I wasn't going to comment but the salaries mentioned for just drone operators are not possible in the UK. Drones can be had for relatively low money nowadays but thats not to say they aren't any good. Most will produce 4k HD footage and the higher up the scale, the better the picture quality, with an ever increasing number of higher end cameras available now.
Even FLIR are available for your Inspire drones etc.
The training organisations are churning out drone operators at a rate of over 100 a month in the UK. The work isnt there to make it sustainable, but the guys teaching, who got in first, are making up to and sometimes over £40k a month. (thats a fact
).
How long it'll last? who knows, but usually just until people realise there's no work to be had, and spending £000's on training and a drone and insurance and permit for aerial work etc, are just too much risk. Mind you, people have been paying for helicopter licences for years with the same situation. Until recently I was giving people basic training but I realised I was talking them out of paying for a full course of £800-1000.
Right now the drone market is becoming saturated and unless you specialise and have some decent contracts, you'll struggle to make any money. Even farmers are getting qualified and using their own drones now for mapping and crop quality purposes etc.
Estate agents using a drone in the UK for aerial pictures of houses etc are required to hold a PfAW from the CAA. Anyone utilising a drone for any sort of commercial gain has to be qualified and approved. How they get permission and proximity permissios for some jobs i'll never know. I was asked to quote on a job two weeks ago to do some boat filming for a supply boat company. It was an all day job, 150 miles away. Site inspections required of the dock area. Higher risk of losing drone over the open sea when out on the boats. Higher skill level required due to the fact drone compasses dont like metal structures, hence manual flying and landings back on a moving deck. My quote was shot down as being extortionate. I said good luck to the company.
In fact, that job made me decide to give up the drone flying commercially, because im just not prepared to earn £50-100 for something which would cost me 3x more than that. Picture editing takes time. Video editing takes time. The software costs money. the drones require nuemrous batteries and charging and at £125+ a battery, requiring 5-10 batteries for a shoot all adds up. Yes someone will be able to do the job cheaply i'm sure but the overheads alone just arent worth it.
Rant over
