Aerial Evidence That Holds Up

Marshall Services flies FAA Part 107 drone inspections and produces appraisal-grade aerial documentation for property damage claims. The pilot is the appraiser: Marshall Smith holds the FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate and an IAUA CPAU certification, and writes the Xactimate estimate the imagery supports, so the person choosing what to photograph is the person who has to defend the file. A structured flight documents every slope, ridge, hip and valley at consistent altitude and overlap, shoots test squares and close-ups at repeatable scale, and covers steep, tile, slate and metal roofs that cannot be safely walked — without anyone stepping on the roof. Photographs taken from a ladder cover what could be reached, in no particular order, usually with the metadata stripped. Imagery is challenged on how it was produced before anyone argues about what it shows, so every engagement is documented end to end: the airspace class is checked and a LAANC authorization is pulled and logged before flights in controlled airspace, each frame keeps its coordinates, altitude, heading and timestamp, unaltered originals are archived alongside the working set, and a written chain of custody and a declaration on the capture method travel with the packet. Whether a particular exhibit is admitted is always the tribunal's decision. The delivered packet includes the full geotagged image set, an annotated damage report organised slope by slope, test-square and hit-count documentation, the flight log and airspace record, the chain-of-custody certificate, and Xactimate-ready scope notes — in your inbox within 48 hours of the flight. Property owners use it to get the roof on the record before repairs; contractors subcontract the documentation behind a supplement; public adjusters take it into appraisal and umpire hearings as exhibit-ready boards; attorneys get an evidentiary record and a pilot who can testify about how it was captured. Single-family roofs, commercial office, retail and warehouse membranes, industrial and long-span systems, and multi-family communities, condominiums and HOA portfolios are all flown, one building at a time and indexed per structure. The aircraft is registered with the FAA and broadcasts Remote ID, commercial liability insurance is in force with a certificate available on request, Part 107 recurrent training is current, and flights are arranged with the property owner or manager. Marshall Services is based in Dallas-Fort Worth and flies across Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Colorado, and California.