so ive been flying for about two years now, mostly just personal stuff and a few small gigs for friends who needed property photos or event footage. recently i've been seriously considering whether i could actually do this full time. i have my part 107 and i feel like my footage quality is pretty solid at this point.

the thing is i keep hearing two very different things from people — some say the market is totally saturated and you cant make a living at it anymore, others say there's tons of work if you know where to look. i honestly dont know what to believe. im in a mid-size city in the midwest, not exactly a booming market but not nothing either.

has anyone actually made the jump to doing drone work as their primary income? curious what niches ended up working out for you. i keep seeing people mention real estate, inspections, mapping — but like, how do you actually break in when everyone else is also trying to break in

honestly the saturation thing is real but also overblown if that makes sense. yeah there are a million guys with a Mavic who call themselves drone pilots now, but the people actually doing mapping, infrastructure inspection, that kind of stuff — that's a much smaller pool and the pay is way better. i transitioned out of construction surveying into drone mapping about three years ago and havent looked back. the entry point is harder though, you usually need to know the software side too, things like Pix4D or DroneDeploy, not just flying.

real estate is brutal for rates in most places. i know guys doing shoots for like $150 a pop which is just not sustainable if thats your whole thing. id say look at what industries near you actually need aerial data, not just pretty video.

im sort of in the same boat as you so not super helpful probably lol but i did pick up a few corporate gigs through a local production company that subcontracts out. they handle the client stuff and i just show up and fly. the pay isnt amazing but its steady enough and i've learned a lot about how commercial work actually runs. might be worth reaching out to video production companies in your area and just letting them know youre available — some of them really dont want to deal with the drone side themselves