The Wind Energy Department of Cloud County Community College (CCCC) recently held a two-day, 12-hour “Introduction to Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Community Enrichment” class June 15-16 in Concordia, Kansas.
The class gave anyone in the community interested in enrolling for the course the opportunity to get hands-on experience flying, configuring, and taking photos with the UAVs, as well as experience on current status with FAA rules. Monte Poersch, CCCC Wind Energy instructor, taught the class.
The Wind Energy Department at CCCC has acquired, through a grant, four new UAVs. The program is integrating UAVs for blade inspections and for substation and transmission line inspections. UAVs can be used to inspect wind turbine blades much more efficiently and safely than the process currently used for those inspections. Students are being trained to fly the UAVs and are learning more advanced techniques of video and photography as well as programming completely autonomous flights.
Those attending the two-day training said, “This was exactly what I wanted to learn.” And, “I plan to purchase a small drone and learn to fly it and begin a small business with a friend.”
Additional comments were, “It was only 2 days,” and “It was too short.”
— Cloud County Community College
