Seriously, it’s My Business is a series where the Manawatū Standard profiles young Palmerston North people who’ve struck out on their own and started their own business before they turned 30.
When a young Palmerston North aviation enthusiast learnt he couldn’t be a pilot, he found another way to live the dream – with his own drone company.
St Peter’s College student Jamie Churchouse, 18, has a lot on his plate. He studies hard, volunteers at the Esplanade Scenic Railway and for St John, and recently completed the various challenges and adventures of the Duke of Edinburgh Award programme.
It’s made for slow going in developing his drone operation company, Aerial View, which he incorporated in January, but Churchouse has found there’s always a way to carve out some time for your dreams.
“I’ve always been really into aviation, unfortunately, I get really bad motion sickness. So being a pilot was out.”
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Churchouse has known for a long time getting motion sickness would be a challenge in his dream career. But he’d hoped he could make it work, until his uncle, who works as a pilot in Australia, took him up for a short-lived flight.
“Within a couple of minutes it got so bad, I had to ask him to turn around.”
Churchouse said with his motion sickness keeping his feet firmly on the ground, flying a drone was the next best thing to heading into the wild blue yonder himself.
“Drones are pretty cool too…This is a job that didn’t really exist five years ago. [I love] playing, experimenting and seeing what I can do with the technology.”
One of his first projects was shooting aerial footage of St Peter’s College’s colour run, for a school promotional video.
And his first official client was a farming family who wanted a family portrait with a nice, sweeping vista of their farm behind them.
Similar projects and others such as real estate photos, roof inspections and aerial mapping are just some of the possibilities Churchouse has been discussing with potential clients.
His age hasn’t been a sticking point. Drones only became commonplace a few years ago, so almost everybody was fairly inexperienced with them, he said.
However, he does worry people might think his youth will mean he’ll be reckless and more likely to crash his drone.
“But just because I couldn’t vote in the last election doesn’t mean I can’t be responsible with expensive machinery.”
Jamie Churchouse’s DJI Mavic Pro 2 drone set him back almost $3000, with another $2000 invested in safety equipment and accessories to boost its capabilities.
Churchouse is a qualified remotely piloted aircraft systems operator, meeting all Civil Aviation Authority requirements needed to prove he can fly a drone safely.
And he’s is well aware drones are expensive.
His DJI Mavic Pro 2 quad-rotored drone, which can reach up to 72 kilometres per hour and capture 4K video, set him back nearly $3000.
He spent another $2000 on accessories and extra batteries to extend its capabilities, including safety equipment and fire extinguisher he hopes will never be used.
Churchouse said couldn’t have done without the support of his parents, who encouraged him to start Aerial View in the first place.
And Brent and Rosanne Churchouse, who own and operate Allsorted Plumbing and Gasfitting, have also been an invaluable source of advice on running a business – from setting privacy policies to health and safety regulations and getting his taxes right.