Humoroussimilar up in arms many of you with 107/333 licenses about scabs taking your jobs away from you. I understand the issues and your frustrations - but as others have mentioned, it's a fact of life in almost any line of business.
I'll bet that many of you have turned blind eyes to the injustices in other industries over the years - but now that it's affecting you personally - you think that it is the moral duty of ANYBODY who has passing knowledge of illegal drone operators to report those operators and protect your chosen business!
Before you get out of control with this campaign, consider how many times you've reported a taxi driver for breaking a rule of the road - or your neighbours or relatives for building without a permit - or doing the work on their renovation themselves or with the help of an unlicensed friend, relative or "handyman" from Craig's List.
I think that very few of you have to right to be as outraged as you seem to be - and that many of you happily step across similar lines when it benefits you to do so.
The best thing you can do - as others have pointed out - is to play by the rules, advertise your compliance prominently, provide outstanding quality and service to your customers and accept that scabs are out there! If these scabs are as dangerous as you imply and produce shoddy work - that will become common knowledge as the industry grows and matures. It's still in its infancy. Perhaps, in some cases, the real fear is that the scabs will do the job every bit was good - or better than you would have/or could have done.
As the industry matures, the big, important and recurring jobs will always go to licensed, reputable operators and the Craigslist postings will disappear - or be used by small, one-off jobs that wouldn't even exist if the only option were full priced professionals - like a guy who is selling his house privately - or a local rock band that wants to make a video - people who would not be in the market for drone services if scabs didn't exist! And for a realtor who is lucky enough to have a brother in law with a drone - good on him if his relative is willing and able to help out. Odds are he would have listed the homes without aerial footage if he didn't have a relative willing to help. What some of you folks don't see is that these types of jobs don't take money out of your pocket - they actually expand the potential market for your services because you're now able to show that more and more realtors are using aerial videos to sell their homes and pitch them to "not be left behind"...!
I even stumbled across a website that is just starting up called vaudorne dot com - and they are claiming to be developing a directory that will match up those musicians and other tiny jobs with amateur pilots and hobbyists that are willing to work for FREE or almost for FREE!
I intend to license myself properly and start a drone photography business next summer - and I think their idea/approach is awesome! I'm even going to register with that website and will definitely consider doing a few of these "almost free" jobs in my free time to build my experience up for different types of work and to gain exposure. As long as I can charge enough to cover my insurance, I'm okay with donating my time for the right type of project. My accountant has advised that I can probably even write it off as an educational, training or marketing expense!
Bottom line - is don't lose too much sleep over these scabs that are currently flooding the market. Things will sort themselves out soon enough - and they will not steal any big, lucrative jobs from you. If your started your business up because you love flying - stick with it - and sign up to do a few of these free jobs if any arise in your city! If you got into this business because you thought it would be lucrative and you'd be able to make big money quickly - well, I'm sorry. That's not going to happen in this industry!
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PhantomPilots