DartDrones Can Turn Anyone Into A Drone Pilot

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Piloting a drone isn’t as easy as purchasing a kit and following the instructions, and crashing a brand-new drone into a lake or tree can be a costly error. Luckily, for novice drone enthusiasts, there’s DartDrones, a Wellesley, Mass-based training academy for drone pilots.

’One of the major things that we’ve realized is that it’s sort of confusing when you get this brand-new $1,500 drone in the box, and you’re so excited about it, and then you get outside and all these buttons mean different things. And, really, if you click the wrong button you’re sort of doomed [to crash] into a tree or a lot of people crash into bodies of water,’ said CEO and co-founder Abby Speicher.

DartDrones is an FAA 333-certified drone training academy, and its main goal is to prepare drone users for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) license, which are likely to begin being issued in 2016.

DartDrones offers training to corporations and individuals, but until UAV licenses are issued all users must be classified as ’hobbyists.’ The academy offers basic and advanced training, which covers FAA rules and regulations, safety, software introduction, and hands-on flying.

An individual training sessions starts at $225 and sessions are available in Boston New Jersey, and Philadelphia.

’We are focused on making sure that you can be successful in flying, confident in your flying, and have a great experience,’ said Speicher.

PUBLISHED JUNE 18, 2015