Certification Coursework
The FAA Part 107 and AAE Certification coursework is an 80 hour course designed not only to prepare students for their Federal Commercial Operator’s License, but pushes them farther than the majority of current UAS pilots through rigor and relevance achieved through Advanced Learning Systems, hands on flights, and scenario-based practical exercises. Our AAE Certified Pilots pass their federal exam with scores exceeding the national averages and our instructors have a 100% pass rate on their first attempt. This course package includes:
-Teacher Training: Join us for one of our multiple regional trainings, where AAE Instructors and Working Pilots train you to not only teach with our Learning Management System, but also prepare you to be the best pilot you can be. Trainings take place over two weeks and include an intense learning experience in everything you need to know for sUAS flight and training.
-Learning Management System: You and your students have options with our Learning Management System. Take advantage of lesson plans, teaching modules, and all other digital material needed to lead your students to be the best pilots and operators available to serve the needs of the growing drone industry. Your systems can be accessed on computers, tablets, and even your students’ phones as you guide them through their flight training experience.
-Student Workbooks and Badging Systems: Each of your students will have access to their own workbook where they can go through the cognitive steps needed to assimilate rigorous material through practice and exercises. Our badging system allows students to track and share their progress as they move through the curriculum. As an instructor, you can use these tools to either move through the work as a class or allow students to move at a more individualized pace.
-Learning materials: We supply you with maps, regulatory supplements, three dimensional airspace practice materials, lanyards for badges, and the appropriate tools needed for flight planning and completion.
-Fleet Development: Our pilots and instructors will help you build the fleet you need to fit the number of students you serve. We will supply you with fleet lists, registration instructions, and professional support on preparing your program to succeed.
sUAS Design, Engineering, and Repair
The drone industry is so much more than simply flying. The Advanced Aerial Education Design Curriculum is an 80 to 160 hour course which walks students through the entire design and engineering process from conception to completion. Through this coursework, students engage with the following:
-Aerodynamics Review: For those students who have completed the Certification coursework, this is a handy review to help with their design process. For students jumping directly into engineering or working this course into an existing engineering pathway, this module prepares students with the basic knowledge needed to inform airframe design.
-Team Work and Management Skills: The real world of work has meetings, and participation in those meetings takes respect and skill. Your students will learn how to plan, conduct, and present at design meeting while working through engineering scenarios as a group. This module is not only critical to a solid design process, but will prepare your students with the professional skills needed to be successful in any workplace.
-Design Process: Students will be offered parameters for a product and will begin work within the IPDS engineering process to come up with the best idea possible to move forward with a prototype.
-Airframe Modeling: Students will learn the tools needed to design their own airframe in 3D modeling software and engage with enough skills to also pass industry standard certification exams in 3D CAD modeling software.
-Programing Phase: An airframe is quite useless without code and programming. Students will upload their airframe into our professional simulation software, choose from a series of market available rotors and propellors, and learn the coding processes needed to program the flight components of their aircraft. This is the same software used by current Drone Design companies worldwide to prepare their prototypes. Your students will be coding and testing their concepts with industry standard tools.
-Testing: Students will be handed scenario based challenges to practice the entire process with different client needs and parameters. Your school can choose to continue working in this simulated space, or move to the premium package where students can 3D print their airframes and download their tested and adjusted code directly into a circuit board and fly their designs. This is truly the most rigorous and rewarding sUAS engineering opportunity available to students at any level.
Custom Industry Training
If you are already in a specific industry or if your school is in an area with a specific drone need, we have several site-specific curriculum options available on a custom scale. These programs are designed to work with students who have completed the certification program and are ready to receive industry-specific training in any one of the following areas:
-Closed Set Film Operations
-Fixed Wing Precision Agricultural Flight and Data Development
-Infrastructure Inspection and Data Collection
-Fixed Wing Aerial Survey
-Fixed Wing Photogrammetry and Volumetric Data Analysis
Jason and Steve Made the Advanced Choice
AAE’s founding principles are to create a safe and professional flight community through rigorous education, self-policing, and strong community engagement. We are proud to partner with educational leaders like Jason and Steve who share those values. We wish Walker High School the best of luck in the completion of their Drone Academy and we are excited to support them every step of the way.
