been seeing a lot of posts about real estate and weddings and all that but im more curious about the industrial side of things. specifically utilities, cell tower inspections, that kind of stuff. the pay i keep hearing about for that work sounds significantly better than chasing down realtors for $150 a shoot.

my background is actually in electrical — spent 6 years doing line work before my knees started giving me trouble, which is kind of why drones appealed to me in the first place. figured my industry knowledge might actually be an advantage there. i have my 107 and fly a mini 3 pro right now which i know probably isnt the right tool for serious inspection work but i wanted to learn before spending big money on gear.

just wondering if anyone has broken into that space and what the actual path looks like. do companies hire individual contractors or is it all through bigger drone service companies. also wondering if the mini 3 is even usable for anything legit or if i need to be looking at an enterprise platform right away

your electrical background is genuinely a huge asset and i wouldnt undersell that. most drone inspection companies are desperate for pilots who actually understand what they're looking at. i know a guy who came from a telecom background and basically walked into a contractor position with a regional inspection company because he could talk the language with the clients in a way that most drone-only pilots just cant.

as for the mini 3, its fine for learning and getting your hours up but yeah for tower work and serious utility inspection you're probably going to need something with a proper thermal camera eventually. the Mavic 3 Enterprise or one of the skydio platforms come up a lot for that kind of work. that said dont buy anything until you have a client lined up who needs it, no point spending 8 grand on gear on spec.

look into companies like Sharper Shape, Pike Electric, and some of the bigger subcontractors who work with the major utility companies. a lot of them do take on 1099 contractors especially if you have industry certs. OSHA 10 at minimum, some want OSHA 30 for tower work. your electrical certs probably transfer to some of this too depending on state.

the cell tower stuff specifically — from what i understand a lot of that work flows through tower climbing companies who have added drones to their services rather than pure drone companies. so you might have better luck targeting those kinds of outfits. your background probably makes you a really attractive hire for them tbh, they understand the importance of knowing what you're actually looking at up there