Congratulations, you are now part of the commercial drone industry. According to Grand View Research,the global commercial drone market is anticipated to be worth $501.4 Billion by 2028 across a wide range of sectors.
This includes areas such as:
- Public Safety
- Real Estate
- Agriculture
- Inspections
- Media
As a commercial drone pilot you are free to work in multiple industries or you can specialize in
a particular sector. In this article we are going to explore common industries to find work as a drone pilot.
Real Estate Market In The Drone Industry
Drone pilot work hand in hand with realtors by providing realtors with aerial stills, videos, and
3D maps curated from data captured by drones. Commercial drone pilots give buyers a bird’s eye view and comprehensive perspective of the property. As a drone pilot in the real estate industry you can expect to complete the following missions.
Types Of Real Estate Market Missions Commercial Drone Pilots Typical Fly In:
- Homes, communities, housing developments
- Malls, shopping centers, business complexes (commercial real estate)
- Hotels, pools, and related facilities at resorts
- Large estates that cover big areas of land
- Golf courses
2. Work In The Inspection Industry
Drones are revolutionizing the industrial inspection industry by providing high quality data captured safer and quicker than traditional methods. Businesses are able to conduct inspections for damage and malfunctions with the help of high definition cameras, sensors without putting workers in danger. In the inspection industry you can expect to inspect tall buildings, wind turbines, power lines, pipelines, warehouses and tanks on a regular basis.
Inspection Industry Missions Commercial Drone Pilots Typical Fly In:
- Agriculture Industry Inspection
- Chemical Industry Inspection
- Infrastructure & Utilities
- Power Generation
- Maritime Drone Inspection
- Sewer Water Treatment
3. Public Safety Industry Options
Of all the sectors in the drone industry, the public safety sector has experienced substantial growth. A study from Bard’s Center for the Study for the Drone found that, as of March 2020, there are over 1500 public safety agencies using drones. This includes fire departments, police, and search and rescue organizations. In fire departments, drones are used to enhance situational awareness during fires. Drones can also be used for creating orthomosaic maps of local schools and other buildings and facilities to get a better understanding of all the exit points just in case of a fire.
Law enforcement also uses drones in a similar manner and helps evacuate people during emergencies such as an active shooter situation, floods, hurricane, and even severe storms to locate victims in need of emergency assistance.
Public Safety Industry Missions Commercial Drone Pilots Typical Fly In:
- Crime scene mapping
- Search and rescue
- Traffic management and accident reconstruction
- Real-time situational awareness for dealing w/ bombs and hazardous materials
- Evaluating damage after a disaster
- Emergency deliveries
- Pre-fire planning
- Creating training materials
4. Drones In Agriculture
Farmers are using drones to survey their crops to areas of their crops that need more attention. Using drones for this task is much faster and efficient than walking the entire farm on foot. As a commercial drone pilot one of the most common deliverable provided to farmer is a NDVI
( Normalized Difference Vegetation Index map). These maps are used to identify what plant is growing where on a piece of land, as well as tell how well each plant is doing. New technology makes it possible to process raw data collected by drones to create reports and suggestions for farmers. Overall work in agriculture is fairly intuitive and straightforward. A general mission doesn’t require specialized skills beyond being a commercial drone pilot.
Public Safety Industry Missions Commercial Drone Pilots Typical Fly In:
- Creating NDVI maps to monitor the health of various crops in a farmer’s field.
- Creating orthomosaic and other maps to monitor turf management in a field.
- Using drone data to evaluate the health of plants under various conditions.
- Creating drainage and floodplain maps to predict where water will run off, and also where pesticides might be diverted by
the natural shape of the land.
5. Drones In The Journalism
Drones have become an essential tool in the media, with aerial shots captured by drones helping to illustrate the scope of the story that’s being told. Drones are commonly used to help the public understand flood damage of a particular area, scope of wildfires or capture size of a crowd. The skill set required to use drones in journalism may vary case by case. Generally you may need to have skills in videography, and photography.
Journalism Industry Missions Commercial Drone Pilots Typical Fly In:
- Disaster reporting—Filming wildfires, floods, storms, hurricanes, tornadoes, and other disaster scenarios.
- Breaking news events—Filming active shooter, hostage scenarios, collapsed buildings, and other live reporting events.
- Traffic reporting—Aerial footage of traffic and accidents.
- Documentary work—Landscape / wildlife work, cityscape work, or other scenarios where an aerial perspective can help to tell a story.
- Investigative reporting—Using a drone to collect key information for a story
- Photojournalism—Artistic, high-quality stills and video to tell a story.
Want to find more job opportunities in the drone industry?
There is no better time than now to enter the drone industry. Browse our careers section to view drone pilot job postings or join our pilot network.
5 Profitable Opportunities In The Drone Industry
1. Work for the Emergency Services
Of all the sectors no industry has grown faster in the adoption of drones than the emergency sector. This includes police, fire services and search and rescue organisations. Thermal cameras in particular have become a real game-changer such as the Parrot Anafi Thermal which combines an RGB image alongside a thermal image which helps assist emergency operations.
Police and Fire services around the UK are moving toward having internal drone teams but still use external pilots on occasions where they don’t have the funding for enterprise level equipment. You
may want to apply to become a drone operator within an internal drone team or you could offer
your services to organisations in your area as a hire service. To do this we advise that you upskill in Thermography and learn to use a Thermal camera.
2. Work In Media
Anyone can buy a drone, fly it and take basic photographs but to work in media you will need additional training to perfect your aerial photography and videography skills. Being a drone camera operator for professional, cinematic projects like the likes of Phillip Bloom requires experience, additional training and attention to detail. Working in media is technically-demanding and requires a unique skill set, however nothing stops you from starting an agency that hires out such people to the local film industry. Outsourcing is a great way to leverage skills from others so you don’t lose the work. Even if you aren’t
the right person to actually do the job you can be a comfortable middleman! Alternatively, you could upskill yourself as a cinematic drone pilot with a Drone Filming and Imagery Masterclass.
A second option is to monetise your incredible videos and photographs. Every minute your drone isn’t in the air it’s not making you any money. Content is king on the web today and if you build up a quality library you can earn a steady passive income on sites such as Shutterstock, Unsplash and iStock. Specialising will help streamline your content production, for example you might focus on nature, or architecture. Finally, if there is a special or notable event going on where you live, cover it and sell the stock footage or photos to news outlets or those willing to pay for quality content.
3. Become a drone instructor
& consultant
Now you are a qualified commercial drone pilot with quality flight time under your belt why not use your expertise to train beginner pilots. With the industry booming there is no shortage of people wanting to get into the game of flying drones. But, as you’ll well know, learning to operate a drone safely and comply with all the laws and regulations can be a daunting experience. You could help newbie pilots get through all the red-tape, purchase equipment, learn to fly their drone and apply for the training courses needed to get them well on the road to becoming a commercial pilot. Make sure that you consider whether you will enjoy this process as you’ll need bags of patience, knowledge and charisma to make it work.
4. Work in inspection
Drones have revolutionized the industrial inspection sector by providing high quality data capture quicker and safer than traditional methods. Technology such as high definition cameras, sensors and confined space drones are allowing businesses to conduct inspections for damage and malfunctions without putting the workforce in danger.
Tall buildings, wind turbines, power lines, pipelines, warehouses and tanks are all regularly
checked to ensure there are no faults or damages. Dependent on the regularity of these
inspections businesses may or may not have an internal drone team. If they don’t they’ll be
open to hiring freelance drone pilots for regular work which is a great opportunity to perform a
valuable service.
Make sure you look into the certification you’ll need in order to become an outsourced inspector
as this is regulated differently in every country. Safety of the inspection team is vital and most
important to a company.
5. Event coverage
If there’s some big event going on in your town or city then why not offer your services as a flying event coverage pilot. There is nothing that the millennial demographic enjoy more than attending an event and watching footage back days later. The event managers themselves will use the coverage to report on the success of the event and also to market future events.
Areas of event interest could be sporting events, music concerts and gigs or one-off spectacles in your area.
A booming market is that of wedding aerial photography, millennial couples today want a
video reel from their special day as well as the photos. Team up with an experienced wedding
photographer and offer an aerial view of their special day to show off the location. For this type
of drone photography, you might benefit from some additional training to ensure your content
is competitive and high-quality. On COPTRZ Drone Filming and Imagery Masterclass you’ll learn pre-flight best practices, shooting strategies, shot setup and framing and post-processing tactics that will enable you to offer a higher standard of data to your commercial clients.