ABOVE Avion Unmanned can get your UAS pilots trained online.
A recent Super Bowl commercial pictured a world where Unmanned Aircraft Systems, better known as drones, filled the air in a residential neighborhood, delivering pizzas and packages and crashing through living room windows.
That’s the future that Avion Unmanned, the UAS division of Huntsville’s Avion Solutions Inc., is trying to seize on and improve, before something crashes through your window trying to deliver a pair of shoes. Drones are at the brink of being the next big technology across the world, and Avion Unmanned now has a training portal to ensure that operators are knowledgeable and skilled with their aircraft.
Last month Avion announced the launch of its Online UAS Training Portal, designed to prepare groups and individuals in the commercial sector, as well as law enforcement, to fly drones. The portal offers self-paced remote training that lines up with recently released Federal Aviation Administration regulations.
The training portal uses the cloud-based TalentLMS (Learning Management System) in collaboration with seasoned aviation instructors. Included in the training are courses in aircraft systems, aerodynamics, flight control software, weather, airspace and other categories on the Part 107 Remote Pilot Exam.
Based on the five-day, in-person training course that is split between classroom and flight time, the Online UAS Training Portal allows students to experience the same program used to educate law enforcement and public agencies across North Alabama and Tennessee.
“Many employers are unable to commit to on-site training, due to the associated travel costs and time requirements, ” says Taylor Abington, Avion’s UAS Program Manager. “Online training offers an alternative solution and allows students to complete the course at a pace appropriate for them.”
Avion Unmanned also wants to customize training packages to specific commercial needs, such as aerial photography for construction, mapping and photogrammetry, specific aircraft platforms and programs that will only be available to police and emergency response units.
Avion’s “standard” five-day training event runs about $1, 800 per student, Abington said, but if a group wants to train a number of individuals there’s a flat rate of $10, 800 for six students and $250 per student thereafter. There’s also an online training option to the public for $599. For more information visit Avionsolutions.com/unmanned or contact [email protected].
Text by Dave Helms
