Before someone hires you to work on a movie, you must create a portfolio of work that attracts attention. Landing a job as a drone operator in the film industry requires a high level of proficiency in drone cinematography. If you are a skilled videographer able to operate a UAV, you can pull in $200-400 per hour for short shoots and as much as $2,000 on the high end for a full day. Hollywood offers some of the most lucrative drone jobs if you want to make the big bucks for flying a drone. However, if you’re already working in the public sector and wish to add drone pilot to your job description, obtain a Part 107 license and learn some related skills like drone mapping as you improve your drone flying. It’s unlikely that these agencies would hire someone specifically for their ability to fly a drone. Law enforcement agencies and fire departments usually train their employees to operate their unmanned aircraft. You likely won’t find freelance work in the public safety sector. If working your way up the company ladder isn’t your style, try learning specialized skills like capturing and processing 3D scans for environmental mapping to increase your value to these companies. Skilled pilots that know how to work with 3D mapping technology can charge as much as $500 per hour.įreelance work is less frequent in these industries, as mining and construction companies often purchase their own drones and train their employees on how to operate them. A beginner pilot can expect to charge $50 per hour for land survey work. Construction and mining drone jobsĬonstruction and mining companies often pay high rates for their drone use. However, once you’re established, you can introduce yourself to local insurance companies to offer your services. Branching out on your own may be more difficult. Getting started with DroneBase is as simple as creating a profile on the company’s website. An aerial capture for insurance can take between 20 and 30 minutes. Drone jobs in the insurance industryĭroneBase, a company that connects insurance companies with freelance drone pilots, pays a flat rate of $70 per flight.

Still, highly experienced drone operators can charge as much as $200 per hour. Basic services, such as real-estate photography, can start as low as $25 per hour. The compensation for commercial drone services can range widely depending on the type of work you’re doing. Photo by Shalom de León on Unsplash How much do drone pilots make? Public safety (fire department, law enforcement).Here is a brief list of some of the industries that use drones most often. There are many use cases for remote pilots operating unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

Many people have built freelance businesses around operating drones, while others find that the skill to fly a drone comes in handy as a supplement to their full-time job. The plan still needs to go to the county council for approval and the council is likely to hold hearings on the plan once it’s submitted.The number of industries that use drones is more significant than you may expect. Tuesday’s meeting gets underway at 7 p.m. 'Not to be over my backyard or something like that,' one resident said. Officials say their $350,000 pilot program could start next year and fly 911 drones up to two miles from rooftop launch pads in Wheaton and Silver Spring.įOX 5 heard mixed opinions about police expanding their use of drones. Police currently use drones for incidents like fugitive searches, fires, traffic crashes and missing persons. We don’t have the time or the energy to be following people around so we want to focus on crime and safety,' said Montgomery County police Capt.

'There are privacy concerns there should be questions and we welcome those questions and we’ve thought about it a lot. Montgomery County police say they recognize that this could cause worry among residents but say the focus of the program is crime, not surveillance. I mean, where are we headed? Where are we headed with that?' one neighbor said. 'I wouldn’t drone hovering around, nobody wants that. 'There’s certainly legitimate use of police drones like if somebody’s lost in the woods or in an emergency but we do need to put some guardrails around it or we’re going to be having police drones flying everywhere all the time,' said Jay Stanley with the ACLU.Īnd some Montgomery County residents agree.

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