How we proceeded
Our webinar on 24 September 2025 began with an introduction to Inflights by CEO Hugo De Blauwe and a peek into our current operational approach. The core of the session was a deep dive into the real-world challenges faced by professional drone pilots, using a friction mapping exercise coupled with poll results on the pilot's typical day. This structure allowed us to not only identify pain points but also to validate their frequency and impact directly from our community.
Key learnings: What we heard and discovered
The collaborative exercise revealed three critical friction zones that consume a disproportionate amount of a drone pilot's time, often overshadowing the actual flight operations:
1. The administrative time sink & regulatory maze
Pilots confirmed that administration is the most significant drain on resources, with a large part of the day spent contacting companies to get a mission or get paid.
Regulatory complexity: The most time-consuming part of the job is often the regulatory analysis and dealing with permits. One pilot, who teaches others about regulations, highlighted the pain of having to contact multiple institutions to find out what permits are needed and gather various papers.
Inflights' approach to regulations: While we cannot directly solve the challenge of issuing permits, the community validated the need for a shared resource. Inflights aims to support this by potentially creating a community-driven help section where pilots can exchange and learn from each other on regulatory questions and best practices. We are also going to review our airspace regulation API as a possible solution.
2. The critical on-site delay & communication gap
The biggest source of on-site frustration and operational risk is the breakdown in communication between the client, intermediaries, and the pilot:
The 1-2 hour freeze: The primary cause of job delays is the fact that "nobody has been told the pilot is coming." Pilots might spend 1–2 hours on site waiting until they can find and convince the competent contact person to let them start flying, often without having the contact's direct phone number ahead of time.
Client education is key: Pilots noted that clients often do not understand the conditions necessary to fly (e.g., weather requirements). A crucial best practice shared was to list all flight conditions directly on the quote itself, not hidden in general terms and conditions, to ensure the client is fully aware.
Best practices: Another key best practice shared was the habit of informing local police ahead of the flight as a proactive step.
3. The unending juggling act & need for support
The complexity of a drone pilot's day forces a constant and exhausting cycle of administration, marketing, and operations:
Business vs. operations: While a pilot is on site, they can obviously not look for new clients, do marketing, or handle administration during this time—a constant, necessary juggle. Pilots expressed a strong desire to learn from Inflights how we go about finding clients.
Inflights' new client acquisition model: Inflights will actively support pilots to find clients. This will not operate on a commission basis, but rather through a monthly fee that pilots will pay to be part of the exclusive Inflights pool of qualified pilots.
Conclusion: Pivoting to a shared drone hub
The clear, overarching takeaway from this session is the immense value pilots place on a central, supportive environment. The community demonstrated a strong desire for a place to exchange and learn from each other—vital for navigating complex regulations and sharing hard-won best practices.
This feedback validates Inflights' decision to pivot our online platform into an online hub for all kinds of drone missions. The future Inflights hub will focus on solving these core frictions—streamlining client acquisition, facilitating better communication, and fostering the community so pilots can finally spend less time juggling and more time flying.