Most Lucrative UAS Fields and Associated Training

[Scanloni]

If the cost of training and associated equipment are not a factor, which specific field(s) in the UAS industry would you say are the most lucrative for a UAS pilot?

Along those same lines, where can one obtain the best training to acquire the necessary skills to excel in those most lucrative fields?

In other words, cost aside, what would be the ideal path for an aspiring UAS pilot to acquire the training and skills to become a highly successful self-employed UAS pilot, and in what specific fields would this take place?

 

[Meta4]

In other words, cost aside, what would be the ideal path for an aspiring UAS pilot to acquire the training and skills to become a highly successful self-employed UAS pilot, and in what specific fields would this take place?

If only it was that simple.
A flood of cheap, easy to fly drones and a shortage of clients who need the services of a drone operator have made it a difficult area to work in.

 

[SethB]

I feel that many of the best opportunities are in specialty areas with their own education/experience requirements.

For example, you may need to be a professional firefighter, county sheriff’s deputy, or wildland EMT to be paid for search and rescue work.

A geodetic survey technician to work in survey for mapping. Employable in ag services to fly survey for precision agriculture.

A videographer. A cinematographer. A power or telecom tech. A civil engineering tech. An events specialist. Etc., etc., etc.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Take a look at some of the fields that DroneDeploy and Pix4D promote, those automated flight apps have a myriad of training programmes for very specialised industries.
Mapping can include so many special fields, then there's agriculture, industrial / commercial building inspections, mining, quarries, construction, utilities, and so on.
Sign up for their newsletters, they have some great info in those.

 

[Scanloni]

If only it was that simple.
A flood of cheap, easy to fly drones and a shortage of clients who need the services of a drone operator have made it a difficult area to work in.

I wasn’t suggesting that attaining a lucrative career as a UAS pilot was “simple”. In fact, I asked where one could acquire the specific knowledge, training, etc necessary while referencing the potentially high cost of associated training and equipment. A lucrative career in anything requires significant effort and financial investment. Professional success is never simple in any field, including UAS pilot.

Sure, there may be a flood of cheap, easy to fly drones, but I imagine cheap, easy to fly drones aren’t the type of equipment that a professional drone pilot with a lucrative career typically employs. There’s a flood of cheap, easy to use hammers out there too, but a professional with a lucrative career in construction likely put a lot more time, effort, and financial investment into their trade beyond purchasing a hammer at Home Depot.

It’s occurring to me that a Mavic forum may be the wrong place to ask my original question. While the Mavic Pro 2, M2EA, and others certainly have professional applications, they also have limitations making them unsuitable for others. A professional UAS pilot with a lucrative career may own a Mavic, but would likely have made a significant financial investment into some combination of a Phantom 4 Pro, Matrice 300 RTK, Yuneec H520E, etc. They also likely would’ve invested a significant amount of time and money into the training necessary to make use of that high end equipment. They’re not competing with countless Mavic Mini owners for real estate jobs. As others have mentioned, they’re focusing on mapping, modeling, industrial/government inspections, surveying, etc and competing with far fewer pilots who possess the necessary equipment, training, and skills required to provide those services.

I’ve seen a lot of pessimistic posts similar to yours that come across as very discouraging, and a bit misleading in my opinion. I agree that simply purchasing a cheap drone won’t lead to a lucrative career as a UAS pilot. I can’t imagine anyone would think it’s that simple. That said, I do think that as in any line of work, if one is willing to invest the time, effort, and money into their trade a lucrative career as a UAS pilot is a realistic possibility. I was hoping for some specific real world experiences/advice from thise who have done so, but again, this probably isn’t the right forum to expect such replies.

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[MARK (LI)]

I think you overlooked where @Meta4 mentioned
and a shortage of clients who need the services of a drone operator have made it a difficult area to work in.
And I don't think he was trying to be discouraging...just telling it like it is.....the demand is growing, but with regulations limiting the full use of drones ( and rightfully so) , there is not a lot of growth .....possibly becoming a volunteer in a local Fire Dept would get you training and access to equipment that you would not otherwise be able to have...as always military training could be a good training place and a stepping stone......there are also highly regarded colleges that have existing photography and cinematography curriculum...I believe they will be expanding into drone photography sooner than later

You could also learn enough yourself to become an instructor..that, however would take a lot of training and then experience

 

[JohnnyD913]

I wasn’t suggesting that attaining a lucrative career as a UAS pilot was “simple”. In fact, I asked where one could acquire the specific knowledge, training, etc necessary while referencing the potentially high cost of associated training and equipment. A lucrative career in anything requires significant effort and financial investment. Professional success is never simple in any field, including UAS pilot.

Sure, there may be a flood of cheap, easy to fly drones, but I imagine cheap, easy to fly drones aren’t the type of equipment that a professional drone pilot with a lucrative career typically employs. There’s a flood of cheap, easy to use hammers out there too, but a professional with a lucrative career in construction likely put a lot more time, effort, and financial investment into their trade beyond purchasing a hammer at Home Depot.

It’s occurring to me that a Mavic forum may be the wrong place to ask my original question. While the Mavic Pro 2, M2EA, and others certainly have professional applications, they also have limitations making them unsuitable for others. A professional UAS pilot with a lucrative career may own a Mavic, but would likely have made a significant financial investment into some combination of a Phantom 4 Pro, Matrice 300 RTK, Yuneec H520E, etc. They also likely would’ve invested a significant amount of time and money into the training necessary to make use of that high end equipment. They’re not competing with countless Mavic Mini owners for real estate jobs. As others have mentioned, they’re focusing on mapping, modeling, industrial/government inspections, surveying, etc and competing with far fewer pilots who possess the necessary equipment, training, and skills required to provide those services.

I’ve seen a lot of pessimistic posts similar to yours that come across as very discouraging, and a bit misleading in my opinion. I agree that simply purchasing a cheap drone won’t lead to a lucrative career as a UAS pilot. I can’t imagine anyone would think it’s that simple. That said, I do think that as in any line of work, if one is willing to invest the time, effort, and money into their trade a lucrative career as a UAS pilot is a realistic possibility. I was hoping for some specific real world experiences/advice from thise who have done so, but again, this probably isn’t the right forum to expect such replies.

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You should look into the commercial drone pilots forum for what you seek probably.
I belong to this forum, phantom pilots forum,
Inspire pilots forum, and Commercial drone pilots forum…

 

[Meta4]

You are a few years too late to just walk in and get the lucrative career that you'd like.
Anyone can fly a drone, but you need something else that you can't get from a training course.
If you have construction, surveying, mining, agriculture etc experience, that might be a good start
Some industry contacts would also be helpful.

While the Mavic Pro 2, M2EA, and others certainly have professional applications, they also have limitations making them unsuitable for others. A professional UAS pilot with a lucrative career may own a Mavic, but would likely have made a significant financial investment into some combination of a Phantom 4 Pro, Matrice 300 RTK, Yuneec H520E, etc.

There's a lot of work that can be done without acquiring big, industrial drones.
Don't assume that the only way to the kind of work you want is with more expensive equipment.

They also likely would’ve invested a significant amount of time and money into the training necessary to make use of that high end equipment.

You can't just do a course and walk into a lucrative career.
Most drone training courses are basic in nature and can't give you the kind of tradeable skills and experience you'd need for the kind of job you are hoping for.

Drones are easy to fly and flying the drone is a small part of working with drones.
A worker who already has skills and experience in their particular industry can easily learn to fly a drone.
But someone looking to get training in using a drone without useful industry experience is going to have n uphill battle to get anywhere.

I’ve seen a lot of pessimistic posts similar to yours that come across as very discouraging, and a bit misleading in my opinion. I agree that simply purchasing a cheap drone won’t lead to a lucrative career as a UAS pilot.

Purchasing an expensive done isn't going to lead to a lucrative career either, but it would mean bigger startup costs.
Particularly when you realise that you need two machines if you are going into business.

That said, I do think that as in any line of work, if one is willing to invest the time, effort, and money into their trade a lucrative career as a UAS pilot is a realistic possibility.

I admire your optimism, but it takes more than time, effort and money for most people.

I was hoping for some specific real world experiences/advice from those who have done so, but again, this probably isn’t the right forum to expect such replies.

Go over to Commercial Drone Pilots Forum and look around there.
You'll find several members there that have a lot of experience working in a range of industries.
They get posts there from hopeful future commercial flyers asking similar questions, so you can find a lot of the answers they've already given.

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[MAvic_South_Oz]

Drones are easy to fly and flying the drone is a small part of working with drones.
A worker who already has skills and experience in their particular industry can easily learn to fly a drone.
But someone looking to get training in using a drone without useful industry experience is going to have n uphill battle to get anywhere.

This is probably the one main element you will find hardest to overcome @Scanloni

From simple real estate video through to very specialised industry use, there was a time (before ways drones can assist became mainstream knowledge) when a drone operator could approach a potential client and easily gain work in almost any field, and thus gaining inside industry knowledge at the same time.

Approach a realtor and show aerial photos, the realtor is blown away and gives drone op work.
Or the quarry is shown how volume mapping can tell them exactly how much of each product they have in their huge piles of material, in cubic volume or tons, and save a lot of guess work on stock holding.

Unfortunately those times are fairly well over in general, drones are well know for their capabilities and either existing operators are well established, or industries themselves have produced good pilots to work with.

Still, if you find a blossoming industry that hasn't been establishing long, do the due diligence on business planning and starting a contacts base for later, you could make a go of it for sure.
A lot will come down to the right skills, right equipment, the right people / industry(ies) choices, and a fair bit of making your own luck.

And good luck with your endevours.

edit typo

 

[SethB]

@Scanloni it may also be helpful for you to think about whether you’d be happier building and running your own business or working a job with benefits.

The successful new small business person has to have a whole series of ”off-the-job” skills, not least of which is identifying customers and marketing to them. The paperwork/workflows of accounts payable and accounts receivable. Having startup funding equal to whatever the needs are. This is all additional to the actual drone work and data/photo/video processing in your area of work.

Not trying to be discouraging about this, people do make a go of it all the time. There’s always somebody succeeding and someone failing. I think a large measure of people skills, the ability to communicate your excitement & skills, and convince people that you are a credible supplier of services are key as well.

A job has its pros and cons as well.

I do think we’re well into a transitional period where medium and large businesses more and more are building their own resources, hiring their own people for drone work.

I mentioned geodetic survey technicians above. I’m told there’s a significant and growing need for such techs with drone and photogrammetry skills in addition to more traditional skills.