Need Help! seeking expert advice in beginning a UAV career

[shaun goucher]

Hello everyone. I am seeking advice from people within the industry about the best way to go about starting a career in the UAV industry. I have a million and one questions and hope to start a dialogue here to try and answer some of these questions for myself and anyone else who would like to join the conversation. I hope that some of you experts out there will participate and volunteer accurate info. Anyone who can speak from experience would be great!

So,just real quick, a little history on my situation. I used to be involved in construction(painting) off and on through my life until this year. Recently I broke my neck and was in hospital for a few months. I will not be able to go back to construction and am temporarily disabled. During this downtime, i would like to dedicate my life to getting proper training and starting a career as a UAV pilot. Here are some of my first initial questions to try and get started:

First and foremost, What is the best route for training? There are UAV specific schools where i could receive certifications from those courses or should i go through university and try to obtain a degree? Which are employers looking for? UAV schools may get me flying quicker, but with a 4 year school, i could learn other aspects like photo/video editing, computer sciences, programming, robotics, security,etc... Remember, i am just starting,so I'm not sure exactly what career path I will take. That is something i will learn as I go.

So,basically my first and most important question is Certification vs. Degree?

Thanks to anyone and everyone who can give good advice!

 

[ChrisRL]

Okay, I'll jump in...

Shaun, hello!
Greetings from the world of pro drone flying!

Okay, you've asked a zillion questions. Mostly I think you've done some online research and have been seduced by the "buy and fly and make money quick" image that people like DJI and Uneeq want you to have. Kinda like Nikon and Canon - "buy this camera and you will be Spielberg, without any fuss or muss! Instantly!"

I think you see where I'm going with this.

The reality is, those good folk are doing what they do - sell you drones.

What you have to do, is try to make money from flying them.

Easier said than done.

Yes, you can, of course, compete on the craigslist market with the kids with Phantoms, and do weddings for $50 a pop.
That is making money, and that, technically, makes you a "pro drone flier", at least in the eyes of the FAA, who would require you to get their 14CFR part 107 certification, plus full insurance coverage (no, the FAA doesn't require that, but your clients-to-be should).

Okay, so now you did your online courses and you spent your money and now you have an FAA certification. It's a paper test, theory only, unlike in other countries where they actually make you take a flying test to ensure you actually know how to fly your drone. But relax! This is America! You can set the drone to Auto and it will fly itself!!! Yay!!

Not really. But let's just skip over the weeks and months it takes to get even the most basic of flying skills for aerial photography and cinematography down, let's forget about the skills of photography and cinematography themselves - which are still all valid skills that need to be learned, despite all these little black or white boxes with their AUTO settings...

So why do people complain about the "needless" complexity of the 107 exam? Because it's in several parts, basically, and only one of those parts has direct implications to drone fliers. All the others refer to pilots and fliers equally, it's the same parts that all other pilots have to take.

But but but but

I'm not a REAL pilot, I just want to fly DRONES!!!

DRONES are toys, right? Not real aircraft!!!

Welcome to the land of teens with Phantoms.

So far we've been pretty lucky. Most mishaps with drones have been into trees, flyaways, crashes-on-takeoffs, and only very few incidents have been recorded with mid-air collisions with other aircraft or crashing into people.

So far.

A drone crashing into a person should be treated just the same as a car crashing into a person. No doubt about it. And, according to this article in the Wall Street Journal, it already has been.

Okay, so you get through that lot, and buy yourself a very small Hubsan X4 or Nano XL and fly your patterns, walk-the-dogs, nose outs and nose ins, and really practice. That's at least a battery (around 5-8 minutes on those baby drones) a day, every day. That's how I, and a lot of other pilots, recommend you start. You didn't start riding a bicycle by watching a Youtube video and going "cool, I can do that", did you? Hope not.

The other reason you start small is it's an easy and inexpensive transition from the dream ("you can FLY!!" The drone flies itself!! Just hit this button!!! Yay!!! Oops... where's it going? Flyaway!! Bad rogue drone!! I want my money back!!!") and the reality. Flying ain't natural, and it ain't easy.

And remote flying is, if anything, harder than real flying. Just wait until you lose signal or GPS or vision or any of those deluxe cruise control dealies in the middle of a flight if you don't believe me.

And be prepared to crash, lose drones, all of that, and often, in the beginning. Which is why people say start with the baby $50 drones. Then move up if you can live with the technology and the hassle and the repetition and the boredom/terror of being a pilot. Try it for real and see first.

Then look around and see who else is in your area, competing with you.

There aren't any full-time jobs flying drones, except for in drone companies. There aren't any degrees in drone flying (yet, but give them time), only certificates.

The full-time jobs (many of which do require degrees) include fire spotter, agriculture mapper, construction monitor, geological surveyor, power grid inspector, and any of those professions that, as time goes by, start to use drones instead of putting humans up long ladders or down deep holes just to take measurements of things.

So if you're already into construction, then get into that trade, site inspector, surveyor, quantifier etc., and bring your drone with you. That will be your full-time professional gig that then will allow the occasional wedding, music video, real estate shoot's few hundred bucks a shoot to earn you your jam instead of you having to worry about how you will make your bread and butter doing this.

If you're really into drones, and you really want to get a degree that will make you a full-time drone person, then I'd suggest either avionics or computer programming and/or hardware tech/development. Degrees like that will make working for a drone manufacturer or a drone software company a shoo-in, pretty-much. There are many, many software and hardware developers who thought designing drones and drone systems was easy - only to spend over two years just to get the thing to hover without moving. Looks easy, right? See a trend yet?

As to what drones to fly, I'd get a bunch, fly them, work them, shoot shots, then sell the ones you don't like and keep your favorites. Questions like "which drone is best?" are best answered like this - what's the best? A knife, a spoon or a fork? Or "which car is best?" A Ferrari or a 16-wheeler?
Kinda sorta like all those endless discussions about "which 4k camera is best?", right?

In the end, it's just you and the knowledge that's in your head, and in your hands and eyes. That's about it.

We'll get to the business side of things later, if you want.

JM2c, HTH, YMMV etc.

Best
Chris

 

[ChrisRL]

BTW, if you think that drones are toys, and not real aircraft, read this:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/ntsb-rules-drones-are-aircraft-and-subject-to-faa-rules-1416326767

 

[John Doecliff]

Don't be afraid to build a drone as well. Kits are pretty cheap compared to a finished machine and knowing the components and how they interact will make you a better pilot. There is a lot to know about lipo batteries, radios, cameras, FPV systems etc. I would also recommend to read, read, and read. Forums, web sites, peruse vendor websites and look at products, watch you tube videos, ask questions, Make it your business to understand thoroughly. Stick time is important but so is understanding how things work before your in the air. I'm on a DJI Mavic forum and its surprising how many guys just forked over the cash and bought their Mavic and don't really know that much about a lot of important things that go with it. I didn't know what an ESC was when I first started out but I kept seeing people talking about them so I knew it must be important, I finally looked it up. LOL.

 

[ChrisRL]

What I did (and still do today) to start was as John said, but with a twist - I bought crashed DJI drones, some for pennies on the dollar (a friend just gave me a crashed Phantom 2 vision plus, for instance) and put them back together again. Same deal, same education, but the components on a bespoke machine like a DJI are slightly different from those available separately. Usually, for instance, the power distribution board (that the battery hooks up to) feeds one ESC per motor and prop, but in the Phantoms, the power board feeds two other boards, each with two ESCs built into it.
Yes, a lot to learn, and in this instance, YouTube definitely will help!

Best
Chris

 

[Old Man]

Having just retired, which came after a 12.5 year career in commercial/military UAV operations and R&D, the path companies are taking requires applicants have a professional degree to get hired. Some of those companies are highly supportive of collegiate institutions that provide courses and degrees in unmanned systems and robotics. Any degree an applicant has will be the difference between becoming a technician with limited career potential and a professional position as an operator with an ability to move up into department management positions. The difference in compensation is considerable, as is how you are viewed by upper level personnel.

There is much more to large scale commercial UAV operations than just flying them. The culture supports departments in engineering, safety, flight and maintenance training, maintenance, business management, logistics, production, flight operations, incident investigations, sales and marketing, and others. Some of the areas may require a security clearance so your back ground will matter.

Ultimately, education will be your greatest asset. Previous experience with small, hobby grade sUAS carries little weight in the qualification process these days. Companies will hire and train inexperienced candidates that have scholastic experience/professional degrees that fit their business goals much faster than candidates without a degree. The field is very competitive.

Good luck!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ChrisRL]

+1 for Old Man!
Totally agreed. If you just plan on flying around, that's like a pilot without an airline.
Which is great for some, not for others.

If your ultimate objective is to be in upper management with a corporate career, managing other pilots and occasionally flying yourself, then yes, by all means, you must have a great education, preferably join the military and fly UAVs, get thousands of hours of flight in, or get a commercial pilot's license and maybe a UAV rating on the side. Then go fly for an airline to get that experience as well.
Then, going to UAV operations is going to be much easier, since, as Old Man has said, it's that corporate mentality that rules the roost in those companies.

However, be aware the if you just want to fly drones, you won't be doing much of that after your "stick time" is done and you move up to the "more than the flying" aspects of corporate life.

 

[dark_star]

Hi Shawn. First and foremost I wish you success and the best of luck. But that said, I laugh every time I read about projected job growth in the 'drone' industry. There is money to be made but the business went from zero to sixty in a flash and, with that, it's already saturated with people who figured it would be a cool way to make money in a new, exciting industry. The comments above about $50 weddings are not inaccurate. And while some people do make a decent living doing filming or photography via UAS, it's rare and becoming harder and harder. Even enterprise operations are now offering low pay for UAS pilots. The most genuine advice I can offer you is this: if you snapped your fingers today and it instantly made you part 107 certified, you had $2million in UAS liability insurance, you had at least two high quality UAS platforms, two high quality payloads (cameras, sensors, etc), who would hire you? Who will you market yourself too? How will you deal with the guys who always undercut your rates? How do you seperate yourself from the pack? Can you separate yourself from the pack? I've done this a little while now and these questions are 100% real and very important.