Can you make a good part-time income from Zeitview and Fly Guys?
- Thread starter LukeTheDuke
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Greetings from Birmingham Alabama USA, welcome to the forum! We look forward to hearing from you!
A "Good" part-time job from doing drone jobs from Zeitview and Fly Guys? No. Not in my opinion. Both pay little for the jobs they get (which isn't much) That may vary from state to state but for me in Alabama, they don't offer much.
A "Good" part-time job from doing drone jobs from Zeitview and Fly Guys? No. Not in my opinion. Both pay little for the jobs they get (which isn't much) That may vary from state to state but for me in Alabama, they don't offer much.
Ajkm
Well-Known Member
At the minimal base rates these types of people pay, you’d need to be out doing at least 10 or more jobs a week. Is that possible where you are? You’re the only person that will know the local need for RPA work, but I certainly couldn’t do it where I live through that type of hiring.
I only have experience with Zeitview, but I would say no. Zeitview competes with a lot of other companies for work. Most of their jobs are listed in the 70-100 range, at least in this area, but they boost the price when no one takes it, which is when I sometimes take them. Most of my commercial work comes from other companies and all of it is sporadic. Zeitview also doesn't let you set up your own jobs and to put it nicely, may not be all that expert in setting them up. Out of the 9 jobs I've done for them in the last year, 2 have been cancelled on the day of the event, because they tried to handle their own authorizations and the airport didn't have them (I'm not going to say that I suspect they didn't file them but....). I've had to go back twice on 3 jobs, 1, because they didn't contact the right people and it was a critical infrastructure job, and 3 because of "wet pavement". On another one, they told me not to start without talking to a specific person (on this one, I used my WAA with the airport and handled the authorization anyway because they waited until one day before the visit to even list the job). That person was out of town for the weekend and knew nothing about the job. That one, I flew anyway. I don't sign up for any of their jobs where I have to drive more than 30 minutes, except for the commercial real estate ones. I've had much better luck with the people handling those, but again, I have to wait for the price to go up above my costs and give me a small profit. ...and then there was the last materials measuring job I did, where the client told me not to fly the route they had, because that wasn't where the product was...confusion ensued. I did what the client wanted and redesigned the route. I don't think Zeitview (then Dronebase) liked it very much.
You may make $500 a week, but not from just them. You will have to do a lot of other stuff to make that much regular money, dealing with the "cheaper" sections of the drone industry.
You are also dealing with competition in many sections of the country.
Remember also, that your overhead has to come out of that $500 per week too, especially vehicle costs. Most people I've run into in this industry have no idea how much their overhead is or even includes it.
You drive 50 miles to a job and vehicle costs are roughly $60 (government says 62.5 cents per mile), unless you own your vehicle already. You have to add in the cost of your drone and batteries (I figure about $3 per charge per battery). There there are taxes, phone, internet, etc (all stuff you need). So after driving 1 hour there, and hour back, 1 hour onsite, and 1/2 hour sending the data off (if you don't have to modify it), you are looking at $4 per hour for that $100 job. Whether you make any money at all or not will all depend on the distance to your job and whether you already own your vehicle,
What I'm saying is that your costs are as important as what they are paying, so make sure you know that before you commit to a lifestyle change.
You may make $500 a week, but not from just them. You will have to do a lot of other stuff to make that much regular money, dealing with the "cheaper" sections of the drone industry.
You are also dealing with competition in many sections of the country.
Remember also, that your overhead has to come out of that $500 per week too, especially vehicle costs. Most people I've run into in this industry have no idea how much their overhead is or even includes it.
You drive 50 miles to a job and vehicle costs are roughly $60 (government says 62.5 cents per mile), unless you own your vehicle already. You have to add in the cost of your drone and batteries (I figure about $3 per charge per battery). There there are taxes, phone, internet, etc (all stuff you need). So after driving 1 hour there, and hour back, 1 hour onsite, and 1/2 hour sending the data off (if you don't have to modify it), you are looking at $4 per hour for that $100 job. Whether you make any money at all or not will all depend on the distance to your job and whether you already own your vehicle,
What I'm saying is that your costs are as important as what they are paying, so make sure you know that before you commit to a lifestyle change.
No. You’ll be doing good if you could make that in a month with them.
So I live in Northern California. Population of im sure 10 million +. I do Solar as my main gig and travel throughout all of Northern CAli. I think the advantage for me if I can get jobs that are on the way to/from my day to day Solar jobs will be a great cost benefit with my vehicle/gas costs. I think even 1-2 missions a day would be sufficient. Have operations improved with Zeitview taking over Dronebase or is basically all the same?
Any better employers out there? Fly Guys? If anything the work experience maybe good with Zeitview despite crap pay out.
WIth FlyGuys you will deal with several different mission planners. Mostly the are great.
R.Perry
Well-Known Member
I started in this business in 2016 doing real estate, and roof inspections, then went to work for Multivista in 2018 on the UC Merced project that lasted two years. All the different job brokers out there seem to be a fast trip to the bottom. I've only done construction and some AG work and found that knocking on doors and drumming up a business myself was the only way I could make decent money.
I'd avoid the "Drone Brokers" completely as you'll end up working for pennies at best and it's only getting worse.
Do the time, build your own clientele, and get your name out there. I "did this" part time for 9 years and I left a very lucrative Corp Career last November to do this Full Time and it has been a HUGE blessing. I'm making more $$ than ever, make my own schedule, and I have much less stress in my life now. I do have a B-hole for a boss now though (I work for me). LOL
Do the time, build your own clientele, and get your name out there. I "did this" part time for 9 years and I left a very lucrative Corp Career last November to do this Full Time and it has been a HUGE blessing. I'm making more $$ than ever, make my own schedule, and I have much less stress in my life now. I do have a B-hole for a boss now though (I work for me). LOL
R.Perry
Well-Known Member
Hi BigA, sometimes we can be our worst critics. Good for you. I'm back at it, client twisted my arm.
BigL
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R.Perry
Well-Known Member
One of my favorite clients had problems finding pilots. Mainly doing small mapping jobs but with a lot of travel.
I have also done work for several of these companies including Zietview. My main one though has been Bees360. They have been very professional and have actual live support teams who are available by phone instead of just email. These are Roof Inspections and obviously will depend on your area and the weather for how many. I am in the midwest and there are a lack of pilots locally so I am traveling a fair amount in addition to local but I had my first one on Mar 1 and have done over 95 inspections since then. While they don't pay as much as if I was't using a third party I have many times that I have multiple inspections in the same area on the same day which can cut down on expenses. I would check them out. They are growing very fast.
Ajkm
Well-Known Member
Your response here would indicate that you have certification as an “Inspector” of some type. That might tend to increase the value of the work. If you are not certified, then the word “inspection” Is being used inaccurately, and, in some jurisdictions, could lend you in a heap of legal trouble (especially if anyone relies on your “inspection” and suffers a loss as a result). RPA pilots can certainly do mapping or photography for a licensed inspector, but generally they don’t do “inspections” or “surveys”.
Good point and you are correct. I am certified with Bees360 for their inspection process of which I am basically gathering data (pics and info from the clients) while their team is actually doing the evals and sending the reports to the carriers. I am just a cog in the process and would not be certified to do independent inspections without the proper certifications. Didn’t mean to mis-lead anyone.
GsquaredAerials
Well-Known Member
Nice thread! I signed up with FlyGuys as I didn't know about Bees360 and ZeitView. I have received a couple of job offers in my area (Knoxville, TN) between the price range of $100-$150 for just generic aerial imagery. Regardless if I would have taken the jobs or not, they informed me that my Air 2 and Matrice 30T do not qualify for jobs because they both lack the minimum 1 inch sensor for Drone Deploy. Even though I pointed out that the Air 2 was supported by them for flight and processing, they said it's not acceptable because it lacks true 20MP images.
From FlyGuys:
"You are correct, the Air 2 is supported by Drone Deploy but the quality of the camera is not up to standard. (20 megapixels) The M30T falls into that same category for mapping. For Thermal, it does good work but you need a better RGB drone for the mapping portion. If you only have the Air 2, this will just limit you on what jobs you can get. That will also be phased out soon with the progression of the industry."
So based on that, it seems FlyGuys is off the table as I'm not buying an Air2s, Mavic 3 or 3E just for sporadic work by them. I have a full-time career in the TV industry and am jumping into my drone passion as a 1-3 year backup plan in the event I'm ever laid off. That being said, I don't "need" the work right because my job is keeps me very busy. I just wanted to to sign up with a couple of these places to earn some extra money and gain experience and contacts. I plan on taking some thermography classes now that I have the 30T and will consider any thermal jobs that just need footage taken and sent for processing and analyzing by them or 3rd parties.
I see that Bees360 accepts the Air2 and I'm assuming the 30T so I'll go apply other there and see what happens.
From FlyGuys:
"You are correct, the Air 2 is supported by Drone Deploy but the quality of the camera is not up to standard. (20 megapixels) The M30T falls into that same category for mapping. For Thermal, it does good work but you need a better RGB drone for the mapping portion. If you only have the Air 2, this will just limit you on what jobs you can get. That will also be phased out soon with the progression of the industry."
So based on that, it seems FlyGuys is off the table as I'm not buying an Air2s, Mavic 3 or 3E just for sporadic work by them. I have a full-time career in the TV industry and am jumping into my drone passion as a 1-3 year backup plan in the event I'm ever laid off. That being said, I don't "need" the work right because my job is keeps me very busy. I just wanted to to sign up with a couple of these places to earn some extra money and gain experience and contacts. I plan on taking some thermography classes now that I have the 30T and will consider any thermal jobs that just need footage taken and sent for processing and analyzing by them or 3rd parties.
I see that Bees360 accepts the Air2 and I'm assuming the 30T so I'll go apply other there and see what happens.
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