so ive been flying for about 3 years now, got my part 107 last spring, and im starting to wonder if i can actually make this a real job. right now i do real estate photography on weekends and the occasional construction progress shoot but its honestly pretty inconsistent. some months i make decent side money and other months its completely dry.

the thing is i actually hate my day job (project manager at a logistics company) and every time im out flying i think man i wish this was just my whole life. but i have a mortgage and a kid so i cant just quit and hope for the best. has anyone actually made the jump to full time drone work and like... was it worth it? what kind of work actually pays consistently because real estate feels very feast or famine to me

honestly real estate is the worst vertical to try to build a stable income on, at least by itself. the realtors who actually pay decent rates are few and far between and yeah its super seasonal in a lot of markets. the guys i know who are doing this full time are diversified — they're doing inspections, some mapping work, maybe a bit of cell tower stuff. the inspection side is where the real consistent money is IMO, utilities and infrastructure clients tend to have ongoing contracts rather than one-off gigs.

that said it took me almost two years of having the side income before i felt comfortable going full time and even then the first year was stressful. i kept a small part time consulting thing going just to have something predictable coming in. not trying to talk you out of it just being real about what the ramp up looks like

im kind of in the same boat as you so watching this thread closely haha. one thing ive heard is that getting into the film and TV side can be good money but thats really hard to break into without connections. also requires way more technical flying skill than real estate tbh