It is all about the
money
With advent of the 333 exemption the Drone/UAS industry is
getting a little traction, just a little. I have a database of over 200
Drone/UAS pilots who are in business, making money but only five of them that I
can count has a pilot’s license. Now there are two flight training schools that
I am going to promote Sky Warrior Inc. George Sigler the proprietor of the
school has been training Navy pilots and NFOs their basic flight training since
Vietnam and he is one of the first people I even talked to about the drone
industry three and a half years ago. Now he has a light sport that is limited
for certification but it is good enough to get the 333 exemption. Then there is
Learn2Fly4Less in Carrollton a suburb of Dallas. Kevin O’Conner is the proprietor there. He has
unique system that utilizes a simulator that you can practice on for significantly
less than it would cost for an instructor to go up in the air with you or rent
the plane to practice in. The average cost for an instructor is between $30 and
$40 per hour, a plane will cost around $80 per hour. You need 20 hours, 10 with
an instructor and 10 solo. Then there is the check ride with an FAA evaluator which
is $450 and then exam which is $150, not including the course online which is
around which you can find between $100 and $300. So going for a range, you are
looking at between $2,600 and $3,000.
Now, once you acquire your license and 333 exemption which
there is no fee for, there are jobs out there paying between $500 per day and
$65,000 for the job but that includes the CAD work and processing. The average
CAD profession will want $25 per hour or more and they are in high demand from
surveyors, civil engineers and Drone/UAS pilots who need someone to do this for
them.
Investment
This industry is taking off like a rocket even though
investors and geospatial professionals are slow to embrace it. I have had
several people point out to me the valuation of DJI but if they are looking at
DJI, they are looking backwards. Companies like DJI and 3D Robotics just to
name a few are keeping the market honest and seeding the market with low cost
systems that can do some basic cinematography. The big problem is keeping up with the demand.
When your shipment is allocated before it is even hit the port, which is a
quality problem. DJI is currently seeking a $10 billion valuation to raise
capital. With X-Fold's cinematography platforms with a greater payload and
duration of flight capability, with a base price under $7,000 for the basic platform, which they can’t
keep in stocked either. Cinematographers are gobbling them up. They know what
they need and what their quality is because of their history in the industry already.
B&H bought out their first shipment as soon as they received it. The
developer of X-Fold took DJI as far as they could go, until they had to develop
a more robust system. All of those DJI fliers are the market for X-Fold, if
they want to do real work with the real cinematography cameras or any other
technology.
Geospatial
The demand in the cinematography industry is impressive but
once the surveyors and geospatial professionals figure out that the film and
movie industry is way out in front of them, they aren’t going to waste a lot of
time and money investing in developing Drones/UAS but focusing on the integration
of these already developed systems that are stable, robust and easily
integrated, they are going to move their product. I have four entities who are either
looking at integration of LiDAR for everything from high tension power-line
inspections to DOT applications or measuring the sediment flow in major rivers.
With the stable system to start off with using the X-Fold System as a jumping
off point, the growth in the cinematography industry will be eclipsed. There
are a lot more surveyors out there who would be able to be trained to fly a
Drone/UAS than there are Drone/UAS pilots who could or would learn surveying.
No comments:
Post a Comment