Hiring a drone pilot ?
Are you in the construction business in Maine, looking to take your projects to new heights? If so, you might want to consider hiring a drone pilot for your construction projects. Drones, or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), have revolutionized the construction industry in the United States. They offer a bird’s-eye view that can provide valuable insights into your construction projects. If you would like to know about the Benifits of Drones in construction check out this link.
The Benefits of Hiring a Drone Pilot
1. Aerial Insights
One of the primary advantages of bringing a drone pilot on board is the unparalleled aerial perspective they offer. Drones can capture high-resolution images and videos of your construction site, providing a comprehensive view of the project’s progress. This data is invaluable for project managers, architects, and stakeholders who need to make informed decisions.
2. Improved Safety
Construction sites can be hazardous places. Drones can perform tasks that would be risky for humans, such as inspecting hard-to-reach or dangerous areas. By deploying a drone, you can enhance safety on your construction site, reducing the risk of accidents.
3. Cost-Efficiency
Drones are cost-effective tools for monitoring construction projects. Traditional methods, like hiring a helicopter or erecting scaffolding, are considerably more expensive. Drones can save you money while still providing essential data.
4. Real-Time Updates
With a drone in the air, you can get real-time updates on your construction project’s status. This helps you identify and address issues promptly, ensuring that your project stays on track.
Finding the Right Drone Pilot
Now that you’re convinced of the benefits of hiring a drone pilot, how do you find the right one? Should I hire a Drone Pilot from Inside the company or a outside vendor? Here are some key considerations:
In House Pilot
With a in house pilot you will have better control over you data and his or her schedule. Does your in house pilot have any other respondibities? If they do have other job requirements there may be some pitfalls.
Like the lack of training or flight hours. I don’t recomend having a new pilot with less than 50 hours of flight time flying around a construction site. This could be bad! for your business if you have a crash where people are injured or equipment is damaged. This could shut down your site while everyone investigates FAA and or Osha.
Your Pilot needs to have a part 107. This ceritificate gives them the certification to fly and make money for them or your company. It also gives them the basics about aviation.The part 107 certicate does not teach them how to fly.
Don’t forget your pilot needs to have a biannual flight review.Which means every 2 years the pilot has to get recertificated.
You as a company owner are responsiable to develope a drone program. That should layout the basic requirements set forth by your company. Like home many hours they need to fly on a givin jobsite, what type of weather they can fly in, and how many hours can a 107 pilot can fly in a given day. Also as the owner company and of the drone you need to come up with a maintenance program for you drone pilots to follow.
Mapping Software
Data Management
Data management is a four letter word for the drone industry. Why? Because no matter if your shooting photos, videos or doing photogrammetry they all have huge files.
Photos and videos take up a large amount of space but nothing like the mapping data you create. I have had several projects go over the 16 gig. So you have figure out if you are going to keep them on a single machine, your own server or a cloud based system. Keep in mind that if you use a cloud based sysytem it can take sometime to upload and share your projects to everyone envolved.
So as the proud owner of a new drone program which software are you going to use?
There are many types of software that you can use if you are just taking photos you can use Photoshop Subscription based a few hundred dollars a year. If you need to create videos Davinci Resolve is great program and it is free!
There several different companies that offer photogrammetry software for mapping and inspection type software. Here are a couple that are free or almost free. Web odm is a good way to start to learn with and Maps made easy is free depending on the size of your maps. Drone deploy and Pix4d they are great mapping and inspection software. The both require knowlege of maping but drone deploy is a little easier to use than Pix4d. Currently drone deploy is around $500.00 per month. Pix4d is a little less.
Contracted Drone Pilot
So your thinking about contracting a drone pilot? So some of the items may be simular as a in house pilot. Like hours you still want to make sure that they have at least 50 hours. Make sure they have a log book you can review. Check and see if the have there 107 card and if they have been flying a while then verify if the have had their biannual flight review. The commerical 107 pilot should have no problem providing them to the client.
Training- The contracted drone pilot is responsible for their own training, that being said. The contracted drone pilot may have a lot more knowledge and be able to deep dive into your project because of their types of technology that they use to create the differnt deliverables.Like what type of mapping software to use on your project.
Maintenance and Data mangement – This is the responbilty of the contracted drone pilot.
Insurance- As a contracted drone pilot , the business owner is responsible in come up with a required amount of insurance they would like to have the contracted drone pilot to have.
Conclusion
I believe that if you and your company have the ablity and resources to set up a drone program with dedicated commerical drone pilots that is awesome! However, if you don’t have the resources or would like to decrease your liablity than a Commerical part 107 pilot would be a great call.
