by Matt Walsh
CANBERRA, July 11 (Xinhua) -- The University of Adelaide has become Australia's first university to gain accreditation to offer a course in professional drone piloting, in what has been described as a major step forward for commercial drone use in Australia.
The university has announced it will offer an intensive, five-day course at a cost of 3,500 Australian dollars (2,660 U.S. dollars), which will allow professionals to use the drones with greater freedom, opening up greater opportunities in filmmaking among other key industries.
In an interview with Xinhua on Tuesday, Prof. Lian Pin Koh from the University of Adelaide's Unmanned Research Aircraft Facility said while hobby drone pilots might not need a license to fly their machines, they are restricted in what they are allowed to do.
"For most people who want to fly a drone for recreation, they can learn to fly the aircraft themselves without needing a license," Koh told Xinhua on Tuesday.
"They only have to abide by a set of Standard Operating Conditions specified by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), for example, not flying above 400 feet.
"However, the situation is different if a person wants to fly a drone for work, for example, to take video shots of a property for a real estate company. In that case, this drone operator would need to be professionally trained by undertaking a course like ours, and be holding a Remote Pilot License before they are allowed to do so.
"Having a Remote Pilot License also allows you seek permission or exemptions from CASA to perform more complicated or riskier tasks, such as flying above 400 feet."
Koh told Xinhua that he expects a wide range of people to undertake the training considering the benefits the course brings, saying that he has heard of interest from professional photographers and engineers - as well as a number of amateur pilots who want to further their learning.
"We expect trainees from a diverse field, from high school students who aspire to be drone pilots, through professional photographers and videographers, to engineers in the oil and gas industry who want to use this technology in their work," Koh said.
The professor said gaining the accreditation was a major step forward for not only the university, but the Australian drone landscape, and added that he never thought he'd see the day his "frivolous" work with "toys" would become so meaningful.
"When I first started on this path, colleagues at my former university thought I was wasting my time on toys and laughed at my 'frivolous' work with drones," Koh said.
"When I joined the University of Adelaide in 2014, I made it my mission to convince the university to start building our capacity not only in operating drones as a legitimate research tool, but also to gain accreditation from CASA to be able to make our students drone pilots.
"With the amazing support I received from my bosses and staff at the University, I am very happy this dream finally coming to fruition."
The courses are set to begin in August.
