This is the only stumbling block that's making me question my current chase for a PFAW. The more market research I carry out the more I see site upon site advertising aerial photography and filming!
Has anyone looking to get the PFAW and start a fresh business arrived too late at the scene or is there still a fighting chance of making it work? Who knows unless you try.
I suppose if trade people I.e your plumbers electricians etc all said sod it there must be loads of people out there doing that, then we would never have new people entering the industry.
Another side to the coin, if your not trying to make a full time living from it as you already have a well paid job, maybe there is enough work if your proactive enough to recoup your training costs and over time just earn you a bit on the side whilst enjoying your hobbie??
That really sums it up I think, it's a hugely saturated market and there's really no that much work out there especially for one man operations. But there are still opportunities to be had. Also, as the amount of PFAW holders increases, there has also been a big rise in the percentage of PFAW's that are not being renewed after their first year so it will eventually balance out.
I'm a member of ARPAS and one of the topics that comes up quite a lot is the over saturation of the market and the rapidly decreasing cost of hiring a company to do aerial work due to the competition.
I'm going down that route at the moment, in the final stages of getting my PFAW (with Resourse Group, the web based training is only a small part of their syllabus, it's like an introduction to the topics covered in much more detail at the ground school), it's been a hugely rewarding process (not financially though haha) just for the challenge and the opportunity to gain more knowledge and become a better and safer UAV operator, luckily my current lines of work allow me plenty spare time to indulge in it.
I'd like to earn some money from it, or at least recoup some costs (currently one wrecked Inspire, 2 operational Inspires, additional equipment, training, insurance ect). But I doubt very much I'd be able to rely on it as my sole income.