Drone Flight Technician

The Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (Drone) Flight Technician Career Studies Certificate at Virginia Peninsula Community College is an 18-credit program designed to teach you how to operate, build, and maintain drones. The required courses cover topics such as preparing for the FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot Certification Exam, manual and autonomous flight, and drone maintenance. Students can complete this certificate in two semesters. No prerequisites are needed, and the College provides the drones and additional equipment needed for coursework.

The novice pilot will learn manual flight skills and how to legally fly in a commercial operation. The courses in this program can be used as electives in the Associate of Applied Science (AAS) in Information Systems Technology or the AAS in Mechanical Engineering Technology, graduating with both an AAS degree and this Career Studies Certificate.

Possibilities:

Graduates from the Drone Flight Technician Career Studies Certificate program are in demand from a wide range of industries. The potential commercial uses of unmanned systems are endless and include remote sensing of the atmosphere; disaster response, police and fire response; weather forecasting; scientific research; agricultural survey of crops, soils, and livestock; crop dusting; wildfire surveillance; wildlife surveys; power line and pipeline survey; industrial security; oil, gas, and mineral exploration; payload transport; search and rescue; and aerial photography for fields like real estate, construction, film and entertainment industry, and accident investigation.