Ten months of in-house drone work billed $7,955, so I'm shutting it down

$375 for the exam and prep seems low compared to what I've seen advertised. Was that just the test fee plus a course, or did you count study time?

I'd push back on the conclusion, @cobalt. You proved that standalone aerial at $185 with an hour of windshield time doesn't pay. That isn't the same as proving aerial doesn't pay. On raw land the aerial is the listing. I've bought parcels sight unseen off good aerial and I've skipped parcels because the aerial showed a power easement cutting the buildable spot in half. Somebody is getting paid well for that work. It just isn't the person driving an hour for $185.

So the number that matters is jobs per trip, not price per job. That reframes a lot of what I've been reading about service businesses generally.

Roofs. Every contractor I've worked with would pay for a set of overhead stills before they put a ladder up, and the ones who bid a lot of storm work would pay monthly. That's local, repeat, no listing date pressure, and no interior photographer competing for the same job. You'd be delivering imagery only, though. The minute a client wants a condition assessment out of it you're in territory where licensing rules differ by state and you'd want to check yours before you print anything on letterhead.

@girder that's the version of this I keep circling. The marketing side seems to be where everyone crowds in because it's the visible part, and the inspection and mapping side is where the same equipment earns without depending on someone's listing calendar. @cobalt did any of your 43 flights come from a non-listing source?

Five hours for $185 is $37 an hour before the gear, insurance and software. I'd have wanted to know that number before spending $6,800, and I don't say that to be smug, I've made the same shape of mistake with a rental.

For what it's worth, nobody has ever asked me for aerial on a four unit building. From above it's a roof and a parking pad. The value seems to start somewhere around acreage or a view worth pointing at.

Aerial is most of how I screen land before I drive it. Tree cover, water, how the road actually meets the frontage. I'd pay real money for that on a parcel I'm serious about and I'd pay nothing for it on a suburban lot. Different buyer, different product, same drone.

What is the authorization you mentioned for controlled airspace? I've read the term a few times now and I still don't have a clear picture of who grants it or how long it takes.

How much you actually fly it is the whole story. 43 flights over ten months is roughly one a week, and each one consumed five hours of a person you pay full time. Even at $325 standalone you'd be at $65 an hour gross with no allowance for the 14 reschedules, which are unpaid hours somebody scheduled around. The business only works at a much higher flights-per-day count or with a freelancer who eats the idle time himself. Subcontracting is the right call and it isn't a retreat, it's moving a fixed cost to variable.

Practical question since I'm working toward this from the other side. Was the $840 an annual policy or could you have bought per-flight coverage on the days you actually flew? A freelancer taking $150 a flight from you can't carry an annual policy on those volumes.

You were underpriced by about half and you found the drive radius the hard way. Five years in on my side and the pattern is the same for every service line: the first year you price against what other people advertise, the second year you price against your own clock. $325 minimum inside 25 miles is right. I'd add a travel line beyond that instead of refusing the job, because the far ones are often the acreage listings that actually need aerial.

@cobalt the thing I'd salvage is the certificate. You paid $375 and ten months of practice to put a certified pilot on your team. Even if you stop selling standalone flights, being able to say yes when a developer client asks is worth something when you're bidding a whole marketing package. Dropping the gear and keeping the person is a different decision than dropping the service.

The aerial requests that come across my desk are almost all vacant land or a commercial pad, maybe four times a year. I send them to a freelancer and take nothing. If you want that pipeline it's yours, and it will not fill five hours a week.