Flight training facility or instructor

spitfire44 · Sep 8, 2014

Hello,

Just out of curiosity, are there any facilities where someone can get training to fly the types of drones we have? Not only Quads of course.

I had a couple of people asking, but would like to flatten the learning curve with "professional" training.

I am not talking about some person with a P2 and extra time on their hands (I could do that for them). They want to know how to fly, what's out there to fly (there is more than DJI out there), the different controller systems, etc, etc.

Could be anywhere in the US, but better to be in the NY area or at least nearby.

Thanks for your time.

Eric

ProfessorStein · Sep 8, 2014

There were, but the ones I knew about closed up temporarily (or at least stopped marketing) until the FAAs rule on no commercial use of drones gets sorted out. They didn't feel it was worth the risk of a fine at this time. But you might find some that do... you just have to look a little harder.

Suwaneeguy · Sep 8, 2014

One I saw on the internet was based in Phoenix I believe.
They offered a six month class on how to fly.
Quite frankly, you'd be better off going to a flying field and getting free lessons from experienced pilots.
In my opinion, a school is only there to take your money.

N017RW · Sep 8, 2014

What about a flight simulator such a RealFlight?

It is good for rainy days too!

spitfire44 · Sep 8, 2014

Six months? They want to learn to fly S900's not Global Hawks.

Suwaneeguy said:
One I saw on the internet was based in Phoenix I believe.
They offered a six month class on how to fly.
Quite frankly, you'd be better off going to a flying field and getting free lessons from experienced pilots.
In my opinion, a school is only there to take your money.

ProfessorStein · Sep 8, 2014

LOVE sims! They can teach you a lot.

My only problem with a sim for a Phantom is that, currently, you're not able to use an actual DJI RC tethered to the sim. In most circumstances, it doesn't matter much. But sometimes it can. Some of the low cost RC's for sims don't have an auto-center on the throttle/left stick (can't remember, off hand, if Real Flights boxed RC does or not). I think it would be a mistake to train on an RC that didn't. It's so intrinsic in how you fly a Phantom. And, of course, the switches on the sim RCs are going to be in different positions, etc. In a panic, it does help to have the experience of flying the actual RC under your belt so your fingers instinctively know where to go at the first sign of trouble. But that's all pretty nit-picky. 9 times out of 10, you're not going to notice the difference.

Of course, if you've upgraded your Phantom's RC to something that can also be tethered to a sim, then you're golden.