so ive been flying for about two years now, got my part 107 last spring and ive been doing the occasional job here and there — some real estate stuff, a couple weddings, helped a friend with a construction site survey once. and honestly every time i finish a job i think like... why am i still at my desk job

but then reality hits and i dont really know how consistent the work actually is. like is real estate photography enough to build a full time income around or do you have to do a mix of everything. i know some people do inspections and mapping and that seems more lucrative but i have zero experience with that side of things and the software learning curve looks pretty steep from where im standing

anyone here actually made the jump to full time freelance drone work? would love to know what the first year actually looked like, not the highlight reel version

yeah i made the jump about three years ago and honestly the first year was rough. not gonna sugarcoat it. real estate alone is probably not gonna cut it unless you're in a really hot market and you hustle like crazy — the rates have gotten pretty competitive and a lot of agencies are using whoever is cheapest now. what actually saved me was getting into cell tower inspections. took a while to land the first client but once you have one telecom contractor vouching for you the referrals kind of snowball. the software stuff for mapping isnt as bad as it looks, pix4d and the like have decent tutorials and honestly after a few paid projects you figure it out fast. the first six months though i was definitely dipping into savings so just make sure you have a cushion before you quit

im kind of in the same boat as you actually so ill be following this thread. i did one real estate shoot last month and it went well but one job every few weeks isnt exactly a business lol. curious whether people mostly find clients through word of mouth or if theres like a platform worth being on