Full time drone work 2025?

Questions & Answers
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I am very much considering starting a business and making my entire full time job surrounded in drone work and using my drones for ground videography too, this includes doing venues, inspections and whatever else is a good idea to grip on to.

I have autism and am very friendly to others but I’m finding it incredibly tough currently to grip on to anything and really need help on deciding if this is a good route.

I’ve heard that the drone market is “VERY SATURATED” but I’m incredibly passionate about drones, I have been from a young age. I’ve got an Air 3S and a Mini 4 Pro. I’m in Bournemouth and really don’t know what the demand is like here.

Any tips or ideas would be greatly appreciated! Thank you anyway for being such a great and inviting community!

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Try a few searches, this comes up every few months.

The race to the bottom began around ten years ago and is probably at rock bottom now :thinking:

The dawn of 249g drones and the regulation changes that came along a few years ago just accelerated that race even more.

Then CAA did away with the PfCO and all distinctions between rec and com flights went away overnight.

Today we see estate agents taking their own photos, rail companies doing their own inspections, roofers doing their own surveys and charging just £35 for them :man_shrugging:t2:

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And that’s before we even start talking about how much you’ll need to pay for equipment, insuring that equipment, and how much of your hard-earned cash you’ll then have to give away to our wonderful government in the form of Corporation and other taxes.

My advice in 2025 would be to apply for a job as a drone operator with an existing company and let someone else do all the hard work of finding clients, providing competitive quotes and let your employer worry about how few non-rain and non-wind days of flying are actually available per year given the UK weather :blush:

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If you take estate agents as an example, why would they pay time and again to have a dedicated drone pilot come out and do photos/video for them when they could just buy a Mini 2/3/4/4K and do it themselves? After a couple of houses they would probably recoup the cost of the drone in the money saved from paying a third party to do it.

I very much started out in the hobby with something like this as my aim, but now I just see it as a way of getting me out of the house and getting to know my local area from a bit of a different angle. I’ve been paid for a couple of jobs, but nothing that would ever threaten to put food on the table for any time!

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My only question is though if I get employed wouldn’t I be paid on a hourly contract instead of a per job basis? That’s even if I ended up getting work.

I’ve already got insurance, working on an A2 CofC and have the equipment needed. I pretty much only need a fire blanket and Lipo safety bag just in case of an emergency now. (& maybe a reflective jacket too.)

Tax is an absolute nightmare, I’ll agree on that for sure. Just unsure if it’d be better to build my own brand though through socials, doing work for people and general publicity or if I should just give up on that and get employed work with it or full on just only do droning as a hobby.

I currently don’t have many/ any career options and if this is a path I could go down I’d love to take it.

Thanks for the info so far though, I’m taking it in heavily and I’m happy with the honesty and support!

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And a diary full of work

Look at the most minimum of minimum job wage, £25,396 a year for 40 hours a week.

Thats about £500 a week (and you’ll get holidays, sick pay and a bit of pension)

My accountant always told me, don’t even consider self employment unless you are taking in at least double what you’d get in a job

And that was 25 years ago.

Probably does not help, but maybe gives a little realism to the situation

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To give an idea of where things are going, I’ve been with DroneSafeRegister for the past five years. In the first five months of 2022, nearly 300 people requested quotes for drone work through the site (for the whole of the UK). In the first five months of 2025 there were fewer than 90.

As @PingSpike says, I’m afraid the bottom has well and truly dropped out of the market since the requirement to have a PfCO for commercial work was removed. There are still some people who manage to make a reasonable living from it, but from what I’ve seen they were almost all skilled cinematographers/videographers long before they picked up their first drone, and they established themselves as professional drone operators before 2020 (when the rules changed).

The technology advancements haven’t helped either - even with the rule changes for sub-250g drones and the removal of the PfCO, there was still a bit of a market for those operators willing/able to spend £10k on something like an Inspire 2 with a top-of-the-line lens. But DJI has been blurring the lines between consumer and professional for years so even that market is going - the Mini 5 is going to have a 1" sensor, and in six months you’ll be able to fly an Air3S (or, probably 4S by then) in a city centre with nothing more than a Flyer ID.

I’ve been doing commercial jobs for the last four years. I’ve done roof inspections, residential videos and a little bit of TV work, but the best I’ve managed (and it honestly feels like a success) is to break even at the end of every year (insurance, hardware, software, training, certification renewals, travel… there are more costs than you might think). I would love to be able to say it’s a career, but it’s really a hobby that pays for itself.

Could I have done better if I’d quit the day job and focussed 100% on the drone work? Most certainly. But I don’t think I’d have been able to pay the bills.

If you’re set on being a professional drone pilot I’d echo what’s been said about looking for a job with an existing company. Even if, ultimately, you’re still set on going it alone, this would give you a chance to get the experience with a guaranteed salary (and sick pay, holidays, training, etc).

And with all that said, if you’re still keen on going it alone at least you’re going in with your eyes somewhat open. It will be hard work, but I wish you every success :slight_smile:

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That depends on your employer.

If you were working for National Grid doing power line inspections you’d be on an annual salary and all the benefits that comes with - as Chris highlighted above.

You’d also have a good career progression path, paid on-the-job training, a pension, the list goes on.

That’d certainly be the least-risk and least-cost option, nothing to lose but your own time :slight_smile:

Don’t forget though, social media is also the most flooded and competitive option with every man and his dog touting for business on social media, many of whom are also spending thousands of pounds a year to advertise on there too.

My earlier point about the weather still stands though. What will you do for work in winter when it doesn’t get light until 8:30am and it’s too dark to film anything by 4pm in the afternoon?

What will you do when it’s -3C every morning for weeks on end and too cold to fly?

Look back on some weather apps, how many dry days were there from say October to February? How many days of low enough wind to fly the drone?

The list probably goes on :confused:

@JoeC speaks from experience and makes some really valid points too :slight_smile:

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Is that what it is now?

Odd that only 1 percent or so earn four times this. Would have thought it was higher.

Probably means a lot are barely above minimum wage.

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4% on 2023 figures

2024 had uk average wage at a tad under £38k

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Fly in a different country with a better climate?

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Sign me up :smiley:

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Offer more then just drone services?

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6.5 % on or under the NMW

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-7735/

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This is key.

Most businesses who offer drone services offer those services as a secondary service to their core service.

The prime example being roofers who offer surveys via drone. Providing a few pictures to a home owner of some broken roof tiles or a chimney that needs repointing isn’t of much use to the home owner because they then need to go and find a roofer who can do the repairs.

But if the roofer can provide the pictures of the issues along with a price to resolve those issues, the job is won :slight_smile:

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Realisticly you need to ask, can you bring in 1k a week?

By the time you have had the odd holiday and paid corporation tax and some expenses, this is probably the level at which you need to be earning.

Because you will also need to pay personal taxes and probably accounting software and maybe an accountant.

It all quickly adds up.

Therefore diversification is probably a good idea.

Can you create a passive income somehow?

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If I got into this I’d plan on being a sole trader so cooperation tax wouldn’t be a thing, it’d only be the normal income tax.

I also wouldn’t need to pay travel and don’t plan on holidays any time soon asides from 1 at maximum.

I pretty much have everything needed and am ready for my A2 CofC session currently.

Accountant will be a tricky one, I’ll look into that part of things.

Drone work is basically the only thing I’m set up with in life so far as I’ve been heavily struggling with the school system and I’m still in education even though I’m 18.

I’m very happy that you are being open and honest with me about how difficult this side of work is to get into and I’m thinking of trying to get into ground photography at first with videography as my main thing (starting with my drone as a ground camera and air camera and then moving up to a professional ground camera.)

I’m not sure if any of this niche whatsoever is profitable but currently I’m just heavily considering what choice to go with. The risky one but it being something I love or something that I will dislike and have low risk with.

Thank you though very much, all of this from everyone here is very helpful and you are all really helping me understand what I’ve been getting myself into.

Sometimes people need a reality check and this has really opened my eyes :yellow_heart:

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You mention that you’re in Bournemouth. There’s a company called Solent Sky Services that is based in Portsmouth and their main business focus is drones.

Perhaps you could email/call them, explain your interest in drones and a career using them, and ask if you might be able to visit them to talk about how their business works, or how they started up (I think they only really got going just before lockdown so still a relatively new business).

Whatever you do, don’t ask them for a job! That will just send them running for the hills. Just explain your interest in them/their company and ask for some advice. I’m pretty sure, if approached correctly, they’ll be glad to chat.

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Hi @Bancroft, it looks as though you’re quite new here :wave:t2:

Why not nip over to the Introductions page, and say hello properly and tell us a bit about yourself. :+1:t2:

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Can’t be having that Rich. :thinking::thinking:

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