New UAS/Drone Flight Training Course Information Session

June 20, 2016

Who: Those interested in learning about flying small unmanned aerial systems (UAS)/drones for fun or for a potential career.

What: Representatives of the college's Workforce Development Institute as well as SkyOp, LLC will discuss new opportunities in UAS/drone training offered on campus. 

Brian Pitre, co-owner of SkyOp, LLC, will discuss the training, give a live demonstration and answer questions. The Canandaigua-based company has already partnered with several other SUNY community colleges to offer the training.

When: Tuesday, June 21, from 11 a.m. to noon. Classes will begin in late July.

Where: Fitzgibbons Health Technologies Center, Room 100, on the main Hudson Valley campus.

Details: Students will learn to fly UAS, learn about different types of flight systems, how to perform routine maintenance as well as the rules and regulations that guide unmanned flight. Each student will also be provided a remote controlled training quad copter for practice. 

The potential for commercial use of small UAS may explode over the next several years. According to SkyOp, the Federal Aviation Administration is set to release commercial small UAS flight rules this month that could make the path to an operator certificate much less onerous. Drone use already has applications in several professions and the list is growing – law enforcement, agriculture, real estate, construction, insurance, to name just a few.

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Founded in 1953, Hudson Valley Community College offers more than 80 degree and certificate programs in four schools: Business; Engineering and Industrial Technologies; Health Science; and Liberal Arts and Sciences; and an Educational Opportunity Center for academic and career training. One of 30 community colleges in the State University of New York system, it has an enrollment of nearly 12,000 students, and is known as a leader in distance learning initiatives and workforce training. Hudson Valley has more than 75,000 alumni.