Went from paper logs to drone mapping, debating if it's worth the switch

I ran a small grading crew outside Boise for about 8 years, and we did everything with paper cut sheets and a total station. Last spring my foreman pushed me to try a drone survey on a 12 acre pad site, and honestly the accuracy was better than I expected. We caught a drainage issue in the model that would have cost us maybe $6,000 in rework if we'd caught it after the fact. But now I'm looking at a $4,500 yearly subscription plus training time, and I wonder if we're just adding fancy tools to cover for sloppy layout habits. The old way forced everyone to double-check grade pins manually, which kept the crew sharp. Has anyone else found drone mapping actually pays for itself on smaller residential jobs, or is it only worth it on big commercial tracts?

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