Getting Started With Thermal

[Ask Ketchum]

As a newly licensed advanced drone operator in Canada I am interested in learning more about the thermal drone services market. I was looking through the various threads in the thermal forum and didn't see one with a getting started guide so I wanted to start a thread about it as I am sure I have a few questions which other new pilots may have as well.

1. Which drones are good options for someone starting off with thermal? (So far I researched the DJI Enterprise Dual/Advanced, Parrot Anafi Thermal/USA, Autel Evo 2). The cheapest drones for thermal seem to be the Anafi Thermal and the DJI Enterprise Dual however they only have the 160 sensor which may be too low of a quality. Would these drones be sufficient for someone starting out?

2. What types of thermography certifications are worth the money? (I checked out the ITC Level 1 Thermography online course for around $2000) Is that the best one?

3. Which clients are likely to buy thermography services and what is the best way to market to them (cold calling/emailing, local networking groups, PPC/Facebook ads, etc...)? From my research it seems like construction, solar farms, electrical utilities, and inspection companies are among the types of businesses which would benefit from aerial thermal imaging.

4. What types of deliverables/reports do clients expect for drone thermography and is there any specific software available for generating these?

Thanks for the help!

 

[TreeLineView]

As a newly licensed advanced drone operator in Canada I am interested in learning more about the thermal drone services market. I was looking through the various threads in the thermal forum and didn't see one with a getting started guide so I wanted to start a thread about it as I am sure I have a few questions which other new pilots may have as well.

1. Which drones are good options for someone starting off with thermal? (So far I researched the DJI Enterprise Dual/Advanced, Parrot Anafi Thermal/USA, Autel Evo 2). The cheapest drones for thermal seem to be the Anafi Thermal and the DJI Enterprise Dual however they only have the 160 sensor which may be too low of a quality. Would these drones be sufficient for someone starting out?

2. What types of thermography certifications are worth the money? (I checked out the ITC Level 1 Thermography online course for around $2000) Is that the best one?

3. Which clients are likely to buy thermography services and what is the best way to market to them (cold calling/emailing, local networking groups, PPC/Facebook ads, etc...)? From my research it seems like construction, solar farms, electrical utilities, and inspection companies are among the types of businesses which would benefit from aerial thermal imaging.

4. What types of deliverables/reports do clients expect for drone thermography and is there any specific software available for generating these?

Thanks for the help

I provided some basics on how I got started in this thread. Feel free to PM me. I am glad to share my experiences and provide some sample deliverables. Regards, John

Learning thermal imaging

Hello all! I just got my part 107 about a month ago and I am looking to do a career change into thermal imaging. Are there any good books or videos to read or watch to help to learn a little bit before taking the certification course?

commercialdronepilots.com

 

[PinpointUAVS]

As a newly licensed advanced drone operator in Canada I am interested in learning more about the thermal drone services market. I was looking through the various threads in the thermal forum and didn't see one with a getting started guide so I wanted to start a thread about it as I am sure I have a few questions which other new pilots may have as well.

Congrats on obtaining your advanced!

1. Which drones are good options for someone starting off with thermal? (So far I researched the DJI Enterprise Dual/Advanced, Parrot Anafi Thermal/USA, Autel Evo 2). The cheapest drones for thermal seem to be the Anafi Thermal and the DJI Enterprise Dual however they only have the 160 sensor which may be too low of a quality. Would these drones be sufficient for someone starting out?

If your budget allows, I would opt for the M2EA. The Autel Evo 2 Thermal is a comparable piece of hardware, but quite a bit more money. The M2E (not radiometric) and Anafi Thermal are very low resolution so much more limited use case.

2. What types of thermography certifications are worth the money? (I checked out the ITC Level 1 Thermography online course for around $2000) Is that the best one?

I completed that course. It was fairly thorough and the instructor was very knowledgeable, however, I would opt for the UAS/RPAS based course instead as it’s tailored around UAS/RPAS thermal systems whereas the course you mention is based on handheld devices with a small section touching on UAS/RPAS.

3. Which clients are likely to buy thermography services and what is the best way to market to them (cold calling/emailing, local networking groups, PPC/Facebook ads, etc...)? From my research it seems like construction, solar farms, electrical utilities, and inspection companies are among the types of businesses which would benefit from aerial thermal imaging.

Also emissions detection

4. What types of deliverables/reports do clients expect for drone thermography and is there any specific software available for generating these?

Thanks for the help!

FLIR tools allows basic reports for free but IIRC it isn’t compatible with DJI’s R-JPEG format. I do recall reading about a file converter that can convert R-JPEG into a usable format for FLIR software, but I’d have to do some digging to find the article. DJI also has its own software, DJI Thermal Analysis Tool

 

[Flying Buffalo]

Congrats on obtaining your advanced!

If your budget allows, I would opt for the M2EA. The Autel Evo 2 Thermal is a comparable piece of hardware, but quite a bit more money. The M2E (not radiometric) and Anafi Thermal are very low resolution so much more limited use case.

I completed that course. It was fairly thorough and the instructor was very knowledgeable, however, I would opt for the UAS/RPAS based course instead as it’s tailored around UAS/RPAS thermal systems whereas the course you mention is based on handheld devices with a small section touching on UAS/RPAS.

Also emissions detection

FLIR tools allows basic reports for free but IIRC it isn’t compatible with DJI’s R-JPEG format. I do recall reading about a file converter that can convert R-JPEG into a usable format for FLIR software, but I’d have to do some digging to find the article. DJI also has its own software, DJI Thermal Analysis Tool

Did you ever find that article about R-JPEG conversion?