Story

I am James Benson, UAS Drone Operator, Airline Pilot and Flight Instructor based in Sussex.

Having worked for budget and premium airlines for over 17 years, delivering passengers and cargo safely and on-time, I use these hard earned skills to deliver Unmanned Aircraft Systems - UAS Drone cinematography and imagery to the same non-negotiable standards. My experience allows me to laser focus on the details, keep things simple and work harmoniously. My aim is to exceed expectations, innovate and collaborate.

How did this all come about?

My story with aviation began at a young age when my father taught me to fly and I grew up around classic and vintage aircraft in the midlands from Baggington and in close proximity to Air Atlantique. Many model gliders and planes were built and crashed, a few survived in the attic today! I passed my Private Pilot's Licence after college and flew gliders and glider tugs during university. In 2004 I joined Jet2.com flying the Boeing 737 on passenger and cargo missions. This is where the photography bug came alive, the new vantage point from several miles high was too good not to share. Jet2 was also where I passed upgrade to Captain for the first time professionally. For a change of mission and career I moved to Dubai with Emirates in 2010 and flew the Boeing 777 as First Officer with cargo and passengers. The worldwide photo opportunities this presented was abundant to say the least. I have many pictures of the geographic North Pole and the ice over it! In what was the hardest and longest course/challenge of my career to date I once again passed upgrade to Captain. Another point of note whilst at Emirates was experiencing every major variant of the ‘Triple’ ever produced and also flying to destinations between 40 mins and 18hours away. I am pictured on my last flight for Emirates Bali to Dubai. In 2018 I moved back to the UK with Norwegian Long-haul to fly the Boeing 787 ‘Dreamliner’ as a direct entry Captain. This was going well, until the spring of 2020 when Covid19 became a major driving force in airline operations and in July 2020 I was made redundant as a result of its impact.

At that stage things looked quite bleak. But after some time of being free from a working contract and the time constraints that came with it, it was clear to me that an opportunity to employ the skills I already possessed in a new way had just presented itself. JBimaging is centred around the two core skillsets of photography and piloting which were well developed previously but unconnected. Until now. How I deliver UAS Drone imagery is drawn from this experience. My business aims and values are......

Aims

The core aims and values of the JBimaging and how it is operated come from over 17 years of commercial aviation experience. Although most airline operations happen behind a locked door and are largely out of sight, the skills and experience from this operational environment are highly relevant and transferable. The core aim of JBimaging is operating in a SAFE – LEGAL – EFFICIENT way, employing hard earned skills and experience to deliver the product, on time – with a positive experience. Summing up in three words, JBimaging is Safe - Considerate – Dependable.

Values

SAFE

Qualifications, Experience and Insurance are what I take into the field. This minimises risk to the environment, assets and people in proximity to the UAS Drone.

CONSIDERATE

From the noise foot print of the drone, to privacy concerns of uninvolved assets and people, all aspects of the mission are thoroughly pre-surveyed before hand, concerns mitigated ahead of time and on the day, on-task awareness vs flexibility employed.

DEPENDABLE

I work closely with and listen to the client to understand exactly what the end result needs to look like. I tailor mission execution to discretely merge with the local environment. I always aim to exceed expectations both in the service and delivery.