so there are a few companies in my area that basically hire contract pilots to go do jobs for them. you show up, fly their mission plan, deliver the data and get paid a flat rate. ive done a couple gigs through one of them and the pay is kind of meh but theres basically zero effort on my end to get the work, they handle all the client stuff and the insurance and whatever.

compare that to my own clients where i make way more per job but i spend a ton of time on emails and proposals and chasing invoices and honestly some of that is exhausting. just wondering what other people prefer or if theres a way to do both without it getting weird

doing both is totally fine and honestly probably the smart play especially when youre still building your own client base. the contract work through those companies basically fills in the gaps and keeps you flying which also just keeps your skills sharp. i did a lot of work through one of the bigger drone services networks a couple years back and while the pay per job wasnt great it was reliable and i learned a ton about how different industries actually use the data. now i use that knowledge when pitching my own clients and i can speak their language way better

the only thing id watch out for is non-compete clauses in those contractor agreements. some of them are pretty aggressive about not letting you approach their clients directly. read the fine print before you sign anything

the flat rate model these companies use kind of bugs me because you have no idea what they're charging the end client and in my experience the markup is pretty significant. like you fly for 3 hours and get $150 and they billed the client $800. i get that they're handling the overhead but still. i'd rather put that energy into finding my own clients even if it takes longer