EDIT - 11/07/18 - quick update/summary in the original post.
I started a business in late 2015/early 2016, got an exemption 333, and partnered up with two other people (agronomist & commercial pilot). We started getting quite a bit of work doing multispectral agriculture flights, but most of it was R&D working for universities of government projects and I didn't see it lasting. I started looking for engineering/surveying customers and ended up getting hired on by one of them after performing a few jobs for them. I felt that this was the right decision to make because A.) They're a multi-discipline firm and they could teach me a lot about potential applications for drones, and B.) the other two guys I was working with weren't pulling their weight and I felt that we were squandering opportunity. I figured that I'd try working for this firm for a year and if I was unhappy, at least I'd have gained a deeper understanding of surveying/engineering and could put that knowledge to use with my business. I've been here for a little over two years now and have been happy with the company and the people I work with. We now have 5 people licensed to fly across the pacific NW, with 4 more studying for the test. I consider myself lucky to have gotten this position, and developing methods to fit drones into exisiting workflows by working side by side with surveyors/engineers is an insanely valuable experience that most other people doing what I'm doing haven't been able to benefit from. I was initially concerned that I made the wrong choice by essentially abandoning my business just as we making enough to let me quit my main job, but that concern is gone now.
EDIT- 8/29/16 - The exemption 333 requirement for commercial operations is no longer needed, as of today. The new requirement is a UAS operator certificate, outlined in Part 107.
I made a thread in the business & finance forum for a project I was looking for help on, specifically building an Indiegogo campaign to help start fund a business for drones. My main interest is using them for work, which is emergency medical & firefighting. Since then, I've spent enough time reading to be comfortable building my own platform and I thought I'd share some info with the RR community. Information and developments on this hobby/business/technology is advancing VERY quick and I'd love to have more people from rerolled involved.
I'll try to keep a good, updated list of the resources I use in the OP and update periodically with my personal project(s).
*If anyone wants to "participate" without making any kind of financial commitment, download mission plannerhere. Telemetry logs (like the one in the first screenshot) can be easily shared and have a ridiculous amount of information in them.
edit Feb2016 - I never really clarified that I decided not to do any kind of crowdfunding because I didn't want it to be directly tied to the fire department. Also, I started figuring out that a lot of what I was trying to do could be done with a lot less money and a lot more soldering & late nights. Info below needs to be updated, I'll try to get on that soon.
Drone Communities:
DIY Drones-THEresource for drones/uavs/uas. The founder of DIY drones is Chris Anderson, who went on to create 3DRobotics. 3DR has some of the more affordable ready-to-fly platforms for aerial mapping, like the X8-M and Aero-M. Last week, 3DR also introduced a new quadcopter.
FlightRiotWhile there are forums on flightriot, they're pretty inactive. The website is more of a blog with some great information from one guy that has building DIY mapping platforms. I've spent a lot of time following tips and videos from geobduffy on this website. I also had a few conversations with him on the phone and was about to buy one of his personal mapping kits, before I decided to build one my self.
RCgroupsThe most active RC community on the web. Once you start getting deeper into the flight controller/autopilot software, you won't find a lot of support here, but it is a great resource for general info and tips on different hardware.
FPVlabSame as above, but with a focus on video equipment, as well as long range capabilities (1-8km, up to and over 25km)
Other sites:
Public LabOpen source community dealing with a lot of information on cameras, NDVI imaging and drone mapping.
CHDK WikiCanon Hack Development Kit wiki - amazing tool for canon cameras
APM WikiArdupilot wiki (copters). Ardupilot is the software I use for my fixed-wing UAV. There are many flight controllers out there, but I decided to go with APM and a Pixhawk(3DR) clone(HKPilot32).
FAA UAS pageFootdraggers
DroneDeployI don't have any experience with dronedeploy, but they just launched services recently. If I get a camera that they support, or if they add support for the canon S100, I'll give them a shot.
Phone apps- I have an android, but I think all of these are available I , iPhone as well.
Hover- I mainly use this for a general estimate on wind, but I've also been using it to log flights. You can email the flight log to yourself with GPS cords and weather conditions.
Survey-it - create a grid and return price estimate on a per acre basis. There might be a better option, but I haven't looked yet.
3Dr services- Required for tower
Tower- phone and tablet mission planner.
Feel free to suggest any links to add to this post. I'll update below with my project.
I started a business in late 2015/early 2016, got an exemption 333, and partnered up with two other people (agronomist & commercial pilot). We started getting quite a bit of work doing multispectral agriculture flights, but most of it was R&D working for universities of government projects and I didn't see it lasting. I started looking for engineering/surveying customers and ended up getting hired on by one of them after performing a few jobs for them. I felt that this was the right decision to make because A.) They're a multi-discipline firm and they could teach me a lot about potential applications for drones, and B.) the other two guys I was working with weren't pulling their weight and I felt that we were squandering opportunity. I figured that I'd try working for this firm for a year and if I was unhappy, at least I'd have gained a deeper understanding of surveying/engineering and could put that knowledge to use with my business. I've been here for a little over two years now and have been happy with the company and the people I work with. We now have 5 people licensed to fly across the pacific NW, with 4 more studying for the test. I consider myself lucky to have gotten this position, and developing methods to fit drones into exisiting workflows by working side by side with surveyors/engineers is an insanely valuable experience that most other people doing what I'm doing haven't been able to benefit from. I was initially concerned that I made the wrong choice by essentially abandoning my business just as we making enough to let me quit my main job, but that concern is gone now.
EDIT- 8/29/16 - The exemption 333 requirement for commercial operations is no longer needed, as of today. The new requirement is a UAS operator certificate, outlined in Part 107.
I made a thread in the business & finance forum for a project I was looking for help on, specifically building an Indiegogo campaign to help start fund a business for drones. My main interest is using them for work, which is emergency medical & firefighting. Since then, I've spent enough time reading to be comfortable building my own platform and I thought I'd share some info with the RR community. Information and developments on this hobby/business/technology is advancing VERY quick and I'd love to have more people from rerolled involved.
I'll try to keep a good, updated list of the resources I use in the OP and update periodically with my personal project(s).
*If anyone wants to "participate" without making any kind of financial commitment, download mission plannerhere. Telemetry logs (like the one in the first screenshot) can be easily shared and have a ridiculous amount of information in them.
edit Feb2016 - I never really clarified that I decided not to do any kind of crowdfunding because I didn't want it to be directly tied to the fire department. Also, I started figuring out that a lot of what I was trying to do could be done with a lot less money and a lot more soldering & late nights. Info below needs to be updated, I'll try to get on that soon.
Drone Communities:
DIY Drones-THEresource for drones/uavs/uas. The founder of DIY drones is Chris Anderson, who went on to create 3DRobotics. 3DR has some of the more affordable ready-to-fly platforms for aerial mapping, like the X8-M and Aero-M. Last week, 3DR also introduced a new quadcopter.
FlightRiotWhile there are forums on flightriot, they're pretty inactive. The website is more of a blog with some great information from one guy that has building DIY mapping platforms. I've spent a lot of time following tips and videos from geobduffy on this website. I also had a few conversations with him on the phone and was about to buy one of his personal mapping kits, before I decided to build one my self.
RCgroupsThe most active RC community on the web. Once you start getting deeper into the flight controller/autopilot software, you won't find a lot of support here, but it is a great resource for general info and tips on different hardware.
FPVlabSame as above, but with a focus on video equipment, as well as long range capabilities (1-8km, up to and over 25km)
Other sites:
Public LabOpen source community dealing with a lot of information on cameras, NDVI imaging and drone mapping.
CHDK WikiCanon Hack Development Kit wiki - amazing tool for canon cameras
APM WikiArdupilot wiki (copters). Ardupilot is the software I use for my fixed-wing UAV. There are many flight controllers out there, but I decided to go with APM and a Pixhawk(3DR) clone(HKPilot32).
FAA UAS pageFootdraggers
DroneDeployI don't have any experience with dronedeploy, but they just launched services recently. If I get a camera that they support, or if they add support for the canon S100, I'll give them a shot.
Phone apps- I have an android, but I think all of these are available I , iPhone as well.
Hover- I mainly use this for a general estimate on wind, but I've also been using it to log flights. You can email the flight log to yourself with GPS cords and weather conditions.
Survey-it - create a grid and return price estimate on a per acre basis. There might be a better option, but I haven't looked yet.
3Dr services- Required for tower
Tower- phone and tablet mission planner.
Feel free to suggest any links to add to this post. I'll update below with my project.
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