Upcoming Dates:
Drones Cohort 5
Program Duration: August 23, 2021 – September 10, 2021
Application Deadline: July 16, 2021
Drones Cohort 6
Program Duration: November 15, 2021 – December 3, 2021
Application Deadline: October 18, 2021
Drones Cohort 7
Program Duration: March 7, 2022 – March 25, 2022
Application Deadline: January 10, 2022
The Course
Indigenous communities and organizations in British Columbia are invited to apply for the first program to offer comprehensive training in the theory, set up and application of drones with an Indigenous community context! Students will be provided with a foundational understanding of management through experiential learning, ground school, and applied learning. This course is offered in partnership with Flytbox Aerial Solutions to prepare students for the Transport Canada Small Basic RPAS exam. In addition, students will receive their Restricted Radio Operator Certificate with an Aeronautical qualification (ROC-A).


Who can apply?
Regional Hosts: Apply here
Regional Representatives: Apply here
Training Details
Dates:
Listed above
Application Deadline:
Listed above
Location:
Online – Virtual Classroom
Time commitment:
Three weeks, 9AM – 3PM Monday – Friday
Cohort size:
12 students
Costs:
Tuition and certification costs are funded by the Technology Council. Additional funding for travel and accommodation expenses are available upon application.
Meet your Instructors

Pano Skrivanos
Pano Skrivanos has been working with Indigenous communities for many years as Senior Manager of the GIS and Information Management Program at Inlailawatash Limited Partnership. He provides expertise in the areas of land use planning, forestry, surveying, marine conservation, archaeology, wildlife habitat analysis, and forest carbon. Pano also specializes in land use and occupancy research, and more recently, optical and LiDAR mapping using drones. Pano has a BSc. in Geography from the University of Victoria, an Advanced Diploma in Geographic Information Systems from British Columbia Institute of Technology, and an MSc. in Forestry from the University of British Columbia.
Pano says, “The course is going to be really interesting. I mean drones are interesting. These are machines that fly around and can do really cool stuff. It’s going to be a really good opportunity. It’s going to open up doors for people to do all kinds of neat stuff in their communities.”
Pano’s great-grandmother is from Tia’amin Nation.

Maxime Lapierre
Max is the Chief Operations Officer and Lead Pilot at Flytbox Aerial Solutions Inc. He is a career Geographic Information Systems (GIS) professional with experience working in government, academia, and the private sector. Max has also worked with EMO, Search and Rescue and a variety of public service departments. His passion for RPAS has developed significantly in the last few years after receiving his first Special Flight Operations Certificate. He enjoys the new perspectives drones can give you, especially when used for data collection.
Max says, “Drones are such an empowering tool. I love being able to teach folks how to bring all this technology together and see what they do with it. I hope to help students build the confidence they need to fly.” His family is from Quebec and his great-grandmother is was Kanyen’kehà:ka (Mohawk). Max now lives in K’jipuktuk (Halifax).
What you’ll be learning
Week 1
Rules and Regulations
Week 2
Transport Canada Exams
Week 3
Hands-On Piloting
How drones are being used across the world
Forestry
Firefighting
Search and Rescue
