so ive been flying for about two years now, got my part 107 last spring, and i keep going back and forth on whether to try to make this my actual job. right now i do construction inspections on the weekends for a company my buddy works at and theyve hinted at possibly bringing someone on full time but nothing concrete yet.

my day job is in IT and honestly its fine but its not something i want to do forever. drone work feels way more interesting to me even when its repetitive stuff like roof surveys. i just dont know if the market is saturated or if theres actually room for someone new trying to build a client base from scratch. im in a mid-size city in the midwest so its not like im in LA or NYC with tons of production work available.

anyone here made the jump to full time? was it gradual or did you just kind of go for it? im not in a rush but trying to figure out if i should be actively building toward this or if im kidding myself

honestly the construction and infrastructure inspection side is where the real money is, not the real estate or wedding stuff people always think of first. if that company is already hinting at you, id take that seriously and maybe have a direct conversation with them about what full time would actually look like. having one anchor client when you go independent makes a huge difference vs starting from absolute zero.

i did IT consulting before this and made the switch about four years ago. first year was rough, second year i broke even, third year i actually made more than i did before. its not a straight line but its doable especially if you have a technical background because you can pick up things like photogrammetry processing and lidar work that a lot of pilots cant do. that separates you from the guy with a mavic who just wants to fly on weekends.

im kind of in the same boat as you so i cant give advice really but following this thread. i did my 107 eight months ago and have done maybe a handful of paid gigs, mostly just real estate for a local agency. feels like im spinning my wheels a bit.