAA Part 107 licensed aerial media for Central Texas builders, real estate agents, and small businesses — owner-operated, fast turnaround, no agency markup.
Texas Drone Media is owned and operated by Cade Bertel, a Waco-based Baylor University alumnus who holds an active FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate. The studio is a member of the Heart of Texas Builders Association (HOTBA), which keeps the work plugged into the Central Texas construction community — most of our recurring construction monitoring contracts come through builder referrals inside that network. We fly from a Waco home base seven days a week, with a 60- to 90-minute drive radius reaching Temple, Killeen, Belton, Harker Heights, Georgetown, Round Rock, and the Brazos Valley (Bryan / College Station). For shoots inside Waco's TFR boundaries or near Waco Regional Airport, LAANC airspace authorizations are filed in advance so flights stay on schedule.
The bulk of our recurring Waco work is construction progress documentation for mid-market general contractors and developers — weekly or bi-weekly aerial photos plus monthly time-lapse compilations on active commercial builds. Standard flights run $150 to $400 per visit, with 20 to 30 edited photos and 5 to 10 minutes of 4K video b-roll per shoot. We also handle residential and commercial listing media for Waco-area realtors — homes in Beverly Hills, Cottonwood, Lake Air, Castle Heights, and the Spring Lake / China Spring corridor, plus larger ranch and lot listings in Robinson, Lorena, McGregor, Moody, Chilton, and Rockdale. Corporate clients book interior + aerial b-roll packages starting at $750. Small businesses use short-form social reels for their Google Business Profile and Instagram.
Waco's construction market is driven by mid-market general contractors and locally-owned builders rather than the mega-developers that dominate DFW. Recurring relationships matter more than one-off scope here. The downtown corridor around Magnolia and the Suspension Bridge is seeing active commercial revitalization, while the residential expansion is happening west toward China Spring and south toward Lorena and Robinson. Tourism-driven small business owners on Austin Avenue and along the Magnolia Silos district increasingly need short-form drone media for their social platforms. We've documented a representative sample of these projects across our portfolio, including the CRW Construction Belton site, the Temple-Belton Kiddie Academy build, and listing media at properties on Joy Drive, Tyler Street, and Edinburgh Drive in McGregor.
Drive time is the hidden cost on every drone job. A pilot driving down from Dallas to a Waco listing eats two and a half hours each way and bakes the round-trip into the quote — even on a 25-minute flight. A Waco-based pilot delivers the same work at a fraction of the travel surcharge and can typically schedule within 48 hours. Owner-operated also means there's no agency layer pricing in their margin — quotes come directly from the pilot who flies the job. For builders running active sites with weekly progress flights, a local pilot reschedules around weather and site access faster than a remote contractor whose calendar is built around longer round-trips.
24-hour response. 48-hour photo delivery. Free demo flights available for qualified prospects.
Looking for coverage outside Waco? See our full service areas across DFW and Central Texas.