"Not a source of growth for pilots."

DroneBase is a way for drone pilots to make fast cash while participating in an overall reduction of standards for the drone industry as a whole. In order to "stay competitive," they've dropped their payouts by nearly 15%. They routinely publish jobs that are ethically dubious while placing the responsibility for legal operation entirely on the pilots. This includes work in controlled or restricted airspace, and work where they specifically require the pilots to avoid the residents of the houses they are photographing. DroneBase publishes jobs which are technically demanding without having a solid basis of understanding of the requirements for the work -- e.g.: thermography or photogrammetry -- and are incapable of vetting the pilots who take these jobs for quality or competency. They also do not give the pilots for these jobs enough opportunity to coordinate the flight dates and times for ideal conditions to gather the data. DroneBase is only marginally willing to raise their prices and payouts to reflect the additional challenges and requirements inherent to these jobs, likely because their client managers have inadequate understanding that a lot of drone work is not only point-and-shoot. DroneBase's payouts and contract models tend to repulse skilled specialists, resulting in the majority of their pilots being new or inexperienced. This means that the management team does not place a great deal of faith in the pilots' abilities to make in-the-field decisions. An example of this is withholding payment for a job performed where the work order has outlined the wrong property, despite the area being "confirmed with the client." The pilot will arrive at the site, speak to the homeowner and/or realtor, confirm the address and the building to be photographed, and submit the photos -- only for DroneBase to withhold payment because the geotagging on the photographs does not fall within their erroneous GIS data for the work done. Payment will not be issued until the DroneBase team on the other side of the country can confirm over the course of several days what the pilot figured out in 5 minutes. DroneBase's contract models exclude the possibility of pilots using the images they collect for their own portfolios, which means that the cash and experiential value of each job are the maximum benefit the pilot can get without becoming in breach of contract. Since the pilots are contractors, they cannot up-sell the clients on site if greater opportunities for earning present themselves. Since the payout is determined before the shoot, there is no incentive for the pilot to collect anything except the exact minimum that DroneBase requires, or to use their own creative talents to augment the property's appearance. If you use DroneBase to take images of a property, you should pray that the drone pilot they send out will take good photos on principle, instead of providing 17 photographs of the roof of your house sticking up through some trees.

"Wish I could get more jobs often"

Wish I could get more jobs often

"Great company to work for"

Great company to work for! Been with them 3 years now.

"Great to have freelance work"

Great to have freelance work, being retired military and county, I don’t want to work full time. And with pandemic, I can do job sites without interacting with people in person.

"Mission was fast DroneBase has great…"

Mission was fast DroneBase has great tools and got paid fast.

"Horrible Support and very low pay!"

Horrible Support and very low pay!

"Great company"

Great company, jobs as described and paid quickly. Been with them for over 2 years.

"Dronebase is awesome and pays quickly"

Dronebase is awesome and pays quickly. Their compensation varies from residential to commercial real estate and other properties. A definite awesome way to start your drone career

"Excellent company to work for"

Excellent company to work for. They have all the utilities to make drone jobs efficient and get paid quickly.

"I find the rates to be less than…"

I find the rates to be less than average.. The work is usually fairly simple, but I don't see many jobs in MIchigan.