so ive been flying on the side for about two years now, got my part 107 last spring and done a handful of paid gigs here and there — some real estate stuff, a couple construction progress shoots, one wedding that honestly went better than i expected. but my day job is slowly killing me and i keep thinking about whether i could actually do this full time.

the thing is i dont really know anyone who has made the jump and stuck with it. i see people online saying they make great money but then i also read threads where guys say they couldnt find consistent work and had to go back to their regular jobs after like 8 months. i live in a mid-size city, not like a tiny rural town but also not LA or NYC so i genuinely dont know if there's enough demand here to sustain it.

anyone actually done this? or know people who have? im not looking for a pep talk just honest takes on what the market is actually like right now

honest answer — it depends a lot on what niches you go after. real estate alone probably wont cut it in most markets, the rates have gotten pretty compressed and a lot of agencies already have a guy they use. where i've seen people do well consistently is inspection work, cell towers, roofing, infrastructure stuff. that kind of work pays way better per job and theres more repeat business because companies have ongoing maintenance schedules. you basically become a vendor for them rather than chasing one-off gigs.

i went full time about three years ago and the first year was genuinely stressful. i probably should have saved up more of a runway before quitting. but by year two things stabilized once i got a few commercial contracts going. the guys i know who failed mostly tried to do it on real estate and event work and never diversified. also worth getting thermal certified if you can, that opens up a whole different tier of clients.

not full time myself but i talked to a guy at a fly-in last fall who does it and he said the biggest thing nobody tells you is how much time you spend on stuff that isnt flying — like quoting jobs, editing, chasing invoices, dealing with permits for controlled airspace. he said maybe 30% of his actual working hours are in the field, rest is admin and editing. just something to factor in if you're imagining being out flying every day lol