so ive been flying for about two years now, got my part 107 last spring and honestly ive been doing pretty well with the occasional real estate shoot on weekends. my regular job is fine but its not exactly exciting and ive been daydreaming about just... doing drone work full time. like actually making a living from it.

problem is i genuinely dont know if thats realistic. i live in a mid-sized city, not huge but not rural either. i see other guys advertising on facebook and local sites but i have no idea if theyre actually making rent or just flying for fun and charging a little on the side. the real estate stuff has been decent but i know that market goes up and down and i probably cant rely on just that.

has anyone here actually made the jump to full time? or tried and come back to a day job? just want an honest take, not the youtube "i make $10k a month from my drone" kind of answer

honest answer — yeah you can make it work but real estate alone wont cut it unless you're in a really hot market and have like 5-6 agents feeding you work consistently. the guys doing well full time are usually mixing it up, real estate plus construction progress shots plus the occasional event or maybe some mapping work for surveyors or ag clients. diversifying is the whole thing really.

i went full time about three years ago and the first year was genuinely stressful. second year i started picking up commercial clients and it got a lot more stable. the jump is doable but id say have at least 6 months of savings before you do it and dont quit your job until you have regular repeat clients not just one-off gigs. the one-off stuff feels great but it doesnt pay bills reliably.

im kind of in the same boat as you tbh, been on the fence about this for months. what i've been doing is just trying to build up a client list while still at my day job, basically treating it like a part time business for now. slow but feels less scary lol. curious what gear you're running for the real estate stuff