Not maintenance, but referring to the equipment you choose and why. I'm considering getting into the drone business in some form, just ideas at this point, but you can't work without tools. Of course I intend to start out small, but by my logic I see having multiple drones as a necessity, even if it's only 2-3 total to cover yourself in unfortunate situations.
Now I don't want to sink a bundle of money into getting started, but I fear my durable but aging Blade Chroma is not going to be a good start. It might get me a simple gig or two, but I'm not going to rely on it to give a good impression. I think the last thing I need is my first customers being troubled with my potential issues should the camera refuse to initialize, or the simple fact if anything happens to my one and only drone I'm out entirely for weeks. It's not a good candidate for trying to sink much cost into repairing at this point anyway if I were to find a tree with it. So I plan to keep it handy, probably re-register it as Part 107 when I need to, but not thinking of it as anything but a backup or use only if the situation suits it better. I have learned a lot keeping it alive for several years now, as there is not a piece of it I haven't been poking around in to repair.
Now here is what I'm getting at on "fleet management" is those of you in the business, with multiple drones, if you had it to do over would you try to plan what platform you buy in advance with an intent of being able to build on your equipment later, perhaps scavenge or share parts, camera payloads, standardized software and programming methods, and such among several like units as you go. I'm not going to buy all that now, but should things go well, make it easier to bring in new equipment as I go.
Or alternatively, do you get what seems to fit the bill at the time for the work you plan to do most, and end up with a diverse fleet each of which may be better or worse for a given job, but you still have redundancy.
Personally, I've become fond of the Yuneec H520 platform on paper. But since my Blade was actually Yuneec hardware, it's a familiar platform so it's fair to assume I'm biased. From what I read, it seems DJI has many features to it's merit as well, but I don't get the feeling it's quite so customizable for the same cost. And I'm sure there are options I have not fully considered yet. Say I get into the game for around ~$2000 with a Mavic, but since what really catches my interest is mapping, surveying, and inspection more so than photography and cinema, if I go in for a ~$4000 setup like the H520 that may be considerably more diverse and can add different cameras and equipment as required.
Of course with the remote ID proposition, it's a rough time to be considering buying a drone anyway, but I don't see me getting far if I wait 3-5 years to see what is going to happen.
Do you have a platform you prefer for the purposes of managing your equipment to benefit you the most?
Now I don't want to sink a bundle of money into getting started, but I fear my durable but aging Blade Chroma is not going to be a good start. It might get me a simple gig or two, but I'm not going to rely on it to give a good impression. I think the last thing I need is my first customers being troubled with my potential issues should the camera refuse to initialize, or the simple fact if anything happens to my one and only drone I'm out entirely for weeks. It's not a good candidate for trying to sink much cost into repairing at this point anyway if I were to find a tree with it. So I plan to keep it handy, probably re-register it as Part 107 when I need to, but not thinking of it as anything but a backup or use only if the situation suits it better. I have learned a lot keeping it alive for several years now, as there is not a piece of it I haven't been poking around in to repair.
Now here is what I'm getting at on "fleet management" is those of you in the business, with multiple drones, if you had it to do over would you try to plan what platform you buy in advance with an intent of being able to build on your equipment later, perhaps scavenge or share parts, camera payloads, standardized software and programming methods, and such among several like units as you go. I'm not going to buy all that now, but should things go well, make it easier to bring in new equipment as I go.
Or alternatively, do you get what seems to fit the bill at the time for the work you plan to do most, and end up with a diverse fleet each of which may be better or worse for a given job, but you still have redundancy.
Personally, I've become fond of the Yuneec H520 platform on paper. But since my Blade was actually Yuneec hardware, it's a familiar platform so it's fair to assume I'm biased. From what I read, it seems DJI has many features to it's merit as well, but I don't get the feeling it's quite so customizable for the same cost. And I'm sure there are options I have not fully considered yet. Say I get into the game for around ~$2000 with a Mavic, but since what really catches my interest is mapping, surveying, and inspection more so than photography and cinema, if I go in for a ~$4000 setup like the H520 that may be considerably more diverse and can add different cameras and equipment as required.
Of course with the remote ID proposition, it's a rough time to be considering buying a drone anyway, but I don't see me getting far if I wait 3-5 years to see what is going to happen.
Do you have a platform you prefer for the purposes of managing your equipment to benefit you the most?