Are you making money with your drone?

[Dronebow]

Curious what people are doing to make a little money to support the habit.

 

[DronesFanatic]

Blogging, real estate marketing, roof inspection and private training. I made enough money to pay off my Mavic Pro gear setup less than two months.

 

[Casper52]

I am only ay the hobby level for useage, but I will be getting my Advanced Licence in Canada so I can do some hobby flying in Controlled Airspace if I so choose. So all the costs are paid for by my toy allowance budget. Which I do have to clear with the CFO (Chief Female Officer) from time to time.

 

[zocalo]

I've a long-standing side-line as a photographer/videographer in addition to $dayjob (30+ years now; I started in my late teens!) so I've been supplementing my traditional photography with some drone shots to test the waters with some of my clients. Generally positive results so far; I've got my first commission specifically requiring some drone shots in a couple of months time. If that works out it'll more than cover the cost of my M2P and accessories.

There's a good case for drones in $dayjob as well (surveying infrastructure like bridges, buildings, roads, rail, etc.), so there's some opportunities for drone work there too. I won't get paid any more for that though, unless it's overtime / out of hours work.

 

[Dronebow]

Blogging, real estate marketing, roof inspection and private training. I made enough money to pay off my Mavic Pro gear setup less than two months.

How are you marketing out the business? And if you don’t mind, what kind of rates do you charge?

 

[Dronebow]

I've a long-standing side-line as a photographer/videographer in addition to $dayjob (30+ years now; I started in my late teens!) so I've been supplementing my traditional photography with some drone shots to test the waters with some of my clients. Generally positive results so far; I've got my first commission specifically requiring some drone shots in a couple of months time. If that works out it'll more than cover the cost of my M2P and accessories.

There's a good case for drones in $dayjob as well (surveying infrastructure like bridges, buildings, roads, rail, etc.), so there's some opportunities for drone work there too. I won't get paid any more for that though, unless it's overtime / out of hours work.

For surveying or inspections I’m thinking the M2 Zoom should be sufficient but I’ve also been looking at the M2 Enterprise. Just not sure what market to tap into.

 

[Huckleberry]

For surveying or inspections I’m thinking the M2 Zoom should be sufficient but I’ve also been looking at the M2 Enterprise. Just not sure what market to tap into.

If you were a certified energy auditor, the flir on the enterprise would be very beneficial.

 

[zocalo]

For surveying or inspections I’m thinking the M2 Zoom should be sufficient but I’ve also been looking at the M2 Enterprise. Just not sure what market to tap into.

Mavic won't work for us as we'd need an upward facing camera for the undersides of bridges - which is the main driver for this; getting a person in a harness under there is usually a massive safety and logistical headache. Also, some of the assets we manage are pretty exposed so wind gusts would definitely be a problem for a smaller drone.

Realistically, for an off the shelf model, we'd be looking at squadon of Matrices and some specialist camera/lens combos, although we're also considering the possibility of getting a custom design done if the cost/benefit can be justified. It's an interesting project...

 

[Dronebow]

Mavic won't work for us as we'd need an upward facing camera for the undersides of bridges - which is the main driver for this; getting a person in a harness under there is usually a massive safety and logistical headache. Also, some of the assets we manage are pretty exposed so wind gusts would definitely be a problem for a smaller drone.

Realistically, for an off the shelf model, we'd be looking at squadon of Matrices and some specialist camera/lens combos, although we're also considering the possibility of getting a custom design done if the cost/benefit can be justified. It's an interesting project...

That ventures way outside of the hobby drone and making a little money on the side thing. ;-) But does sound interesting and expensive. You're probably going to spend about $20k for the drone itself with cameras, lights, etc.

 

[zocalo]

That ventures way outside of the hobby drone and making a little money on the side thing. ;-) But does sound interesting and expensive. You're probably going to spend about $20k for the drone itself with cameras, lights, etc.

No, that's definitely not "hobby". It's just something that grew out of seeing some of the potential from it and making a successful pitch. All in, including equipment, pilot training and certification, we're probably looking at over $250k depending on how many and what specification of drones we end up getting. The added bonus of potentially getting work to pay for me to travel to interesting places and fly drones had absolutely nothing to with it, I assure you!

 

[dixter]

this is too easy guys.. you just strap on a gopro and point it up..... just use the strap holder for the go pro....

 

[Radovan]

I bought a dron to complement my offer for shooting and taking pictures. Here in Serbia there is a poor payout power and the competition is big so that the dron is more used as a joker to get a bigger job of shooting a camera. However, in a few months I managed to repay the plaster air thanks to the work for one TV production house. About 20 outings on the terrain of 50 Euros per outlet is generally low because the batteries are expensive with a limited lifetime and there is a big risk of droning something happening. All in all, there is no big profit, but The dron became necessary in the cinema business.

 

[FoxhallGH]

Mavic won't work for us as we'd need an upward facing camera for the undersides of bridges - which is the main driver for this; getting a person in a harness under there is usually a massive safety and logistical headache. Also, some of the assets we manage are pretty exposed so wind gusts would definitely be a problem for a smaller drone.

Realistically, for an off the shelf model, we'd be looking at squadon of Matrices and some specialist camera/lens combos, although we're also considering the possibility of getting a custom design done if the cost/benefit can be justified. It's an interesting project...

Just a thought - there are a lot of mount kits out there to put GoPro's on top of Mavic's (point it up, left, right, or back) ... That would have the added benefit of maintaining the forward view, without the cost hit on the Matrice ...

 

[friocapital]

Mavic won't work for us as we'd need an upward facing camera for the undersides of bridges - which is the main driver for this; getting a person in a harness under there is usually a massive safety and logistical headache. Also, some of the assets we manage are pretty exposed so wind gusts would definitely be a problem for a smaller drone.

Realistically, for an off the shelf model, we'd be looking at squadon of Matrices and some specialist camera/lens combos, although we're also considering the possibility of getting a custom design done if the cost/benefit can be justified. It's an interesting project...

Parrot anafi Is your cheap answer Aldo has a thermal versión AND ITS camera can pointer to sky

 

[zocalo]

Parrot anafi Is your cheap answer Aldo has a thermal versión AND ITS camera can pointer to sky

Same issue as the Mavic; it's too small for some of the wind conditions we'd need to operate in to avoid too much pilot/spotter downtime. The Inspire 2 is actually the best DJI option for a modular platform (10m/s wind resistance vs. 8m/s of the Matrice 600 Pro), but the Matrice has more battery capacity to loiter on station and wait for a lull in the wind to grab the survey images.

That's just a single usage case though, for some jobs a Mavic or Anafi would be perfect and we're definitely not limiting ourselves to a single "jack of all trades". I suspect we'll end up with a few very high-end/custom models for the really big and exposed bridges, then a larger number of something akin to Matrices and Mavic 2s for the more run of the mill jobs.

 

[LenSavage]

Mavic won't work for us as we'd need an upward facing camera for the undersides of bridges - which is the main driver for this; getting a person in a harness under there is usually a massive safety and logistical headache. Also, some of the assets we manage are pretty exposed so wind gusts would definitely be a problem for a smaller drone.

Realistically, for an off the shelf model, we'd be looking at squadon of Matrices and some specialist camera/lens combos, although we're also considering the possibility of getting a custom design done if the cost/benefit can be justified. It's an interesting project...

I have seen cases where people have attached a GoPro camera to the top-center of a Mavic or Phantom. This could be attached to shoot straight up for bridges. Thoughts?

 

[LenSavage]

The majority of the shots seen here: Pegasus Aerial Images on Vimeo were paid for by Clients.
A solid business name and a powerful Demo Reel (don't tell me - show me) - marketed through social media can make your phone ring.
Go out and shoot, shoot and shoot. Watch for listings of $1M+ homes for sale and just go out and shoot them. Even if the Realtor doesn't need them, they look good in your reel.

 

[dsrepairs]

Got my first pay job last week updating the aerial photos of a township sewage treatment plant. Total three hour labor from initial meeting to finished product. Paid $600. Next is a regatta with moving targets and water. Stay tuned.

 

[AMann]

Mavic won't work for us as we'd need an upward facing camera for the undersides of bridges - which is the main driver for this; getting a person in a harness under there is usually a massive safety and logistical headache. Also, some of the assets we manage are pretty exposed so wind gusts would definitely be a problem for a smaller drone.

Realistically, for an off the shelf model, we'd be looking at squadon of Matrices and some specialist camera/lens combos, although we're also considering the possibility of getting a custom design done if the cost/benefit can be justified. It's an interesting project...

As LenSavage said, I also mount a up looking fauxPro camera on top of my Mavic and let it fire using the timer to get Nadir shots for 360’s

 

[AMann]

How are you marketing out the business? And if you don’t mind, what kind of rates do you charge?

A lot of guys do real estate, but there’s also very good money getting government contracts. As a independent operator, you can check your local water district or other infrastructure supplier for RFP’s (request for proposal) as they often putting out contracts for certain types of aerial photography. You can also look at pre-existing contracts that they’ve done because as a public agency, they are required by law to make those viewable to the public- Here’s an example from a local water district wanting to get aerial IR photography of a large area of agricultural land for their water use planning: