This month marks Dronitek’s 5th year as a leading remote pilot training school. When we got started in 2015 as Drone University USA, there were rumblings the FAA was working on new rules to allow unmanned aircraft to perform commercial operations with a licensing requirement. I was the chief flight instructor at a Part 141 manned flight academy in California when we started having students coming in for training to become a pilot, NOT with the intent of ever flying manned aircraft but to satisfy the FAA requirement at that time for someone to have a pilots license to be exempt from the current manned FAA regulations, the old 333 exemption process. I actually had a young woman student working towards her private pilot’s license before heading to college for a 4 year aerospace degree tell me she was more interested in a UAS remote pilot degree than becoming an airline pilot, both her father and grandfather were airline pilots! So we got started training in hotel conference rooms and have since expanded into 8 different courses teaching individuals not just to pass a written test but to how to operate profitably and safely in different commercial sectors. As we grew, we attracted some of the best instructors in the business, specifically experts and remote pilots in each of the subject areas they teach and if you have taken our classes, you know what I mean. We have consulted and trained some of the largest public safety, state and corporate sector companies and have students come from all over the world to work with us. DJI asked us to become one of 8 UTC training schools in the US and as we got bigger, we changed our name to Dronitek Flight Academy to better distance ourselves from other similar named schools and to further expand into future areas of growth such as providing drone pilot services for our graduates. In 2017, we created a 9-12 grade charter school program and began teaching the future 16 year old remote pilots how to fly and get a pilots license. In 2018, we launched a successful veterans training program with tuition funds through the US Department of Labor and are one of a very few remote pilot schools approved in the State of CA with tuition funding for displaced workers and medically diagnosed disabled individuals. We even have a full size motor home training lab, packed with every drone and sensor you can imagine, to go on the road and train large groups. Just before COVID hit last March, we announced our new, free of charge and one of a kind Graduate Job Placement Assistance Program (GAP) to give graduates the best chance to get hired after completing our programs. We have met and created partnerships with some of the best UAS companies in business, we’re excited about the future, we love our students and we love what we do!

Barry Morris- President