Want to fly a commercial drone? Learn how at this FAA training in Crestview

Tony Judnich, Northwest Florida Daily News
·2 min read

CRESTVIEW — Realtors, engineers, videographers, researchers, farmers and other types of white- and blue-collar workers who want to legally fly a commercial drone for their livelihoods can become prepared to do so at an upcoming FAA remote pilot training session.

Provided by the Okaloosa County Extension Service, the session will prepare participants to pass the FAA’s aeronautical knowledge exam and obtain their Part 107 Remote Pilot certificate.

The Extension Service is the outreach arm of the Institute of Food & Agricultural Sciences at the University of Florida. The training session is set for 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. July 13 at the Extension Service office at 3098 Airport Road in Crestview.

This camera drone image from late last summer shows damage to a soybean field in the Baker area. Much of the field closest to the forest reveals heavy eating from deer while the yellowish areas show damage from worms called nematodes. The Okaloosa County Extension Service will offer a training session July 13 that can help people obtain a commercial drone pilot certificate.

“This is for commercial drone flights,” said Jennifer Bearden, the Extension Service’s agriculture agent. “My goal is to try get people legal with their flying.”

Bearden, who has worked for the Extension service since 2001 and received her commercial drone pilot’s license in 2018, will teach the session.

Off limits: No drone zone: Receive a drone as a gift? Hurlburt Field has some guidelines.

Assisting public safety: Missing autistic teen found safe not far from Crestview home

She said obtaining a certificate to become an FAA-approved recreational flyer, a drone pilot who is just flying for fun, is much easier to obtain than the Part 107 Remote Pilot certificate for commercial flyers.

“It’s just online training with a test,” Bearden said of the basic set of requirements for limited recreational drone flights.

Topics covered at the upcoming training class for commercial drone pilots will include aircraft identification and registration, airspace and aeronautical symbols, aviation weather and effects, risk management, aeronautical knowledge and sectional chart reading.

The cost to attend is $100 per person. Lunch will be provided.

To ensure he or she receives a study manual, each participant must register for the session by Wednesday via EventBrite at https://bit.ly/39LwXy2.

Bearden said she began teaching the training sessions in 2019 and that she tries to provide at least one each year. More than 90 people have participated in the classes since they began, she said.

One of the main lessons the participants learn is about controlled air space, such as areas over Eglin Air Force Base.

“There is a lot of controlled airspace in Okaloosa County,” Bearden said. Drone pilots “need to know the rules on yielding to manned aircraft. We really need to be aware of that controlled airspace because it’s a national security risk.”

She said she often is asked by farmers to fly a camera drone over their fields to take photos of their crops.

“Most of the farms are not in the controlled airspace, though,” Bearden said. “I normally don’t run into problems where I need to fly it.”

To learn more about drones and their operational requirements, visit faa.gov/uas.

This article originally appeared on Northwest Florida Daily News: Commercial drone training in Crestview teaches students to fly legally