Why ten months of in house drone work billing 7,955 is a case for subcontracting instead
Take a small media and turnover operation that brings aerial work in-house instead of subcontracting it. Startup costs run about 6,800 for the aircraft, four batteries, filters and a hard case, 375 for Part 107 prep and exam fees for one employee, 840 a year for hull and liability coverage, and 240 a year for editing software. Call it 8,255 in year one before a single flight. Over ten months, say 43 paid flights averaging 185 an invoice, for revenue of 7,955. The problem shows up in per-job time rather than the sticker price of the gear. Average drive of 52 minutes each way, flight time 30 to 40 minutes, and editing and delivery about two hours works out to five hours of a loaded employee against a 185 invoice. At a typical loaded pay rate, aerial loses money on every standalone job and only breaks even when the crew is already on site for a full photo shoot. Add in weather reschedules and airspace authorizations that do not clear in time for a listing date, sometimes forcing a refund, and the standalone-booking model gets worse still. What kills the economics is agents calling for aerial only on properties where they have already hired someone else for interiors, meaning an hour of drive time for one 185 line item. The better structure is aerial only as an add-on to a shoot the crew is already driving to, with a hard minimum, say 325, for anything standalone within a modest radius. A certified freelancer who will fly a job for 150 and hand over files is often a better economic answer than owning the aircraft. The gear was never the expensive part, the labor time was.
