I am retired, living in a small town, droning as a hobby with my Q500 4K.
I have been approached by a nearby town that sees the potential for drone photography and FPV in multiple departments: Police, fire, parks and recreation, building, and civic facility maintenance (roof and water tower inspections, etc.).
They don't want to buy a drone or drones, and train multiple people (potentially one per department) to use it. They are interested in an "on call" arrangement with a contractor - some of which would be unplanned, such as a fire scene or a wandered-away senior citizen.
My question is how to maintain batteries for this type operation. If they have a wander-away, they want someone to fly over the pond or woods or whatever RIGHT NOW. If my batteries are on storage charge, it could take 2 hours to get them up to full voltage. If they are fully charged all the time, their life expectancy decreases.
Perhaps the way to handle this is to have 2 sets of batteries - one I treat properly (stored at appropriate level) and use for scheduled flights (such as 2 working-days' notice), and another set that is always charged and used only for short-notice calls. Since the latter will wear out faster, I would price the short-notice calls to reflect the cost of more frequently replacing batteries.
I can't figure any other way to do this.
Is anyone dealing with similar circumstances?
Does anyone have an appropriate contract they would care to share? I am sure there are circumstances I have not thought of. Not to mention insurance and bonding and ...
Thank you everyone for any help at all.
I have been approached by a nearby town that sees the potential for drone photography and FPV in multiple departments: Police, fire, parks and recreation, building, and civic facility maintenance (roof and water tower inspections, etc.).
They don't want to buy a drone or drones, and train multiple people (potentially one per department) to use it. They are interested in an "on call" arrangement with a contractor - some of which would be unplanned, such as a fire scene or a wandered-away senior citizen.
My question is how to maintain batteries for this type operation. If they have a wander-away, they want someone to fly over the pond or woods or whatever RIGHT NOW. If my batteries are on storage charge, it could take 2 hours to get them up to full voltage. If they are fully charged all the time, their life expectancy decreases.
Perhaps the way to handle this is to have 2 sets of batteries - one I treat properly (stored at appropriate level) and use for scheduled flights (such as 2 working-days' notice), and another set that is always charged and used only for short-notice calls. Since the latter will wear out faster, I would price the short-notice calls to reflect the cost of more frequently replacing batteries.
I can't figure any other way to do this.
Is anyone dealing with similar circumstances?
Does anyone have an appropriate contract they would care to share? I am sure there are circumstances I have not thought of. Not to mention insurance and bonding and ...
Thank you everyone for any help at all.