Drones for commercial use or profit ?

[Pedernal]

Anyone using their drones for a profit/to make a buck?? If so what type of work are you guys and gals doing??

[ctom87]

Not doing it, but I have run this through my head and it seems to be easy and you could probably make a good buck. Get with a realtor and do the aerial drone shots. Do it for rural land. Good stuff and gives the seller a premium feel.

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[Briar Friar]

I dont but my landscape designer father uses his DJI Mavic Mini to take drone videos of his final product to use as marketing for future clients.

Ive a friend in Austin who has a business that fights property taxes in Travis county and he uses his for property boundaries, documenting discrepancies affecting property value, etc to provide evidence to tax hearing boards and evaluators. Im not sure what drone he uses.

I have a tenant who is an engineering firm and they contract with Oncor for routing powerlines. The engineering firm flies the future line pathways amongst other engineering aerial needs.

[MadHatter]

I do surveys for people, testing signal to local WISP broadcast sites from various heights.
$300 - $600 depending on how far I drive, for 20 min worth of work.
The drone has been a giant pain in the *** though and I wouldn't do it again.
My topography skills are off the charts

[zr2chevy22]

If you fly for commercial purposes you HAVE to get your Part 107 license to make any money from them. If you don't have your part 107 you are considered a hobbiest and can't monetize from any of the footage.

[Pedernal]

I do surveys for people, testing signal to local WISP broadcast sites from various heights.
$300 - $600 depending on how far I drive, for 20 min worth of work.
The drone has been a giant pain in the *** though and I wouldn't do it again.
My topography skills are off the charts

Is that with the beefed up drone that can haul ten lbs?? You might be able to help in Ukraine ��

[Pedernal]

If you fly for commercial purposes you HAVE to get your Part 107 license to make any money from them. If you don't have your part 107 you are considered a hobbiest and can't monetize from any of the footage.

Yes Sir studying the rules now….

[MadHatter]

Is that with the beefed up drone that can haul ten lbs?? You might be able to help in Ukraine ��

Yes lol .

[Kevin]

You for sure need a part 107.

I dont use drones for money, but I am in the cUAS space.

[tvc184]

If you fly for commercial purposes you HAVE to get your Part 107 license to make any money from them. If you don't have your part 107 you are considered a hobbiest and can't monetize from any of the footage.

True but it doesn’t matter if you make money personally. If it is for any commercial enterprise including government (like me), it requires Part 107.

[tvc184]

Anyone using their drones for a profit/to make a buck?? If so what type of work are you guys and gals doing??

I have flown commercially for 3 years but all government work. It has been for crime scenes, search and rescue, inspecting city assets like radio towers, etc.

[Pedernal]

I have flown commercially for 3 years but all government work. It has been for crime scenes, search and rescue, inspecting city assets like radio towers, etc.

What brand and model drone does the city have?? Are you folks using a better camera to do the tower inspections??

[Legdog]

I fly residential and commercial real estate.

Been rough lately with the high winds.

https://youtu.be/9n7l0jGiqmM

[tvc184]

What brand and model drone does the city have?? Are you folks using a better camera to do the tower inspections??

So far DJI.

No on the camera. We went with a couple of Mavic 2 zoom. The M2 Pro has the very good photo quality camera but the M2 zoom is plenty for our needs and for average photos, I think it would be hard for most people to tell the difference.

When I could get within a few feet and then zoom, we could see rust on the screw heads. Obviously if we blew that up to a 36”x48” mural for a professional business photo, it would be crap.

Since ours are mainly for crime scene, search and rescue, SWAT operations (they love the eyes the sky), dog operations, etc., we thought we could get better use from the zoom function than professional photo quality.

I talked to some commercial drone businesses beforehand and they agreed. One showed me some M2 Pro work that was awesome but like he told me, he had no issue getting in close to his subjects whereas we might be a block or two away trying to look around to maybe find a guy with a gun or a missing person, then zoom in for details without getting too close.

But just for looking at something and not needing a professional photo, the M2 zoom is plenty. With the newer models coming out, we might see the best of both worlds. Drone technology is moving at a fairly rapid pace. I personally own DJI, Hubsan and Autel drones.

The Hubsan Zino Mini SE is rated at 45 minutes of flight time with a 12MP camera with zoom and costs about $400 with two batteries. It has better specs and performance than our DJI M2s that cost $2,000 3 years ago. And that from a 249g drone that doesn’t need to be registered unless used commercially.

[tvc184]

What brand and model drone does the city have?? Are you folks using a better camera to do the tower inspections??

My current “best” personal drone is the DJI Air 2S.