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Question about Drone Base

R.Perry

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Have any of you accepted missions from Drone Base. They have sent me a few mission, I rejected all of them because they didn't want to pay anything. Well $60.00 for an hour drive and nine picture shoot.
This amazes me that they seem just like the real estate people, that our time doesn't have much value, and what really gets me is 107 pilots are taking missions like this.

My issue isn't with Drone Deploy as much as it is these companies that want us to work for nothing.
That is almost as bad as these banks and lenders that want photos taken of properties and offer fifteen to twenty dollars per property, and people are doing it.

If 107 pilots ever want to start making money, we all need to hold out for decent money.

Ok, I've complained enough

Cheers to all of you.
 
All very true. You really can't fault the "aggregators" (my term for the group). They provide a web interface, either line up job prospects or act as a clearing house for customer/operators to negotiate, and in both cases take a fee. They don't care if the fee is very small because they aren't actually doing anything and are hoping to make something on scale.

And you are exactly correct R, so long as certificated operators are lining up to do this stuff for less than cost, usually in hopes that "some day" they will actually be able to make money, it will continue, and the pay will be nothing.
 
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Have any of you accepted missions from Drone Base. They have sent me a few mission, I rejected all of them because they didn't want to pay anything. Well $60.00 for an hour drive and nine picture shoot.
This amazes me that they seem just like the real estate people, that our time doesn't have much value, and what really gets me is 107 pilots are taking missions like this.

My issue isn't with Drone Deploy as much as it is these companies that want us to work for nothing.
That is almost as bad as these banks and lenders that want photos taken of properties and offer fifteen to twenty dollars per property, and people are doing it.

If 107 pilots ever want to start making money, we all need to hold out for decent money.

Ok, I've complained enough

Cheers to all of you.
Drone Deploy are making money. Their contract pilots are not. They recently pitched our business and I was amused at what they wanted to charge vs. what they were paying their pilots. I declined.
 
Like someone else said "it's a race to the bottom". The market is saturated with too many people that will work for nothing. They are the ones that will kill the industry.
 
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How does anyone know that certified pilots are lining up? I suspect it is a lot less than people think and the companies are just happy to get anyone who bites.

If the low price they offer never goes up, it would probably indicate they are successfully getting it done for that price. Basic demand and supply economics. If you see the offered price going up, then they are probably having difficulty.
 
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Not necessarily. Take for example the real estate industry. I'm sure they love being able to show aerial footage and photos of a house they are selling. But do they actually NEED it? No. They've done fine selling homes without aerial photography since the beginning of time. I'm guessing the attitude in the industry is if they can get aerials on the cheap -- great! Otherwise they don't really need to spend the money on something they don't feel they really need. I just don't see any mystery about that and IMO doubt the industry is buying as much aerial photography as people think, for ANY price.

Let's say $600 is a fair price for a modest real estate shoot within a reasonable travel distance. Is it realistic to think a real estate agent is going to give up $600 of his/her commission to sell a house that they will probably wind up selling anyway using traditional hand-held photography? I don't mean to be a Debbie-downer. Just being realistic. I'm guessing the rule of supply and demand in this case is really based on the fact that the real estate industry will ONLY buy if the price is low, pushing demand down.

I have a high school friend of 40 years who runs a local real estate office. He is aware that I fly a done, yet has never approached me to ask if I would be interested in helping him aquire aerial photos/video of the properties he sells, neither for a fee or a favor. He sells a range of middle to high income family homes. Out of curiosity, I'll ask him if he uses anyone for that service -- making it clear that I am simply inquiring out of curiosity and not looking for work myself. Should give me an honest answer.
 
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Here is how to "work" DroneBase. Don't take one mission, try and take a block, let's face it, if you can load up on 5 to 8 missions in a 60 mile area you just had yourself a $250 to $350, Six hour day. Of course the missions don't always pop up that way. But sometimes it does. I work a part time job, if a drone base mission pops up and I am not at work but I am sitting on my *** reading these web boards, I'd just a-soon go out and make $50/60 bucks. My car gets 40 miles to a gallon so even a 60 mile (120) mile round trip only costs me $10 bucks. $40 bucks 10 pics, in 10 minutes, better than sitting at home. Plus I am getting flight time and practice. Now I am not saying there is not a rush to the bottom on rates Drone Pilots take. Worse sites are those like DronesIO which we "bid" against each other. As to @MapMaker53 Introduce me to a realtor that pays $650, maybe 5 years when there was one drone pilot in town, ago but today your average realtor pays $150 for pics of a house and $250 for Video. Also if you want to make money in real estate learn how to shoot, edit and create something other than just a listing. Realtors are big into Instagram now and if you can create a IG Video for them, then that is how you can make some money.
 
Here is how to "work" DroneBase. Don't take one mission, try and take a block, let's face it, if you can load up on 5 to 8 missions in a 60 mile area you just had yourself a $250 to $350, Six hour day. Of course the missions don't always pop up that way. But sometimes it does. I work a part time job, if a drone base mission pops up and I am not at work but I am sitting on my *** reading these web boards, I'd just a-soon go out and make $50/60 bucks. My car gets 40 miles to a gallon so even a 60 mile (120) mile round trip only costs me $10 bucks. $40 bucks 10 pics, in 10 minutes, better than sitting at home. Plus I am getting flight time and practice. Now I am not saying there is not a rush to the bottom on rates Drone Pilots take. Worse sites are those like DronesIO which we "bid" against each other. As to @MapMaker53 Introduce me to a realtor that pays $650, maybe 5 years when there was one drone pilot in town, ago but today your average realtor pays $150 for pics of a house and $250 for Video. Also if you want to make money in real estate learn how to shoot, edit and create something other than just a listing. Realtors are big into Instagram now and if you can create a IG Video for them, then that is how you can make some money.

Sir, you just gave a good example of those killing the business. You want to work for below minimum wage you just add to the number people that don't think their time is worth much. You aren't going to get five to eight jobs in one day. Now let me ask you, do you have your license, and plenty of liability insurance. Think you can run a car 120 miles for 10 bunks you aren't considering true cost of a car, insurance, maintenance, depreciation. I figure my cost at 54 cents a mile, but I don't drive junk because I need a dependable vehicle. So in reality your profit was used up by your vehicle expense and your drive time was free, hope you enjoyed the ride.
 
$50 wouldn't even cover a 120 mile trip . Someone needs to spend some quality spreadsheet time.
If your car gets 40mph that’s 3 gallons of gas at 3.50 per gallon. That’s 10.50. Guess someone needs to get a calculator. If I can get two Dronebase jobs. I just made $90 dollars. I can shoot a Dronebase job in 15 minutes. Travel back and fourth 2 hours. In 2 hours 30 minutes which includes travel and two drone base jobs I cleared $90 after gas. That’s $40 an hour. If you have 3 jobs or 5 in same area your income goes up exponentially. By the way don’t tell me I don’t get five jobs at a time. I’ve book eight to ten with them. So sit on your butts and post on these blogs I’ll take all the Dronebase jobs I can get when not working my full time gigs.
 
As was mentioned, you are not accounting for a lot of costs in you $10 for gas. $40 per hour minus the rest of your costs that you didn't list isn't worth it to me. I guess if you're happy to be paid anything to fly a drone and seems like a windfall, then that's your choice. The point is that Drone Base is very happy to keep the larger % of the fee while you run around and take all the liability.
 
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Without mentioning names, this thread reveals everything that is wrong about the state of the imaging business.

A mal-educated and bored individual talking out of his backside, lacking basic common sense and business knowledge, he proceeds tell us how to make money in real estate - while he's doing everything he can to further degrade the business.

YOU are the problem, pal. Please spend more time on message boards and remain permanently grounded.
 
Typical head in sand comments. I’m not lowering the standard or the rates. They are already down. By refusing to take the job your not going to raise the rates up we saw 5 years ago when I started and was the only drone pilot in LA, I could easily get $500!a house $1500 for a commercial property. But when 300,000 pilots entered the work force that ended. As for newbie I have to laff, again making that assumption is what idiots on tinder make, I thought a site like this with educated pilots might not rush to judgement. I’m a 2 time Emmy nominated tv producer Cinematographer. You’ve seen my work or seen my students work in the Walking Dead, Fear the Walking Dead, NBC Sports and in dozens of TV commercials, I get paid in a day which I assume most of you don’t make in a month. I’ve worked with FAA consultants crafting drone rules, Ive created a drone curriculum that I teach at three universities part time. I have trained pilots for the CA prison system, the National Forrest Service and an Insurance company. You guys sound like production people I work with who won’t take a $500 job when they are used to getting $1500. If you are sitting around waiting for the $1500 job, how many $500 jobs you going to pass, 1,2,3,5 by waiting for the $1500. I didn’t say you earn a living on dronebase. I’m saying that it’s better than sitting at home doing nothing and posting stuff on blogs. You’d be very surprised how much I made on dronebase in 8 months of last year all within 60 miles of my home. One poster said I didn’t factor insurance, of course I did. I have business liability ins. Cost $300 per year. So please continue to sit home, so on a weekend when I’m off I can pick up an extra $300 bucks.
By the way being an educator and consultant to the industry if you are under the impression that just being a commercial drone pilot is a job, it’s not. Industry are teaching their own. I’m teaching dozens of realtors that are learning to fly to do their own photos. I’m teaching people who are already Cinematographers to learn how to fly to add drone cinematography to their work flow, I’m teaching Insurance adjusters, Security Guards, surveyors. Drones are tools they are adding to their skill sets so they don’t have to hire just drone pilots.
One last last thing. I do get hired in places like Malibu to shoot multi million dollar homes. I set my rate based on the house selling price and work they want done, most shoots/and edits are in the $3000 range. Guess how I get done of these jobs. Well I show them that I’ve shot 100 houses. Where did I get those shoots. Oh that right Dronebase, guess I get paid while I was practicing.
 
I love comedians, one of my favorite is Ron White, he has a statement that I love, "You Can't Fix Stupid" Now I know this is off topic, and I'm not pointing fingers.
 
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@skiptv That's a great resume. It seems kind of silly that you would be one of those 300,000 you mentioned providing downward pressure on pricing. If you need practice, surely there is something closer to home you can shoot.
 

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