When it comes to drone technology?
“If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
We are asked a lot whether the size of your drone matters; if some of the smaller drones available can satisfy clients and produce commercial grade results?
When it comes to answering this, we must take many factors into account, and we are going to look at some of these factors briefly here.
Budget
This is one of the factors we all must consider even if our budget is large, it still plays an important part. If you’re just starting out in the drone industry you have think about where most of your work is going to come from, spending the entire budget on the biggest drone might not be the best idea when you could purchase two that could cover a wider variety of work possibilities.
Are you licensed?
In Australia you can fly up to a 2kg drone commercially without needing a remote pilots license, there are quite a few limitations though by going down this route, but many people have made a successful business by choosing this option. If you wanted to fly a bigger drone over 2kg you are going to need a remote pilot’s license and a remote operator’s certificate from CASA. After this, for even bigger drones, you will need to have your license endorsed much like you do for a vehicle or an aircraft.
What work are you planning on doing?
This should be considered from the get-go. If you are planning on doing large survey works then a larger drone should be considered as not only does it save you time but the level of detail that some of the larger payloads attached can give, are far superior to the smaller drones.
Client expectations
Quite the interesting topic, clients may not know as much as you when it comes to drones and drone technologies, when you arrive on site to perform your first job and out comes the Mavic platform some clients may be taken aback, not realising which version with what camera you may have. In this instance size can matter!
Weather conditions
As you would expect a smaller drone platform is not going to be as stable or even flyable in stronger winds, so picking the right drone for the conditions is paramount.
Location location location
Some locations will require permits to operate and the only way to obtain these permits is with the correct licensing and endorsements as mentioned earlier in this post, in this instance the size of your drone is unimportant. Also, a point worth noting is that a larger drone always attracts a lot more attention from the public, this can be good but can also have a negative effect on your operations.
We have just touched on six topics briefly when it comes to the question of “does size matter?”, there are other topics, which we will return to, however in summary:
When it comes to drone size it is primarily a case of selecting the right tool for the job. For instance, if you have a large inspection to complete best to take a drone capable of completing the inspection to the highest quality possible, in the fastest time, taking the location weather and your skill level into account.
Just remember drones are tools not toys! This must be considered when planning and carrying out jobs.
If you’re interested in the drone industry and what this incredible technology can do, check out this paper we have written on drone inspections versus rope access inspections
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