Liberty University’s School of Aeronautics Drone Team and the Department of Emergency Management & Community Engagement held its first Drone Fest Oct. 22, from 3-7 p.m. on the Academic Lawn.
Frontier Precision, Textron Systems, Platform Aerospace, Zenith Aerotech and Old Dominion Aerial set up drones, and attendees were given the chance to watch them take flight.
These companies operate in the areas of surveillance, contracting and agriculture. This event provided an opportunity for them to showcase their technology to Liberty students and open the door for them to find opportunities in the developing field of drone technology.
John-Wesley Sloan, senior community engagement analyst for the Department of Emergency Management and Community Engagement, co-coordinated Drone Fest.
“This is the awareness phase,” Sloan said.
Sloan said Liberty had been prohibiting drone usage on campus, and to begin to raise awareness about regulations, the School of Aeronautics and the Department of Emergency Management & Community Engagement partnered earlier this year. Drone Fest stemmed from that partnership.
“We want to raise awareness to all of the students, … faculty, staff and even our guests who are flying drones on this campus and not going through the proper procedures, because you could be breaking a FAA regulation,” Sloan said.
This event served as a marketing opportunity for the companies as well as a career opportunity for students interested in the program.
“If you’re an undecided student in Liberty University, there’s very few programs that even come close to what the drone team is doing,” Sloan said.
Brayden Johnson, associate director of unmanned aircraft system (UAS) operations at the School of Aeronautics and co-coordinator of Drone Fest, said he hopes attendees leave with an awareness of how Liberty can prepare them to be skilled and knowledgeable in UAS operations.
Senior Connor Bradley owns Old Dominion Aerial. He said that he was looking for interns at Drone Fest to help Old Dominion Aerial run large-scale, crop-spraying operations.
“We have a large amount of work that we … need pilots to fly for us. We have a big opportunity to provide people with lots of good experience that really no other company is doing,” Bradley said.
Christopher Maier represented Textron Systems, a defense contractor, at Drone Fest.
“As a UAS major at Liberty through the School of Aeronautics, you have the option to enroll with Textron Systems as a semester training program,” Maier said.
Students can enroll in the program for a semester and graduate with an Aerosonde certification, which would allow students to fly the Aerosonde aircraft for Textron customers.
Junior Noah Liscom attended the event and flew one of the drones.
“Drones are continuing to develop,” Liscom said. “I’m doing aviation maintenance management. … It’ll be helpful if I want to work for a drone manufacturer. … Defense companies are going more toward drones in general.”
According to Sloan, students in any major can also add a minor in small UAS to learn how to fly drones in many different industries including emergency services, cinematography, agriculture and delivery services.
The university policies for drone safety are available on the Champion Safe App or at www.liberty.edu/aeronautics/uas-operations-and-campus-drone-policy.
Danilson is a news reporter.