Drone pilots in the Wanaka region have the chance to test their flying skill and knowledge at a course next month.
Run by Aviation Safety Management Systems Ltd, the two-day course covers such things as aviation law, airspace rules and hazard and risk minimisation.
Spokeswoman for the company Heather Andrews told the Otago Daily Times yesterday the course would give drone operators qualifications to fly their drones in airspace with other aircraft "and also allowing them to go within four kilometres of aerodrome boundaries’’.
"So it’s a bit of a high-level one.’’
Ms Andrew said the course had a "comprehensive syllabus’’ that included an operational competency assessment.
The course was run in Wanaka once before and also once in Dunedin.
"There are so many people out there that just go and buy [a drone] at the counter and fly them without understanding all these other rules that go with that purchase.
"You can’t just throw them up in the air.’’
Ms Andrew said those who took her course were "professional people’’ such as engineers, surveyors, architects, university academics and real estate photographers.
