UAS Course Scholarships Offered For First Responders

Kansas State University Polytechnic Campus is offering $500 scholarships to first responders who want to attend its small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) commercial remote pilot training course in 2019. The three-day course covers topics including airspace, meteorology, weather, UAS performance, loading and center of gravity, and Part 107 operations. The scholarship, which is available to law enforcement, fire rescue and emergency management personnel, is designed to reduce overall course cost by 50 percent.

"Approximately 35 percent of the attendees of this training come from the public safety arena," said Kurt J. Carraway, UAS research executive director of Kansas State Polytechnic's Applied Aviation Research Center. "We do not want cost to become a barrier to providing access of this lifesaving technology into the hands of our first responders and emergency managers."

Kansas State Polytechnic began offering first responder-specific training in 2018 with its UAS Law Enforcement Training course and a First Responder Symposium. A course specifically for fire rescue personnel is under development and plans are in place for a second symposium for 2019.