Everything you need
to fly on Lofft

Once you complete your profile, you upload 7–8 CAA documents. Our team reviews them within 1 business day. If everything checks out, you receive a Calendly link to book a 15-minute verification call. After the call, your profile goes live within 24 hours.

All pilots need: Remote Pilot Certificate (RPC), RPAS Operator Certificate (ROC), Air Services Licence (ASL), Third-Party Liability Insurance (drone-specific), a medical certificate or assessment, Certified ID or Passport, and a Bank Confirmation Letter. If you own a drone, you also need your RPAS Registration Certificate. If you fly clients' drones (operator-only), the RPAS Registration is not required.

No. Select "I don't own a drone" on your profile and we'll remove the RPAS Registration Certificate from your checklist. You'll appear in searches for jobs where the client provides equipment.

Most pilots complete documents in under 10 minutes. Document review takes 1 business day. After your call, your profile is typically live within 24 hours. From starting your application to going live usually takes 2–3 days.

We'll email you with a specific reason and ask you to re-upload the correct document. You can return to /join/documents at any time to fix it. You won't be able to apply to new jobs until all flagged documents are resolved, but any existing accepted jobs are unaffected.

It's about 15 minutes: video or phone, your choice. We'll ask about your experience and the type of work you do, confirm your credentials, and give you a chance to ask us anything. It's informal and there's no pass/fail test.

Verified Lofft pilots typically charge R500 to R1,500 per hour depending on their speciality. Cinematic and inspection work commands higher rates than general aerial photography. Set a rate you're comfortable with. You can update it any time from your dashboard.

The RPC is your individual flying licence, issued by the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA). It proves you've met the training and examination requirements to operate an RPAS commercially. It has an expiry date, so upload the latest version. An expired RPC is not valid.

This is the registration document for your specific drone, issued by SACAA. Every commercially operated drone must be registered. If you fly clients' drones, their equipment should already be registered. Ask them for confirmation. Operator-only pilots do not need to upload this.

An ROC is a certificate held by a Remote Operator (a business or individual who manages commercial drone operations), certifying they meet CAA requirements to run a commercial RPAS operation. It's mandatory for every pilot on Lofft. If you don't hold your own ROC, you can upload your employing or operating company's ROC instead, as long as you're listed as an approved pilot under it.

The ASL is issued by the Air Service Licensing Council (a Department of Transport body, separate from the CAA) and is required alongside the ROC for commercial RPAS operations. Like the ROC, it's mandatory on Lofft but doesn't have to be your own. You can upload your employing or operating company's ASL instead, as long as you're covered under it.

It depends on how you fly. A full Class 3 Aviation Medical Certificate (from a SACAA-approved aviation medical examiner) is only required if you operate BVLOS (Beyond Visual Line of Sight) or fly RPAS classified Class 3 or higher, roughly 7kg and up. Most pilots flying standard consumer/prosumer drones within visual line of sight only need a self-declared medical assessment per SA-CATS 67. Your profile has a checkbox for this that determines which document you'll be asked to upload.

CAA Part 101 of the South African Civil Aviation Regulations makes third-party liability insurance a legal requirement for all commercial RPAS operations. If your drone causes injury or property damage during a job, you are personally liable. Clients can also be held liable if they hire an uninsured pilot. Fines for non-compliance can reach R50,000 or 10 years' imprisonment.

You need a policy that explicitly covers commercial RPAS/drone operations with at least R1M third-party liability cover. Standard home, business, or general liability insurance almost always excludes aircraft. You must confirm with your insurer. The certificate must show your name, the policy period, and confirm RPAS coverage.

The following insurers offer policies that qualify:

• iTOO Special Risks (underwritten by Hollard): itoo.co.za • Affinitoo: affinitoo.co.za • Vektor Aviation: vektoraviation.co.za

When contacting an insurer, tell them: "I need third-party liability cover for commercial RPAS operations as a remote pilot. I require at least R1M cover and a certificate confirming commercial drone operations are included."

Yes, you can complete your profile and start the application process. But you cannot be verified or take bookings without valid insurance. Getting insured first is the fastest path to going live. See the provider list above.

Yes. CAA Part 101 applies to all commercial operations, regardless of how active you are. If you're on Lofft and taking jobs, you're operating commercially. You also protect yourself: even a minor incident without insurance could result in personal financial liability.

A letter from your bank confirming your account details (account holder name, account number, bank name, branch code). Your bank can print or email this on request. It's used to verify the account we pay your earnings into.

A Pest Control Operator licence, required for pilots doing agricultural spraying operations. This is a specialist licence and is only relevant if you offer precision agriculture or spraying services. Most pilots do not need this.

Head to the jobs board at lofft.co.za/jobs. You can filter by category, location, and budget. Featured pilots see new jobs 24 hours before free pilots and can apply to up to 10 jobs per month. Apply with a short note explaining why you're the right pilot. Clients read these.

The client reviews all applications and selects one pilot. You'll receive an email the moment you're accepted. The client then pays and you'll see the job appear as Active in your dashboard, complete with any site instructions and contact details.

Clients pay when they accept your application. The full job amount goes into a secure escrow account. When you mark the job as done (and upload your deliverables), the client has 5 days to release payment. If they don't act, payment is released automatically. You receive 80% of the agreed amount; Lofft charges 20% as a platform fee.

Once payment is released, your earnings are queued for EFT payout within 2–5 business days. You'll receive an email confirmation with the reference number. Track your earnings in the Earnings section of your pilot dashboard.

Use the "Can't complete?" button in your dashboard to report the problem. You'll choose a reason (weather, airspace, equipment, etc.) and describe what happened. If you need to cancel, you can do so with proof (weather data, NOTAM, etc.) and the client receives a full refund. If the job can still proceed later, the client can reschedule.

If a client requests a reschedule, you'll receive an email. You can approve or decline it in your dashboard. If you decline, the booking remains on the original date. If you request a reschedule yourself, the client must approve it.

Featured pilots pay R299/month and get: priority placement above free pilots in search, a gold verified badge that increases client trust, early access to new jobs (24 hours before free pilots), and up to 10 job applications per month. Free pilots can apply to 5 jobs per month. Upgrade at lofft.co.za/pilots/upgrade.

Yes. Find your referral link in your pilot dashboard. Share it with qualified drone pilots you know. We're building the network by word of mouth, and every referral helps.

Arrive on time, fly safely, and deliver what was agreed. Upload your deliverables (files or links) in your dashboard before clicking "Mark as done". If you encounter an issue, communicate with the client and report it through the platform. Good reviews and a reliable reputation lead to more work.

Commercial drones generally fall into four configurations: multirotor, fixed-wing, single-rotor helicopter, and fixed-wing hybrid VTOL. Each trades off flight time, payload, and ease of use differently, so the right choice comes down to the job, not the flashiest spec sheet. The questions below break down what each is actually good at.

Multirotors (quadcopters, hexacopters, octocopters) are the most common commercial drones. They take off and land vertically and can hover precisely in place, which makes them the standard choice for aerial photography, videography, and close-up inspection work. The trade-off is flight time, usually under an hour, and a more limited payload, since powering multiple rotors draws heavy power.

Fixed-wing drones fly like small aircraft, using wing lift instead of rotors. That gives them longer flight times, better energy efficiency, and the ability to cover far more ground per flight, which is why they're the standard for mapping, surveying, and large-area or environmental monitoring. The catch is they need a runway, catapult launch, or belly landing, and they can't hover.

These use one main rotor plus a small tail rotor for stability. They carry more payload and fly longer and more efficiently than multirotors, especially with a gas engine, but they're mechanically more complex, harder to fly, and more expensive. That combination suits heavier-lift work like agricultural spraying and carrying research payloads.

A hybrid VTOL combines both approaches: it takes off and lands vertically like a multirotor, then transitions to efficient forward flight like a fixed-wing. That means long range and endurance without needing a runway, which is valuable for surveying, industrial and utility inspection, and search-and-rescue work on remote or confined sites.

Match the spec sheet to the job rather than chasing the biggest or fastest machine. The specs worth paying attention to are payload capacity (should scale with the actual job, not be maxed out "just in case"), battery and flight time, wind resistance (conditions materially affect flight readings and, for spraying, accuracy), and GPS precision, since GPS-guided flight paths paired with mapping software are what let you turn aerial data into repeatable results across flights. For agricultural work specifically, coverage rate (hectares sprayed per hour, commonly quoted somewhere in the 20 to 28ha/h range depending on the model) is the number that tells you if a drone actually matches your workload.

Flight time is finite and weather-dependent, so most operators run two to four batteries per drone, more for larger operations, so one is flying, one is charging, and one is cooling down. Fast-charging batteries can recharge in roughly the time of one flight, which is worth factoring in if you're pricing out back-to-back jobs in a day.

Multi-functional drones that can both map and spray, for example, are increasingly available and can be worth it if your work genuinely spans both. But it's usually better value to buy the machine suited to your main job than to pay for capability you won't use. Weigh it against your actual client mix rather than what's technically possible.