so ive been flying for about two years now, got my part 107 last spring, and honestly the side gig stuff has been going pretty well. mostly real estate shoots, did a few construction progress jobs through a local GC I know, and one wedding which was kind of a nightmare but whatever. the thing is my regular job is just... fine. its fine. and i keep thinking what if i actually tried to do this full time.

the money math is tricky though. like some months I pull maybe $1800-2200 on the side and some months its basically nothing because weather or nobody's calling. I know thats normal for freelance anything but I genuinely dont know how people bridge those gaps when its their only income. do most full-time guys have like a retainer situation with certain clients or is it more just hustle every month and hope for the best?

also curious if anyone has gone the route of working for a drone services company vs just staying independent. I got reached out to by one of those inspection contractor type companies and wasnt sure if that was worth looking into or if id just be giving up a ton of money to have more stability.

I made the jump about three years ago and honestly the first six months were rough, not gonna sugarcoat it. the inconsistency is real and it doesnt fully go away but it does get more predictable once you build up a few anchor clients who need you on a semi-regular basis. for me that ended up being a property management company that does quarterly inspections on like 30 buildings, plus a civil engineering firm that calls me in whenever they've got a site survey. those two alone cover my base costs most months and everything else is gravy.

the contractor company thing honestly depends on the company. ive done some of that work and the pay per job is lower but you dont have to find the work yourself which has real value especially early on. I'd maybe do both in parallel rather than committing to one path ? take the contractor gigs when your calendar is slow and keep pushing your own client list at the same time. that transition period where you're doing both is kind of the safety net you need before fully cutting the cord from your day job.

not full time myself yet but following this thread closely lol. one thing i heard from a guy in my local flying club is that the pilots making consistent money tend to specialize pretty hard ? like not just "real estate and events" but more like becoming the go-to person for a specific industry in your region. he does exclusively cell tower inspections and apparently theres way more of that work than most people realize and the pay is solid because you need specific certs and not everyone wants to do it.