At this point in my business, I think it is unwise to stay away from jobs in sectors I have a need to gain knowledge in. I don't expect much in the way of payment on easy or short shoots of any type - it is the experience I am after. The good thing about Dronehive is they will provide training & testing in the areas that are more technical, so as I accomplish more work with them my theory is I will be awarded the more technical jobs.
What I greatly appreciate is fellow pilots' first-hand experiences with Dronehive, particularly in Washington state. I know you are in Boston, but would still like to hear what those inspections were like, both good and bad.
Thanks!
Cell tower inspections are not hard but tedious and lots and lots of things to capture. Access is often an issue and they aren't easy to get to. You'll need to take 100's and 100's of photos of not only the tower itself but often the ground compound below and access road. You'll be talking photos by hand too of access gate signs, generators, and many other things. When you are done shooting, you are barely half way done as the photo uploads all need to be put in the correct buckets. You'll spend 70-90 minutes per tower plus whatever travel between towers. All sorts of issues come up that will take time to troubleshoot adding to the 70-90 minutes. If you don't have a ton of experience, you won't be knocking out a lot of towers every day.
The cell towers come either as one offs that weren't properly completed by the guy that did it previously or you'll get a batch of 50-100 towers.
One offs might be fun here and there. Bigger assignments will become totally time consuming and you'll be devoting every day of the week for a couple weeks to get it done in time. Most of the people that I've come across that enjoy this job are single, nomadic, with a beat up pick up that don't mind eating cans of ravioli and sleeping in tents for weeks at a time hundreds of miles from home. (can't be spending money on hotels if the assignment is going to be lucrative)
The payout is miserable. About $100 - $135/tower.
My average job when I shoot a commercial property for real estate is $375 and takes me ten minutes with no stress. I'd rather do 10 of those jobs a week and gross $3750 with a couple hours of shooting and travel than waking up at the crack of dawn, busting my *** for eight hours, getting 5 towers done a day and barely making any money.
Also, you better be a darn good drone operator, you will be flying very close to the towers and taking precise photos - it's not terribly complicated but it's not for the feint of heart either.
You'll often be in areas with hawks, ticks, mosquitoes, snakes and creepy people, so be aware of that too LOL.
