Hit 500 drone inspection hours on my own job sites last Thursday

I crossed 500 hours of using drones for construction site inspections last Thursday. That number surprised me because I started just two years ago with a cheap $400 model. Most of those hours came from checking roof progress and spotting safety issues before they got bad. Last month alone I caught a truss misalignment on a warehouse in Nashville that would have cost us weeks to fix later. The drone saves me about 3 hours per walkthrough on a big site. Has anyone else seen a big jump in efficiency after hitting a certain number of flights or hours?

2 comments

2 Comments

hugo_robinson2520d agoMost Upvoted

Ngl that "2 hours saved max" thing ignores how fast you get at editing after 500 hours.

clairen8521d ago

The 3 hours saved per walkthrough number seems a bit inflated honestly. On a big commercial site, even with a drone, clearing the airspace, getting the battery cycled, and actually reviewing the footage (which is the real time sink) usually takes closer to 2 hours saved max. I found that after around 200 hours I got way faster at spotting issues in the field, but the post-processing time never really shrinks. That truss catch in Nashville is a great example of the real value though, that kind of early detection pays for the drone ten times over.