Collinsville business flying high

Tuesday, January 24th 2006, 11:12 am

By: News On 6

Two Collinsville residents have discovered a high flying business opportunity that is picture perfect. Both are pilots, so they combined their love of flying with some good quality cameras, and started a new business called Oklahoma Aerials.

News on 6 reporter Rick Wells visited the Sand Ridge Airport near Collinsville and talked with the owners.

Marco Enriquez and Bruce Kern love to fly. They are former military pilots and now work for American Airlines. Now they fly for fun, and one day they got to thinking about a way to fund that fun. Marco Enriquez: "We love to fly, why don't we try to find something that will make us a little money."

There's so much development going on in the area maybe somebody would like some pictures. "One of the projects is the new Owasso Hospital being built here." Some of the investors are from out of town he says and so once a month they go up take aerial photos and e-mail them off. They can keep track of their money.

They are also taking some photos of the arena site in downtown Tulsa. "We get occasional clients who call us about a picture of their home." Or real estate people who want an aerial picture of a large estate for a listing. But Google Earth can give you satellite images. Might not be good for all applications. "Some of our clients need pictures for their websites and a vertical shot of a badly focused Google image is just not gonna work."

Marco Enriquez: "Here's something that might be of interest to ya." Oh, that's nice, whose house is that? Marco Enriquez: "That's Mr. Garth Brook's house." Now, Garth didn't hire them. Marco Enriquez: "It's hard to miss; in fact we use it as a navigational point."

Business is getting better but Oklahoma Aerials is still a part time job. They have a website if you're interested.