
Show HN: Droners.io – Get anything filmed by a drone - daveumr
https://droners.io
======
8ig8
In case anyone else was wondering, here's the pricing...

> 11\. DRONERS.IO SERVICE FEE

> Pilot will pay Droners.io a transaction-based fee for Droners.io’s services
> and technology provided through the Site and otherwise (the “Service Fee”).
> For each Job Agreement, the Service Fee shall be equal to 10% of the total
> price that Pilot bills to the User with whom Pilot enters into the Job
> Agreement, excluding taxes and shipping or delivery costs. Pilot shall
> include in taxes only sales, use, or similar transaction-specific taxes that
> Pilot is required to collect and pay by virtue of the Job. Pilot shall
> include in shipping or delivery costs only Pilot’s actual out-of-pocket
> costs for shipping and delivery.

> The Droners.io Service Fee shall not exceed one thousand dollars ($1,000)
> per Job.

Source: [https://droners.io/terms-of-service-pilot](https://droners.io/terms-
of-service-pilot)

------
DanBlake
This is getting to be a competitive market (
[http://techcrunch.com/2015/04/29/dronebase/](http://techcrunch.com/2015/04/29/dronebase/)
)

However my understanding is that it might be illegal to do this at all without
FAA approval on a case-by-case basis since its for profit. You can just google
"drone realtor" to see the many issues they have faced in the market of using
drones to take shots of homes for sale.

~~~
daveumr
That is correct Dan, it is illegal to commercially operate a UAV without
obtaining the FAA's 333 exemption
([https://www.faa.gov/uas/legislative_programs/section_333/](https://www.faa.gov/uas/legislative_programs/section_333/)).
As I mentioned in another comment, there are now 1100 pilots who have obtained
the exemption.

~~~
Zombieball
Could you comment towards or provide insight about what deckar01 said above:

> Section 333 is from 2012, but the FAA failed to sue a commercial UAV
> operator in 2014.

If this is the case then you wouldn't need this FAA 333 exemption would you?

------
daveumr
Hi George, Dave here at Droners.io. I've seen a lot of pilots actually offer
that as a service to their clients. Have you seen any of the FPV races from a
pilots POV (i.e. on Youtube)? Its pretty insane, feels like your in the middle
of a Star Wars movie. VR goggles would really push it to another level :)

~~~
8ig8
I don't understand the AirBnb angle? Is that meaning it is a marketplace?
Buyers and sellers?

~~~
daveumr
Thats correct. Clients can search for a pilot and accept a bid from them.
After the work is complete, the pilot creates an invoice, and the client pays
them through the marketplace.

~~~
8ig8
It sounds like something useful, but the AirBnb mention seems like a stretch.
Based on your description, it could also be the 'Uber' for drones, if you get
my drift.

------
philipjoubert
The AirBnb angle is completely misleading. It seems for a marketplace like
this to momentum you need talented drone pilots as quickly as possible.
Currently the quality of the sample footage is terrible e.g. 2 out of the 4
videos look like they have had no color correction done and the drone is very
jerky.

~~~
daveumr
We've currently on-boarded almost 400 pilots in the last 10 days. The FAA has
also began issuing 333 exemptions at a faster rate. To date there is now ~1100
exempt pilots that able to commercially operate a UAV, earlier in the year
there were only around 100.

Regarding video quality, there is a wide range of pilots, giving clients a
wide range of services for the price.

------
1stop
So my drone charges in another drone owners living room. Right?

------
god_bless_texas
It sure seems like there are alot of drone imagery marketplaces coming up.
Exactly how much business is there for all of them to survive? I think this
pricing model will be the nail in the coffin for Dronebase, though. You can't
set pricing as the exchange. You've got to make a commission off whatever the
buyer and seller agree is "the price".

~~~
daveumr
Droners.io is currently a one man shop. I'm hoping I can continue to run it
lean, and offer a great service without taking too much money from the people
working for it (the pilots). The current fee is 10%, and that is capped at
$1,000 max per job. I've seen other sites take a flat 20%, no cap.

~~~
god_bless_texas
why the cap?

~~~
daveumr
I know money makes the world go round, but it just doesn't feel right to me to
take thousands of dollars for a referral fee. I use to work at CustomMade.com
and we implemented the cap also for our makers. CustomMade made it possible
for artisans to make a living doing what they love, perhaps Droners.io will do
the same for UAV pilots. I don't know what will happen as it scales up, but
for now at least, the cap seems fair and feels right too.

------
latenightcoding
"Airbnb for drone pilots" yeah that is not misleading at all

~~~
bigiain
I was half expecting "have random DJI Phantom owners come and sleep on your
couch!"

Another part of wonders if they're attempting to demonstrate an "old school"
attitude or a sense of age or history by using "AirBnB for … " instead of the
current every-new-startup-tagline of "Uber for … "

(Now I'm thinking of pitching some fictitious random startup idea with the
elevator pitch of "We're Pets.com for $dumb_thing!" and with all our API doc
examples and sample code written in Perl4 or ColdFusion - to try and give the
undeserved impression we've been around for 20 years, or at least since before
the first dotcom bust...)

------
jakejake
One thing I might suggest is that the payment is made in advance and kept in
an escrow. Allowing people to hire a drone operator and then trusting them to
pay after the footage is delivered seems like a lot of risk for the operator.
It's not normally expected with photography that you get the full deliverables
before paying. The pre-pay business model is pretty standard for hire-a-
freelancer services too, so I don't think it would detract from the service.

~~~
daveumr
Thats something I'm considering implementing in the very near future, giving
the pilot the ability to select from several payment terms (1/3 upfront, 1/2
up front, 100% upfront).

------
GeorgeOrr
Many drones are flown by using the first person point of view. I wonder if you
could hire a person to fly the drone and then stream to you the first person
view?

Of course I'd want to have the glasses on to get the real effect, but with the
VR goggles coming out that may work.

~~~
lucb1e
No goggles usually, the pilot might but spectators typically get a screen, or
so I heard from someone who knows about this stuff for factory inspection
work.

------
randomaxes
Sounds alot like Skycatch's Workmode that already has tons of pilots and
clients on it. It'll be interesting to see how Droners intends to compete with
a company that already has a strong network effect going in its favor.

~~~
daveumr
SkyCatch is geared more towards B2B, particularly
architecture/construction/scanning, there is still quite a market in the other
areas.

Regarding pilot base, we've on-boarded almost 400 pilots in the last 10 days.

------
rebootthesystem
<steam valve open>

Well, it'll be interesting to see how this plays out. Lots of people are using
multi-copters armed with the amazing skills provided by ignorance and a total
lack of consideration for fellow human beings, property, dogs, cats and small
animals.

Despite a lame attempt at humor, the problem is very serious when viewed with
the eyes of someone with over thirty years of experience designing, flying
and, yes, crashing, all manner of model aircraft, from high performance 200
mile-per-hour carbon fiber gliders to lazy electric powered thermalling
machines to high performance helicopters that can decapitate you if you are
not paying attention.

Not one person in the several model aircraft clubs I've been a member of or
have flown in would ever think of doing some of the crap people do with these
drones. Why? Because we know they are unreliable and dangerous toys. I own
highly modified RC helicopters costing upwards of $8,000 and have built and
flown amazing ducted fan jets that cost many times that amount. And they are
ALL toys. They are built with hobby-grade parts and can fail catastrophically
on the "anytime-anywhere" plan.

The mass marketed multi's are even worst. They don't use the best, most
expensive and most reliable battle-tested components. Something that retails
for $500 is likely to have $50 to $75 in parts, whereas a high-quality
aircraft built by a true model aircraft enthusiast might have propellers that
cost that much.

To be clear, spending $3,000 to $5,000 on these fancy looking multi's doesn't
make them any safer. They are flying bricks. With a plane you can glide and
hope to have a controlled crash away from people (believe me, I've crashed
many over the years). With a helicopter you have auto-rotation that, when
coupled with training, allows the pilot to execute a safe descent and landing.

Training, that the other key element. Learning to build, fly and operate model
aircraft requires time, dedication, tutoring and many hours training. It it
also marked by starting-off with simple and nimble models and progressively
moving up to faster, more expensive and more capable models as your skills
evolve and improve. None of that exists in drone-land.

And, because of this, someone goes out and buys a $1,000 rig and thinks
nothing of flying it over a crowd, someone's home, over kids at the park, near
full-scale aircraft, near firefighters, etc. They have no clue. They don't
care. Or both.

To be sure, the industry has done a great job of pushing these toys to
increasing levels of capabilities and to a level where knowing how to build,
maintain and fly them seems irrelevant. Point and click. And, at the same
time, they've also done a great job of nurturing a disaster in the making.
With the morons out there buying these things en-masse it is only a matter of
time until one gets sucked into a passenger aircraft in flight and a major
disaster unfolds.

You guessed it! I'm not happy at all about this. Because of what I see coming:
These morons (and I am including the companies who are behaving irresponsibly
in that statement) are going to destroy a wonderful hobby some of us have
enjoyed our entire lives. Eventually something really ugly will happen. And
that will lead to the government coming down hard on all things that have to
do with RC flight. The fact that some of us (lots of us!) have been flying
"drones" for decades without ever making news --due to operating the aircraft
responsibly, with consideration and within designated areas-- won't matter, we
are are going to be thrown into the same bag as the idiots who cased the
problem.

<steam valve closed>

Constructive note: Hey, droners.io folks, you might want to edit "Principle
Broker" on your home page and change it to "Principal Broker". Not the same
thing.

~~~
abestic9
I'm sitting here replacing "multi-copter" with "personal computer" and
laughing about how elitist and resistant your statements are.

~~~
bambax
It also works with "cars" circa 1910, or even "books"...

See also this opinion of an actual commercial pilot about the risk of a drone
hitting a passenger aircraft:

[https://jethead.wordpress.com/2015/08/08/airliners-vs-
drones...](https://jethead.wordpress.com/2015/08/08/airliners-vs-drones-calm-
down/)

~~~
bborud
I would be careful comparing low quality aircraft with cars and books. These
things are more different than they are alike.

Also as someone pointed out: there are other aircraft than passenger aircraft.
I live in a city with a hospital near the city centre. At all hours of the day
helicopters take off and land there. Depending on where they have been, they
follow different flight paths entering the city. Meaning that they cross
through airspace trivially reachable by drones.

I've seen people fly drones over the river that runs by the hospital. Every
time I see that I imagine the medical helicopter hitting a large drone and
crash into the hospital. And I guess the pilots imagine this too.

~~~
bambax
Many, many people have argued that cars and, yes, books, would destroy
civilization; and maybe they did, as they changed it beyond recognition.

But it's very annoying when a new technology gets opposed in the name of
"safety". New things are dangerous, but usually less so than old things.

~~~
rebootthesystem
Where did I say drones would destroy civilization? Show me! Where?

That's the problem with some HN readers. Well, they don't read.

What the fuck?

All I said, by using years of flying hundreds of what people might call drones
today in support of my statement, is that multicopters are being flown by
people in complete disregard for the potential consequences of their actions.
And that a system is already in place with rules and a code of conduct for
model airplane enthusiasts to follow in the form of a model aircraft community
with hundreds of years of history.

In the US most modelers fly under the umbrella AMA rules (and membership):
[http://www.modelaircraft.org/](http://www.modelaircraft.org/)

This also means I (and other responsible modelers) carry a ONE MILLION DOLLAR
insurance policy to cover potential injury and/or damage I may cause. People
buying these damn DJI's take them out of the box and go fly them over people
and property in completely irresponsible ways and don't even have the
consideration to be insured.

As for cars. You know that thing called "road" and that thing called "stop
light" and that thing called "rules of the road"? Them's rules. And people
behave with reasonable courtesy and care while operating them. What is
happening today with drones is the equivalent someone buying a car to then
drive it on a busy beach, a park full of kids, your backyard, on the sidewalk,
etc.

As for books, well, you are creating a false equivalency and make no sense at
all.

------
mofickyvicky
Wow. It's a whole new world isn't it. This is "deeply interesting"

------
megalodon
Yesterday we had 'Like Airbnb, but for algorithms?'
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10044783](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10044783))
and now this. I see no reason for this namedropping but clickbait. It's
getting kind of silly.

~~~
d--b
It's because "rent-a-drone-pilot" doesn't sound like a 1bn dollar company.

