so ive been flying for about two years now, mostly real estate and some construction progress stuff on the side while keeping my day job. lately the side work has been picking up pretty consistently and im starting to wonder if its actually possible to make this a full time thing or if im just being naive about it.

i got my part 107 last spring and honestly it opened a lot of doors compared to before. but i still feel like im kind of cobbling things together — one week i have three jobs, then nothing for two weeks. the feast or famine thing is real and i dont know how people manage cash flow when its this unpredictable.

anyone here actually made the jump to doing this full time? what did your first year look like, did you have savings built up or were you just winging it. also curious what sectors people find most stable — ive heard inspection work (like utilities or cell towers) can be more steady than real estate but i havent broken into that yet.

yeah i made the jump about three years ago and honestly the first year was rough in ways i didnt expect. it wasnt even the flying part that was hard, it was all the other stuff — invoicing, chasing clients, figuring out insurance, dealing with waivers. the actual piloting is like maybe 30% of the job if that.

real estate is fine for volume but the margins are kind of brutal once you factor in your time editing and driving out to locations. i slowly moved toward infrastructure inspection work — power lines, cell towers, rooftops for insurance companies — and that stuff is way more stable. rates are better too. the downside is you need a lot more experience and sometimes specific deliverables they want, like they want actual thermal data or specific software outputs, so there can be a learning curve on the client side of things.

if i were doing it again id probably give myself a longer runway, like 9 months of expenses saved up before quitting anything. the feast or famine thing you mentioned doesnt really go away completely, you just get better at predicting it and stacking work accordingly.

im in a similar boat actually so watching this thread. part 107 here too, doing real estate on weekends. curious what you charge for a typical real estate shoot if you dont mind sharing — im trying to figure out if my rates are way off or not