![]() ![]() But to be honest, many customers have no idea what the difference is, so you will probably get some work, at least until they realise they can do just as good a job for themselves and no longer want to pay you.Īnecdotal experience tells me that real estate drone operators, if they are getting any work at all, are getting about $30-40 an hour, sometimes less. And you can’t expect to buy a mapping drone and an online subscription and compare yourself to a surveyor or a GIS mapping professional. I expect to cop some criticism for saying that, but you cannot expect to buy a photography drone and compare yourself with an experienced professional photographer or videographer. And if there is little or no skill required, it makes sense that there will be a lot of people trying to do it, a lot of price competition and not much margin for profit.Įntry level operators, in my opinion, don’t do a very good job. ![]() There is little to no real skill required to fly and use these drones at the entry level. Anyone can go and buy a DJI Phantom 4 RTK from Harvey Norman and a subscription to DroneDeploy and capture images that can be turned into fairly accurate aerial maps using DD’s mission planner. Anyone can buy a DJI Mavic Pro 2 and it will take amazing aerial photos and videos with little to no real skill other than how to control it and how to frame a scene. Drone technology is getting smarter and smarter. Now why would I say that, when I have a successful commercial drone business of my own? If you’re going to become a commercial drone pilot, it pays to know what the end of the journey might look like so you can reasonably decide how much time and money to spend getting there … and you will spend a lot of both.Īs the moderator of Australia’s largest online forum for commercial drone operators, I often tell newcomers to the group that “… if you expect to make money from flying a drone, you’re fooling yourself”. The purpose of this post is to set some more realistic expectations about what drone pilots can and do earn in Australia, and why. ![]() That’s not to say they did not research this well, but there was a lot of hype around drones in 2016 and it’s reasonable to expect they got caught up in it like everyone else. With all respect to FYA (Foundation for Young Australians) they are a bunch of optimistic young people looking for issues to get themselves media coverage about. With all respect to Mr Mahmood Hussein (who I’ve never met and know nothing about), he is a drone pilot trainer who has a vested interest in more people wanting to become drone pilots because that’s how he makes his money. When you read articles like this it pays to look at who is making the claims. (If you like this article, please give us some love on Facebook by commenting, sharing or at least giving us a “Like” for our trouble… if you’re in need of drone services, please check out our Drone Services page.) ![]() This claim, and others like it, set a lot of people on the path to getting the Remote Aircraft Pilot’s licence (RePL) and/or their Remote Aircraft Operator’s Certificate (ReOC). How (not) to make your fortune as a drone pilotĪbout three years ago now, the Australian edition of the Huffington Post online newspaper claimed that being a drone pilot would be the “job of the future” and that drone pilots could expect to earn $100,000 to $150,000 a year. ![]()
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