UK Advice Needed

[Rod Willis]

Hi

I've just been offered a seemingly decent deal from COPTRZ, but before I make any decisions I thought I'd get some advice from the people in the know if that's ok

I'm an ex-commercial inspection diver that's returned to the UK, my skills are not easily transferable and for the past couple of years I've been considering training in the drone industry, I'm willing to invest the time and money, however, I do have some questions that I need answers from independent people (The salespeople are just telling me what they think I want to hear)

Firstly are there flight schools that offer genuinely decent training, now this is the key part, I've flown hobby drones to a certain extent so they would need to bring me up to your standards, I don't mind doing different courses to raise my skill levels

My experience is with structure inspections and survey work so these would be my instinctive areas to take courses in so what advice would you give on this, or are there potentially other areas I should explore, fyi I'm not sure if this is important but my video editing skills are pretty decent

Any other advice you can give would be greatly appreciated as this is quite a substantial investment in time and money, which I'm prepared to make if there is a potential for it to offer a new career start, the reason why I'm a little hesitant is in my last career, only around 20% of people taking their HSE tickets actually went on to work full time in the diving industry ... I was one of the lucky ones

Thanks in advance

Rod

 

[Mavic Mac]

I personally know nothing about them but found THIS page of mixed reviews

 

[R.Perry]

Hi Rod, welcome to the forum. I don't know anything about job potential in the UK. I fell into a construction documentation job a couple of years ago, and it has been a very good job. However getting started in any business is tough today. There are many people that have purchased drones and attempting to make a buck with them, and truthfully from what I'm hearing most of them have a hard time making any decent money.
You have surveying experience and that is where there seems to be some good money, however you will need a drone that can create survey grade mappings, and they don't come cheap. This is a side gig for me, I'm semi retired and was bored, the money I'm making is decent but I wouldn't want to try to live on it, but in all fairness I only work two days a week.
If I were you I would do some market analysis in the area you wish to work, see what opportunities may be available to you.
As for training, I don't know what the UK requirements are, but here in the states it is way too easy to get a commercial drone pilots license, so we have many people with their ticket.
I went to the Avion school in Huntsville, AL, it was taught by ex military guys that taught our army personnel UAV flight skills. We just aren't allowed to carry hellfire missiles on ours.
I wish you the best of luck

Cheers

 

[Rod Willis]

I personally know nothing about them but found THIS page of mixed reviews

Thanks for the link, the reviews seem positive overall, but I would like to have been able to see the ones that COPTRZ had removed for violating Trustpilot terms ... I suspect they were less than flattering ... I suspect choosing a course may be a bit of a leap in the dark

 

[Rod Willis]

Hi Rod, welcome to the forum. I don't know anything about job potential in the UK. I fell into a construction documentation job a couple of years ago, and it has been a very good job. However getting started in any business is tough today. There are many people that have purchased drones and attempting to make a buck with them, and truthfully from what I'm hearing most of them have a hard time making any decent money.
You have surveying experience and that is where there seems to be some good money, however you will need a drone that can create survey grade mappings, and they don't come cheap. This is a side gig for me, I'm semi retired and was bored, the money I'm making is decent but I wouldn't want to try to live on it, but in all fairness I only work two days a week.
If I were you I would do some market analysis in the area you wish to work, see what opportunities may be available to you.
As for training, I don't know what the UK requirements are, but here in the states it is way too easy to get a commercial drone pilots license, so we have many people with their ticket.
I went to the Avion school in Huntsville, AL, it was taught by ex military guys that taught our army personnel UAV flight skills. We just aren't allowed to carry hellfire missiles on ours.
I wish you the best of luck

Cheers

That's good advice thank you, I'll start researching local opportunities, I don't mind investing/borrowing as long as there are genuine opportunities out there, do you think it's viable to go from very limited flying skills to competent enough with one of these courses? I was tempted to go to the States for training, but sadly that's just another layer of expense that I just don't need

 

[R.Perry]

That's good advice thank you, I'll start researching local opportunities, I don't mind investing/borrowing as long as there are genuine opportunities out there, do you think it's viable to go from very limited flying skills to competent enough with one of these courses? I was tempted to go to the States for training, but sadly that's just another layer of expense that I just don't need

As for flying skills you can develop them on your own. "Practice makes perfect". Practice at altitude and away from obstructions. As for mapping, well that is done autonomously, the greatest danger in that is not remaining focused on your drone. The pilots that have come from the RC aircraft world fly more by watching the drone, for me, I prefer flying by the tablet, but there is also danger in that if you should lose the video on the tablet. When I went to the Avion school I was gigged for remaining focused on the tablet too long and not the drone and they were right. We all develop habits, just make sure they are good ones.

Best of luck to you.