Getting My Part 107 Changed Everything About How I Fly

The first paid job I took was a real estate shoot. Small residential property, nothing complicated. I'd done plenty of recreational shots of houses just for practice, so I figured I knew what I was getting into. What I didn't account for was the pressure of having a client waiting on deliverables by a specific time, in a specific format, with specific expectations. I showed up thinking I'd wing it like I always had and quickly realized I needed an actual plan. I ended up flying longer than necessary, got a ton of footage I didn't need, and spent way too long in post trying to find the good stuff. The client was happy because the shots themselves were fine, but I was frustrated with myself because my workflow was a mess.

After that I started building shot lists before I show up anywhere. Sounds obvious, right? But there's a difference between knowing you should do something and actually building the habit. For a standard residential real estate job now I have maybe eight to ten hero shots I know I'm going for — establishing orbit, a slow push toward the front door, a diagonal reveal from the rear corner showing the backyard, a top-down of the roof, maybe a rise-and-reveal if there's a nice view or backdrop. I get those locked in first, then I'll grab extras if time allows. It cut my flight time almost in half and made editing so much cleaner.

The inspection work has been a steeper learning curve. I've been doing some residential roof inspections — nothing structural engineering level, just visual documentation for homeowners and contractors who want a close look before they decide whether to call a roofer. This is where flying well actually matters a lot more than flying pretty. You're not trying to get a cinematic shot. You're trying to get a clear, properly exposed, methodical pass of every section of that roof without missing anything or getting the drone into a weird spot where a gust catches it near a chimney.

I fly a Mavic 3 Classic for most of this work. The camera is good enough that I can zoom in digitally and still pull usable detail shots, which saves me from having to push closer than I'm comfortable with on older homes with trees close to the roofline. I also switched from shooting video for inspections to burst photos with the interval shooting mode. Way faster to go through in review, easier for a client to scroll through, and file sizes are more manageable when you're handing over a folder of documentation.

One thing nobody told me before I started taking commercial jobs is how much time you spend on stuff that has nothing to do with flying. I'm talking about the back and forth with clients before the job, checking weather windows, filing LAANC authorizations when the property falls inside controlled airspace, writing up simple scope-of-work agreements so there are no surprises about what they're getting. I had one early situation where a client assumed I was going to process everything into a 3D model because they'd seen that done before. I don't offer that service. Clear scope documents fixed that problem going forward.

The LAANC stuff has actually gotten pretty smooth with the Aloft app. Most of my jobs are in Class G or E airspace and don't require authorization, but I've had a handful near a regional airport where I needed to request altitude authorization. The automated approval through LAANC usually comes through in under a minute which is still kind of wild to me. I always screenshot the approval and keep it in a folder by job date just so I have the paper trail if I ever need it.

Construction progress documentation is something I've been doing a bit of lately and it might be my favorite type of work so far. A general contractor reaches out wanting consistent aerial photos every two or three weeks as a project moves forward. You show up, fly the same orbit pattern from roughly the same altitude and compass headings every time, deliver a consistent set of images. It's methodical work and I find it satisfying in a way that one-off real estate jobs aren't quite. You're building a visual record of something being built. There's something cool about that.

For those shoots I've started marking my orbit waypoints in the DJI Fly app so I can replicate the exact positions each visit. It's not perfect because conditions change and I sometimes have to adjust for equipment or workers below me, but having the reference points means my before-and-after comparisons actually line up. Clients notice and appreciate that consistency even if they can't always articulate why the images feel right.

The business side of things is still something I'm figuring out. I'm not trying to make this my full-time income yet, more of a serious side thing while I keep my regular job. But I've been thinking harder about what I want to specialize in versus trying to do everything. Real estate is competitive and margins can be thin depending on your market. Inspections feel like they have more runway. I've been reading about thermal imaging add-ons and whether that's worth pursuing — a radiometric thermal camera opens up roof inspection, solar panel inspection, and some utilities work that just isn't possible with a standard RGB camera. That's probably a post for another day once I actually know more about it.

If you're sitting on your Part 107 and wondering whether to actually start pursuing commercial work, my honest take is that the flying part is the smallest part of the job. The preparation, the communication with clients, the post-processing workflow, the legal and airspace stuff — that's where the real work is. Getting better at all of that has made me a better pilot too, weirdly enough, because I show up to every job more prepared and thinking more clearly instead of just improvising.

Anyway I'll keep posting as I go. Still got a lot to learn and I'd rather document it honestly than pretend I have it all figured out.