Yeah, and even though they lured everyone in with promises of a guaranteed $500 per day, now they will cherry pick only those that admitted they would work for a mere $200 a day, should they ever really have an "URGENT Request!" It's a reverse auction, and a race to the bottom!
You got it right ! a good way to find those willing to work for squat and get emails and other info ! . once i saw the rate sheet and what you would expect i knew something was up
They did the same thing on the CommercialPilots.com forum, claiming to have an URGENT NEED for power line inspectors at $500 per tower, but requiring all applicants to first complete a $2000 one week training class at their location at your expense, to be qualified to apply. The Scam Alerts were through the roof!
Agreed. My main point is the same one you are making, too. It's a race to the bottom, and while $500 a day jobs may exist, they are rare, and quickly and easily filled, while the vast majority of other drone jobs are paying $200 a day or less, because hobbyists can easily get a 107 and are happy to just make enough money to pay for batteries and beer. It's a hard way to make a living, but a fun hobby.
Agreed. My main point is the same one you are making, too. It's a race to the bottom, and while $500 a day jobs may exist, they are rare, and quickly and easily filled, while the vast majority of other drone jobs are paying $200 a day or less, because hobbyists can easily get a 107 and are happy to just make enough money to pay for batteries and beer. It's a hard way to make a living, but a fun hobby.
I think you misunderstand the posters. It was the mandatory application which required stating a minimum day rate for contact by FDS for work, that allowed FDS to harvest those willing to work for $200 a day while advertising $500 a day. Why would FDS hire anyone at $500 a day when they have found others who will do the same work for $200 a day and FDS can then pocket the $300 a day difference, plus their usual fee, as the project contractor? The work will always go those willing to do it for the least amount of money, in a race to the bottom.
Sean, I'm curious as to the type of drone you use to fly tower operations
Hello @skiptv. I can assure you that this was not a marketing campaign or a joke of any type at all. The goal was never to collect a list of people to market to - we already pay to sponsor 5 of the pilot forums if we want to simply reach people with announcements of sales, etc. We are from a state that finds itself either threatened to be in the path of many hurricanes - or actually affected by hurricanes that make landfall in the SE part of the US. When a storm is predicted to make landfall at a catastrophic level and we are asked to prepare as many pilots as possible to help in the recovery efforts of power and communications we accept the challenge and rise to the occasion. Do we wish we could have deployed everyone who wanted to help in the recovery efforts - of course we do. Do we wish that at the expense of the residents of the Carolinas - most definitely not. Did we collect 1000s of pilots names who wanted to help - no we did not. Maybe we have reached the people that want to assist from prior storms. Last year we had people out with power companies and telecom companies assisting with the recovery efforts. Most people who worked on those projects volunteered to help again - and contrary to the opinion of some in this thread, this year's pay was going to be a little more than last year's pay. Not because people wouldn't have done it for less - many people would volunteer to help without pay in these scenarios - but because our experience, our ability to quickly manage and deploy resources to the areas that were projected to need it and our reputation as a reliable source of qualified pilots allowed us to make that happen.
While other companies may do something like this, this is not accurate from our perspective. We do not send work to the pilots to "bid" on. It pays what it pays regardless of what a pilot's personal minimum might be.
Agreed - and thank you. We just completed multiple tower projects and power line contracts and pilots made well in excess of those numbers. The work is certainly not for everyone - towers and power lines require an above average level of skill and calm nerves - but the financial portion has worked out well for many.
I agree with you on this one. For us its about accepting the right kind of jobs. Locally we will accept some real estate work but try to have pilots do a few different locations for the day to get into the $500 - $800 range.Agreed. My main point is the same one you are making, too. It's a race to the bottom, and while $500 a day jobs may exist, they are rare, and quickly and easily filled, while the vast majority of other drone jobs are paying $200 a day or less, because hobbyists can easily get a 107 and are happy to just make enough money to pay for batteries and beer. It's a hard way to make a living, but a fun hobby.
Maybe you could add some clarity to how you get paid by the entities that hire you, if isn't on a flat day rate per pilot, which you then outsource at a much lower rate, to make a profit. If the job only pays $500 per day per pilot, and you pay out $500 per day per pilot, how do you stay in business as a project contractor? What am I missing? How do you arrive at the day rate that you will pay the pilots?
