Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio, has requested federal approval of a site at Springfield Air National Guard Base to do training flights of unmanned aircraft, in the latest effort by the region to develop itself as a center of education and expertise for UAS and the information-gathering sensor systems they carry.Depending on when the Federal Aviation Administration could approve the request, Sinclair could incorporate the hands-on experience of flying UAS next year in a class that the college first offered this summer for training in operating the aircraft and using their cameras and other sensors. Sinclair officials hope to hear in six months or less from the FAA.
The college is working with the nonprofit Unmanned Applications Institute International, based in North Dakota, home of various UAS industry programmes, to develop curriculum for what Sinclair officials envision as the school’s eventual training center for unmanned aircraft systems. The University of Dayton Research Institute, the UD-led Institute for Development and Commercialization of Advanced Sensor Technologies, and Woolpert Inc., an engineering and aerial mapping company, are Sinclair’s local partners in developing the training.
Students at Sinclair, which already trains airplane pilots, would fly UAS under supervision of a designated instructor. The college has asked the FAA to approve a certificate of authorization, which allows flying of specific aircraft within a designated area. The authorization, already held by colleges in other parts of the country, are good for a year and can be renewed with FAA permission.
Sinclair applied to the FAA within the past two weeks after more than a year of preparation, said Deb Norris, the school’s vice president for workforce development and corporate services. The school is purchasing two UAS, each about 25 pounds and three feet long and including sensor packages, at up to $35,000 apiece from Co-Operative Engineering Services Inc., which builds the small aircraft in Dayton’s Tech Town complex, Norris said.
Earlier this year, the Air Force Research Laboratory requested FAA approval to allow flying of small UAS for military development purposes with five miles of Wilmington Air Park, a former Air Force base in Clinton County.
Designated UAS flying areas already exist in Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, North Dakota and California, among other places. UAS advocates say that puts Ohio at a disadvantage, since the closest authorized flying area to Dayton is the Indiana National Guard’s Camp Atterbury, near Columbus, Ind.
Source: Dayton Daily News