Drone for commercial use

[sh4mar]

Ok but what about inspections for an electrical company

 

[RVD98072]

Lots of interesting thoughts here:

1) I would stay away from weddings. They are high stress and once in a lifetime (usually) events so you will have a pissed off bride if you mess it up in any way (you were taking video of one section when action happened in another section, etc.).

2) You need to charge a minimum (i.e., it makes no sense to get paid $30 to go somewhere to take 1 picture). A $250 or so minimum is probably about right.

3) For weed, it could be dangerous if there is anyone out there who wants to protect their crop (and may try to shoot you down). You need to be somewhat close to the ground so that they can tell whether it is weed or not. I would charge at least the price of a new drone for this and state that they have to pay your fee even if your drone gets shot down / attacked.

4) You can charge a little bit for post processing or no fee if they just want the raw footage.

Good luck!

 

[steveeds]

"Ok but what about inspections for an electrical company"

What are they after? are you talking about tie offs on demo sites

And were you really talking about monitoring drug growth "weed" I dismissed this, I think you are talking about gorse etc monitoring on farms?

 

[steveeds]

By the way monitoring "weed" isn't a business it's an illegal enterprise.

 

[sh4mar]

By the way monitoring "weed" isn't a business it's an illegal enterprise.

No not monitoring weed. It's a company that has to check for weed plantations to destroy and bust the people associated so they wanted the drone to fly over the area to see whether there's weed on the hillsides

 

[steveeds]

Well that sounds like a good earner, I would do that.

This would be a slightly risky proposition so would charge accordingly, don't think cheap and write in a few provisions for potential damage that may or may not occur.

 

[steveeds]

Just thinking as an added service, you can buy outdoor stationary cameras (I have sold four of them myself) so when a plantation is found you place them, these work, I set them them up for a single shot and 4 second video on motion detect.
They write to a SD card and we have caught a few people, they are camouflaged and the new ones have infrared at a higher freq so it can't be seen.

Perhaps draft a service offer and service contract with partitioned pricing.

 

[kirk2579]

FAA Giidelines

Model aircraft operations are for hobby or recreational purposes only.

The FAA has partnered with several industry associations to promote Know Before You Fly, a campaign to educate the public about using unmanned aircraft safely and responsibly. Individuals flying for hobby or recreation are strongly encouraged to follow safety guidelines, which include:

Fly below 400 feet and remain clear of surrounding obstaclesKeep the aircraft within visual line of sight at all timesRemain well clear of and do not interfere with manned aircraft operationsDon't fly within 5 miles of an airport unless you contact the airport and control tower before flyingDon't fly near people or stadiumsDon't fly an aircraft that weighs more than 55 lbsDon't be careless or reckless with your unmanned aircraft – you could be fined for endangering people or other aircraft

The statutory parameters of a model aircraft operation are outlined in Section 336 of Public Law 112-95 (the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012) (PDF). Individuals who fly within the scope of these parameters do not require permission to operate their UAS; any flight outside these parameters (including any non-hobby, non-recreational operation) requires FAA authorization. For example, using a UAS to take photos for your personal use is recreational; using the same device to take photographs or videos for compensation or sale to another individual would be considered a non-recreational operation.

Sometimes we forget the US rules are NOT the worlds rules!

 

[BigAl07]

No not monitoring weed. It's a company that has to check for weed plantations to destroy and bust the people associated so they wanted the drone to fly over the area to see whether there's weed on the hillsides

Keep in mind that depending on where you live and the current "regulations" you may not be allowed to perform this task even just to gather information to go further. If "Drone Surveillance" isn't allowed without a search warrant using one could jeopardize an entire court case. Defense Attorneys would eat that up and use it to discredit evidence etc that was obtained there after.

Just go into it with your eyes open and I wouldn't build a business model around that type of action unless you can make sure it will work long term.

 

[sh4mar]

Sometimes we forget the US rules are NOT the worlds rules!

Exactly there aren't any laws here where I am

 

[BigAl07]

Exactly there aren't any laws here where I am

Just make sure you include enough in your rates to offset for a lost unit. Weed growers are quick to shoot when they think someone or something is jeopardizing their profits and freedom. Make the job pay more than the risk involved.

 

[RVD98072]

regarding weed surveillance (which is the most interesting part of your venture), as i said earlier...definitely charge a risk premium for this one...at least the cost of a new unit but probably more like $2k or so would be my recommendation. you need to get somewhat close to see if it's really weed and not something else.

search warrants are not your problem...if the owner has already been doing this with helicopters then he probably already has them if needed or he doesn't care about them. either way, not your problem.

 

[sh4mar]

Just make sure you include enough in your rates to offset for a lost unit. Weed growers are quick to shoot when they think someone or something is jeopardizing their profits and freedom. Make the job pay more than the risk involved.

Well they said they pay 600 us for a chopper but I k ow the hourly rate is 2k usd an hour but they probably don't use all that time