The (small) media company I work for wants to get into drone work. At first I thought they only wanted to do the photography side, but they're also interested in exploring thermal work. I see a lot of resources out there but being 100% ignorant of all things thermal, it's hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. If anyone can answer a couple of questions, I'd really appreciate it:
- What specs should I be looking for in a thermal camera? If we end up going down the thermal road, it will probably mostly be building inspection work. Not a whole lot of farms around here, and the power companies all have their own drones/helicopters for line inspection. We have close relationships with local PD's, so SAR is an occasional possibility, but I would assume anything good enough to inspect a roof is good enough to find a kid in the woods, yes?
-Do you only do aerial thermography, or do you also do inside work with handheld equipment?
-What training should our pilots get for best marketability? Thermal 1? 2? Other recommended training? (all pilots will, of course, also have the part 107 cert).
-What has been in your experience the ROI? How long did it take to get into the black after buying the equipment and training?
-Anything I should be thinking about in my research that I didn't ask?
Thanks again in advance for taking the time.
- What specs should I be looking for in a thermal camera? If we end up going down the thermal road, it will probably mostly be building inspection work. Not a whole lot of farms around here, and the power companies all have their own drones/helicopters for line inspection. We have close relationships with local PD's, so SAR is an occasional possibility, but I would assume anything good enough to inspect a roof is good enough to find a kid in the woods, yes?
-Do you only do aerial thermography, or do you also do inside work with handheld equipment?
-What training should our pilots get for best marketability? Thermal 1? 2? Other recommended training? (all pilots will, of course, also have the part 107 cert).
-What has been in your experience the ROI? How long did it take to get into the black after buying the equipment and training?
-Anything I should be thinking about in my research that I didn't ask?
Thanks again in advance for taking the time.