Students find unique class at airport never drones on
BRESLAU — “I’m so scared I’m going to break it!” Gabi Dreher said, watching her airborne drone dip and flutter.
But she didn’t break it even as she bounced it a few times on the hangar floor. As Dreher, 17, gained confidence with the hand-held console, she got better at piloting the small drone where she wanted it to go.
This was the point of Monday’s unusual high school class, held not at Resurrection Catholic Secondary School, but at the Region of Waterloo International Airport.
There, 10 students enrolled in communications technology got a hands-on drone lesson from the Waterloo Wellington Flight Centre. They learned a bit about how to fly a drone and where they can fly one. They learned a bit about aerodynamics and they learned about drone safety.
These are skills that could pay off when they join a workforce that’s using drones more often for mapping, rescue and policing, among other activities.
For the flight school that taught the students, it helps get the message out about new regulations around a fast-growing technology. “We’re just trying to educate people,” said Sarah Spry, of the flight school.
Students are keen to learn how to record videos from drones.
“I want to go into film and television. This is probably one of my favourite public school trips ever,” said Laura Morton, 16. “I’m definitely more interested in flying drones now.”
“Technology is always advancing. And the
drones are kind of a way to get different shots that we used to not be able to get,” Dreher said. “It’s a really cool experience to be able to do things that 10 years ago people wouldn’t have even thought of doing.”
Inside the airport hangar, students tried flying drones from one spot to another. They practised hovering drones at eye level, circling them around a garbage can, and landing them on a table. The entry-level drones lack stabilizers and need a deft touch to fly smoothly.
Lauren Kufske, 16, showed a steady hand, piloting a drone for the first time.
“When (drones) have cameras you can get shots and frames and edit them into videos that you normally couldn’t film,” she said.
“It just makes videos so much more interesting to watch.”