More TX Pilots Needed for Telecom - Also Other States for Telecom, Power, Golf and Mapping

[Florida Drone Supply]

Oh, I'm sure you'll clarify everything......I do appreciate it taking 3 months for you to finally address my initial email. I'm sure you're busy like the rest of us, but you weren't busy when you knew I was placing my initial order.

I'll do my best, and although you did not train in FL with us and I have not had a chance to meet you, I do appreciate you wanting to try to get some experience and making an attempt to try to do some of the towers in TX even though it was not in the typical radius from your home (meaning lots of drive time).

Your implication that I intentinoally did not answer your question about a potentially stuck button on your battery for 3 months is simply not true. My answer then would be exactly the same as it is now. As myself and most of the others in the office are manned aircraft pilots, we take safety seriously - and would certainly not want to be the ones advising you on the safety of flying a battery you have a question about. Might it be OK - sure, maybe. But if it fails in flight, would we want to be the ones to have advised you to fly it - definitely not. Our suggestion to attempt to have DJI confirm if the LED indicators not working could impact the batteries safety was simply to help you get the answer we were not comfortable providing. If this has been something you were waiting on a response for (for 3 months), we could have easily answered this question any of the numerous times we talked with you on the phone or by text message about Texas work (before, during or after it). It is certainly possible that myself or someone here missed your question - or, since you were in communication with people from the office periodically, it is just as likely that we thought your question had been resolved. Because I can not say with certainly, its apparent that you feel it is most appropriate to point out anything that paints us in a bad light. But what is not mentioned is that when you forwarded your question again at nearly 9pm last night (our time) you had an answer this morning...and thats before you started posting in this thread.

So once again it makes no sense that we would knowingly not answer your question about the button on a battery for 3 months. If there was a mistake made on our end I apologize for it.

 

[GadgetGuy]

I'll do my best, and although you did not train in FL with us and I have not had a chance to meet you, I do appreciate you wanting to try to get some experience and making an attempt to try to do some of the towers in TX even though it was not in the typical radius from your home (meaning lots of drive time).

Your implication that I intentinoally did not answer your question about a potentially stuck button on your battery for 3 months is simply not true. My answer then would be exactly the same as it is now. As myself and most of the others in the office are manned aircraft pilots, we take safety seriously - and would certainly not want to be the ones advising you on the safety of flying a battery you have a question about. Might it be OK - sure, maybe. But if it fails in flight, would we want to be the ones to have advised you to fly it - definitely not. Our suggestion to attempt to have DJI confirm if the LED indicators not working could impact the batteries safety was simply to help you get the answer we were not comfortable providing. If this has been something you were waiting on a response for (for 3 months), we could have easily answered this question any of the numerous times we talked with you on the phone or by text message about Texas work (before, during or after it). It is certainly possible that myself or someone here missed your question - or, since you were in communication with people from the office periodically, it is just as likely that we thought your question had been resolved. Because I can not say with certainly, its apparent that you feel it is most appropriate to point out anything that paints us in a bad light. But what is not mentioned is that when you forwarded your question again at nearly 9pm last night (our time) you had an answer this morning...and thats before you started posting in this thread.

So once again it makes no sense that we would knowingly not answer your question about the button on a battery for 3 months. If there was a mistake made on our end I apologize for it.

Can you please address his far more important concerns about only being offered a mere $100 a tower, when he was assured $400 to $500 was to be the expected norm, after paying for and completing the required $1200 training?

 

[Florida Drone Supply]

I'd like to chime in with my personal experience with this pilot network program. I was contacted back in December about an upcoming training class and was told I should expect $400 to $500 for each inspection. Was told that because I lived in Oklahoma, I should see plenty of work. I thought it would be a great opportunity so I booked a flight and paid for the class. The class was great and I felt I was prepared to be part of something special.

A couple months after completion I got asked to do some inspection in the Texas panhandle. Was told the pay would only be $100 an inspection with 13 towers available to me. I was a little bummed about the price per tower but I figured I'd go and at least get some experience. I was able to complete one tower after 3 days and 700+ miles because I had some obstacles that weren't covered in training and I had to figure them out on the fly.

I understand it's a new program and there are kinks to be ironed out but I never felt like I was part of any team. Lost my *** on one tower and knew that I couldn't continue and finish the others. Information was not covered in training and was being sent in bits and pieces for me to decipher on the fly. Maybe other pilots are more fortunate than me but my initial experience was not good and I decided if I want to make $100 a job, I'll do some Drone Base missions locally.

Going to get crap for posting this but I figure I'd share my experience.

My theory on this is they are going to try and get as many pilots to pay this $1200 class and then be able to low-ball inspection prices because of the saturation of pilots who think they are going to make $500 an inspection.

I might be 100% completely wrong here but I am just sharing my experience.

Reading your story I would be frustrated as well.

First, inspection pricing. For this work, our pilots have a $500 per day contract rate target. Some do better than this and some do not. Experience makes a huge difference. Our pilots graduating training recently are able to fly a typical cell phone tower inspection in a P4 Pro battery or a little over...and thats just in training with maybe 10 flights completed. Several have had it done in less than a phantom battery during training. Is it realistic to think someone would pay you $500 4-8 times a day to fly a single phantom battery - and have no photo processing or video editing to do (we simply fly and upload)...probably not. I am not saying you did not hear that or that someone might not have mistaken "per tower" for "per day", etc. I am just adding the other side of the story here. We have not met each other and I can only give you the benefit of the doubt because those were not my words.

Next, I appreciate your thoughts about doing 13 towers for $1300. We are trying to work to increase the inspection prices - not flood the market with pilots to make it a race to the bottom. That is a business model that would not succeed. We are working with multiple members of NATE (National Association of Tower Erectors) for new standards, certifications, etc that will help keep the pilots flying these contracts in a different class of pilots from the lesser qualified ones. I think the last thing drone pilots in this industry want is to see the vertical tower inspection work turn into the basic real estate job level of work. And to share the other side of the story, not all towers pay the same rate...in fact some towers have paid the rates you mention in your opening paragraph. It is not the norm, but they actually can pay above those rates in some scenarios as well...while it was just a single tower contract, we had one pay over $1000. In some scenarios, our pilots are paid a flat day rate with all travel costs covered - but this happens mostly around disasters (which you would be trained for) as well as remote locations.

As an FYI, Precision Hawk (bought drones.io) recently posted a cell tower contract job in CA...25 towers for $2500. You had to accept and complete them all. Then they posted a contract position for some FL pilots - $500 a mission for missions that had expectations of taking 3+ days (power line work). Thats the wrong direction for pricing in our opinion.

The pilots who look beyond many of the surface issues in this thread will find us working to make the industry stronger - not making it a race to the bottom.

I very much appreciate your concerns...and am happy to talk further via a phone call if you are interested at all.

Michael

 

[Florida Drone Supply]

Real life honest feedback is always welcome as are replies to get the other side’s opinion, this paints the best picture for the rest of us.

Thank you, we completely agree.

 

[Florida Drone Supply]

If you were to decide to do this on your own and contact cell phone companies directly and not be a subcontractor, do you feel the training has made you ready and that the $1,200 fee was worth it? Could you have learned it on your own?

While you await the answers to your above questions, I will chime in with our opinion.

First, on the question about learning it on your own, I am sure there would be some way to do that. Most things can be learned through some type of online resource, but it may be hard to learn in a way that gives you the tactical skills to perform the job on a live site. Some of the feedback we had gotten from our classes related to the value of the time spent onsite - and integrating some of the formal classroom learning into the time in the field. For example, identifying all the different carrier information is a lot to learn - and is easier if you have codes, keys and permission to be onsite at a tower with multiple carrier's equipment on it. Pictures on a Power Point slide are OK, but actually tracing wires or seeing the color codes in person really helps. Again, maybe someone has a good, free online resource for learning this, but going to real sites with access definitely helps.

Flying techniques might be able to be learned or reviewed online - but the same benefits of being onsite apply here as well.

Here is where I think you might have the most trouble. If you call AT&T and tell them you are learning how to inspect cell phone towers and that you would like a contract to do some of theirs, how do you address the question of what deliverable you provide? We fly and upload data to a software company that processes, models, scales and hosts all the data the cell companies and tower owners want. They prep it for their engineers, etc. When AT&T has questions about tower data output they are not going to want to call thousands of individual pilots who fly different mission profiles, provide different deliverables, etc. The nationwide companies are gravitating to the nationwide fleets (in our opinion and from what we have discussed and witnessed). Not all of them, but it looks like it might be a continuing trend. That leaves the individual pilot in a tough spot if they want to do individual work for a nationwide company (like cell phone service providers).

I'm not going to chime in on the price - just wanted to share some thoughts on how you might be able to get trained on your own and some possible challenges you might have if you go that route. I am sure there have been plenty of pilots over the years that have figured it out....and part of the success you might have could come from the size of the market you are in and who you know. Nothing like having a good connection.

 

[Aerial Perceptions]

Thanks for sharing "The Rest of the Story," as Paul Harvey would have said.

I'm just sharing my personal experience. I'm sure there's other pilots with more positive ones. I honestly spent a lot of time debating whether to post thisGoing back and forth

I'll do my best, and although you did not train in FL with us and I have not had a chance to meet you, I do appreciate you wanting to try to get some experience and making an attempt to try to do some of the towers in TX even though it was not in the typical radius from your home (meaning lots of drive time).

Your implication that I intentinoally did not answer your question about a potentially stuck button on your battery for 3 months is simply not true. My answer then would be exactly the same as it is now. As myself and most of the others in the office are manned aircraft pilots, we take safety seriously - and would certainly not want to be the ones advising you on the safety of flying a battery you have a question about. Might it be OK - sure, maybe. But if it fails in flight, would we want to be the ones to have advised you to fly it - definitely not. Our suggestion to attempt to have DJI confirm if the LED indicators not working could impact the batteries safety was simply to help you get the answer we were not comfortable providing. If this has been something you were waiting on a response for (for 3 months), we could have easily answered this question any of the numerous times we talked with you on the phone or by text message about Texas work (before, during or after it). It is certainly possible that myself or someone here missed your question - or, since you were in communication with people from the office periodically, it is just as likely that we thought your question had been resolved. Because I can not say with certainly, its apparent that you feel it is most appropriate to point out anything that paints us in a bad light. But what is not mentioned is that when you forwarded your question again at nearly 9pm last night (our time) you had an answer this morning...and thats before you started posting in this thread.

So once again it makes no sense that we would knowingly not answer your question about the button on a battery for 3 months. If there was a mistake made on our end I apologize for it.

It wasn't quite 9pm Thursday but what difference does that make? You personally sold me these items, not your training instructor. Yes, this whole ordeal has me a bitter and for those that know me know that i an pretty good at letting things go but you guys rubbed me the wrong way.

And you appreciate everything I went through with training and attempting to do those clusters 5 hours West of me for $100 a pop?

You do realize that after I offered to do those towers, I was told that it would be ok if I backed out. Well a couple days after that discussion I had an issue with my I2 sand informed you guys that I had to back out because I was sending my bird in for repair. Was told I put you guys in a bind (and unfortunately I probably did). Your solution was to sell me a new x5s and send it overnight so I can complete those jobs. That right there pissed me off and I said I'd just go and buy another suav there locally. I was planning on doing so anyways so this wasn't the entire reason but you get my point.

There was absolutely no appreciation for what I went through just so I could be part of what you guys have going on.

And to add. When I did try to back out, I suggested the other two pilots here in Oklahoma whom I went through training with. Was told that wasn't an option. Spoke with them recently and they said they were never contacted. Now that's a shame.

I'm done. I have said all I need to say here.

 

[GadgetGuy]

I'm just sharing my personal experience. I'm sure there's other pilots with more positive ones. I honestly spent a lot of time debating whether to post thisGoing back and forth


It wasn't quite 9pm Thursday but what difference does that make? You personally sold me these items, not your training instructor. Yes, this whole ordeal has me a bitter and for those that know me know that i an pretty good at letting things go but you guys rubbed me the wrong way.

And you appreciate everything I went through with training and attempting to do those clusters 5 hours West of me for $100 a pop?

You do realize that after I offered to do those towers, I was told that it would be ok if I backed out. Well a couple days after that discussion I had an issue with my I2 sand informed you guys that I had to back out because I was sending my bird in for repair. Was told I put you guys in a bind (and unfortunately I probably did). Your solution was to sell me a new x5s and send it overnight so I can complete those jobs. That right there pissed me off and I said I'd just go and buy another suav there locally. I was planning on doing so anyways so this wasn't the entire reason but you get my point.

There was absolutely no appreciation for what I went through just so I could be part of what you guys have going on.

And to add. When I did try to back out, I suggested the other two pilots here in Oklahoma whom I went through training with. Was told that wasn't an option. Spoke with them recently and they said they were never contacted. Now that's a shame.

I'm done. I have said all I need to say here.

Considering that no pilots have come forward with positive experiences, your personal experience is exactly the type of input we need here to properly evaluate the "opportunity". No one is going to ban you for telling the truth and sharing your experience, as you are doing. Florida Drone Supply doesn't own this site, and does not control the legitimate posts to this thread or any other. They are merely an approved vendor. I sincerely appreciate all your input, and welcome anything else you have to add.

 

[R.Perry]

I just spoke with a manager that does repairs and insulation on cell phone towers. He told me if I wanted to do inspections for him he would train me for free, I'm not personally interested but a friend of mine is. He got the same response from the power company, and is going to be doing power line inspections in remote locations.

It seems to me that there is plenty of opportunities to get work without going through and expensive training course. The company I'm working for is also looking at expanding beyond construction documentation and into cell towers, power line inspections, and other services. All the training they supplied was free, they actually paid me for it. I went through a month long training in construction documentation.

I"m not implying that Drone Supply doesn't offer a good training service, I just think there are other ways, and less expensive ways to get it, and possibly make a little more money.

I think it is important to look at all your options, and there potential for making money. For instance if I'm going to tie up thousands of dollars in drone, camera lens, batteries, then how much do I need to make to make my investment profitable. I think that same principle goes with any training or education, Am I going to be rewarded sufficiently to make it profitable.

 

[OverArizona]

@Florida Drone Supply

I like to know who you are "in close contact" with at NATE? Why you may ask? Because I'm calling you out publicly on all the contradictory gas you have been posting, PMn', and saying on the phone.

 

[benmike]

would you be interested in take photos of specific sites for my company? it would be a weekly job for half a day depending on your location in louisiana or oklahoma.
[email protected]

More TX Pilots Needed for Telecom - Also Other States for Telecom, Power, Golf and Mapping

As many of you know Florida Drone Supply has been working on increasing the size of the network of pilots that are able to fly on our contracts. Recently we have been sending pilots on contract work with locations in TX, CA, VA, IL, IN, MI, NC, OK and NM. A few of the areas are just developing and were small projects, but a number of our areas are growing quickly. We have recently been able to take over the telecom training from our training provider and will be moving the cell phone tower inspection training to our location in FL beginning in mid March - its class length will also be increasing by 1-2 days so we can spend additional time on some of the things that we felt needed more explanation and training. We are also beginning our golf course turf inspection training in late March or early April here in Florida as well.

If you are already registered in our pilot network, we are now systematically reaching out to everyone to determine your interest level in each type of work we contract…we hope to reach everyone in the next few weeks. If you are anxious to get started sooner, send us an email to [email protected] and we will get right back to you with courses, training dates and upcoming projects that are available to work on (Sky Source Aerial is our Parent Company).

If you are not yet in our Pilot Network and have an interest in flying on contract assignments for things such as cell phone tower inspections, power line contracts, golf course turf inspections, photo and video jobs, road inspections, mapping projects, construction work or thermal inspections join today and we will contract you with all of the details about how our pilot network operates.

Join Here: Pilot Network Registration

Finally, if you are in TX (or one of the nearby states) and are interested in getting into cell phone tower inspections, we just assigned our third group of cell phone towers to TX pilots - some pilots are even coming to TX from further away to assist in getting the towers inspected. We have a number of additional TX pilots in our network and could use some more TX pilots in our upcoming training classes.

As always, we appreciate all the great pilots who support Florida Drone Supply here on the Commercial Drone Pilots Forum and look forward to supporting you back any way that we can!

 

[Bob Stekeur]

I was interested in getting involved with this at one time, but was reluctant because of past experiences with some of the other Drone for hire service companies and the $1200. Is there anyone that can say this has been worthwhile for them?

 

[Rob Hodges]

I was interested in getting involved with this at one time, but was reluctant because of past experiences with some of the other Drone for hire service companies and the $1200. Is there anyone that can say this has been worthwhile for them?

crickets? Maybe they are all out working?