ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — More than a dozen kids got up before sunrise on a cold Saturday morning, and they went to school for the 2nd annual Sunshine State Drone Expo at Azalea Middle school.
“It’s what I live for,” Benton Stuart said. “Basically anything with flying, I love it."
Benton is a student at the engineering magnet school, and he’s in Capt. Willis Reese’s Drone class.
“The experience is awesome,” said student Ryan Young- Nguyen.
Not only are the kids having fun learning how to fly drones they’re also getting math, science and technology lessons. They need that information to be able to build and fly drones.
“My dream when I grow up is to go into the Air Force or the Army.”
All of the students are part of the school’s civil air patrol unit.
“Civil air patrol is a wonderful organization,” Capt. Reese said. “They’ve been around since WWll. They’re an auxiliary to the United States Air Force, and part of the total force when they’re activated. So it’s a really amazing unit to be here in a middle school setting no doubt.”
Capt. Reese added the drone class as an after school program then it grew. The best thing for the kids, they get a head start for a career working with drones, even if they’re not going into the service. This course even counts for one college credit.
“We film for Netflix, Hulu, and work with power line inspections,” said Brandon Turk.
Turk works for Rocket Drones. It’s a Tennessee-based company. He said programs like the one at Azalea are needed because they’re having trouble finding qualified pilots to work for them. So there are tons of jobs just waiting for these kids.
“The difficulty finding pilots is real,” Turk said. “We have a hard time hiring, so we built a drone racing program for education where kids are having fun racing, but they’re also learning and getting the skills they need to get jobs.”
Several different drone vendors came out to display their products and teach about all the things drones can do, from flying to boating, and even robots.
