Ag Drone School

Ag Drone School - Fall 2023

From your first takeoff to completely legal, autonomous mapping missions in two days!

New this year ... an advanced course focused on spraying and spreading by drone

We are going beyond just imaging - the technology is now here to start applying product. The DJI Agras-series drones have started shipping to Canada, enabling both spreading of cover crops/fertilizers and application of liquid product. The regulations still need to catch up for regulated pesticides, but we'll hopefully be applying those within the next few years as well.

We had a series of two-day clinics throughout the spring. We're starting with a bang ... with "Nozzle Guy" himself, Dr. Tom Wolf of Sprayers101, joined us at the spraying clinics. In the summertime, most farmers don't have two consecutive days for learning, so we will be offering a one-day "Spraying Drone Workshop" in a few central locations in Alberta and Saskatchewan. We'll be back with the complete two-day Clinic again after harvest though.

All of our events have the same registration fee ... $590 plus tax for two-day events, $395 for one-day events. That fee always includes a binder of materials, access to our drones for practice, lunches, and all of the supplies you need for effective learning. For one-day events, it also includes a supplementary 3-hour online crash course to help you prepare for the Basic Certificate online exam with Transport Canada.

Spraying & Spreading Agenda

We will also continue our eighth season of Ag Drone School, now with locations at community halls across Canada. Again, we will have about 20 locations in the fall, but only a few in the summer. We currently have only one firm date, but a few more will be announced very soon once space and instructors are confirmed. Our Ag Drone School deals with every aspect of productive, safe, and legal use of remotely piloted aerial systems by farmers & agronomists. Topics covered include:

Introduction to Remote Sensing of Vegetation
NDVI and other vegetative indexes
Data accuracy: sensor types and calibration
Future of crop imaging ... hyperspec, thermal, machine learning
From fly to apply: software workflows
Use cases: the many uses of drones on farms
Knowledge Requirements for Small Basic Operations:
- Air law, air traffic rules and procedures
- RPAS airframes, power plants, propulsion and systems
- Human factors
- Meteorology
- Navigation
- Flight operations
- Theory of flight
- Radiotelephony

Ag Drone School Agenda

Ag Drone School featured on CBC's The National

Thank you for your interest in Ag Drone School

Everyone is welcome at our Ag Drone School – we’ve enjoyed having everyone participate, from teenagers to retired agronomists, from government environmental agency staff to agtech entrepreneurs. You don't even need to have a drone -- only about ¼ of attendees already have an RPAS, many are just taking the course because they want to learn about it before purchasing anything.

But the vast majority of attendees are farmers and agronomists, and that’s exactly how we like it. During the course, we talk about the uses & limitations of this technology for agriculture and exactly how you would go about using the data. We'll discuss what is possible in vegetative remote sensing now and demonstrate exactly what sensors & software you would use on your farm.

Much of the teaching time, however, is dedicated to the regulatory requirements the federal government imposes. Since June 2019, any operator of an RPAS over 250 grams is now required to have a certificate to operate the drone and must register it. For most farmers, a Basic Certificate is enough. For this reason, our in-person Ag Drone School will focus on delivering the Knowledge Requirements for "Small Basic" operations.

Some farmers and agronomists, however, may need to get an Advanced Certificate. This is the case if you will be operating your drone:

within 3 nautical miles (5.6 km) of any certified airport (as listed in the Canada Flight Supplement)
within 1 nautical mile (1.9 km) of any certified heliports
within controlled airspace (interactive map)
with a takeoff weight of over 25 kg (Special Flight Operations Certificate required)

For those wishing to get their Advanced Certificate, we offer a supplementary course through a combination of online learning and the in-person Flight Review. This option is only recommended for those that actually need an Advanced Certificate though, as it will be more intense learning and come at considerable additional cost. Our focus in the Ag Drone School will be on getting you prepared to pass your Basic test -- and helping you learn how to actually operate and maintain a drone.

Practical & Exciting

The classes are structured, but not heavy. We include many real-world farm examples, opportunities for sharing, and practical elements to keep the workshop interesting. There will be plenty of time for interactive discussion and conversations. You will also have plenty of opportunity to actually fly -- we start you on the DJI Mini line indoors, but you will also have opportunities to fly larger aircraft outdoors on the second day including several models from the Mavic 3 line and a Matrice 300/350 aircraft, amongst others.

Still not sure?

Check out the Western Producer article "Easy to use drones becoming crop tool", where several participants share how they will use UAV's in their businesses. Or an article by the CAAR Communicator about our La Salle, Manitoba class: "How I learned to fly a drone".

Perhaps most importantly, most of the attendees at our school are from within an hour or two drive of the hall. By attending a regional course, you will have a group of peers supporting each other as you all start using drones in your businesses.

Questions?

Call Markus Weber
at LandView

Tel (780) 448-7445

markus@landview.com

Learn & Fly Discount

Learn & Fly

up to 50% off

To encourage customers to fly legally, anyone who attends our Ag Drone School gets a one-time "Learn & Fly" refund of a portion of their registration fees when purchasing one of our packages:

20% of registration fee refunded with any non-NDVI package over $2,000
30% with any mapping package
50% with any multispectral or Matrice 300 RTK packag
100% of the Spraying Clinic registration with any Agras package

That's a refund of up to $590. It doesn't matter whether you attended in the past or are registering now. Just remind us that you attended Ag Drone School when you place an order.

Ag Drone School

Ag Drone School featured on CBC's The National

Thank you for your interest in Ag Drone School

​

​

Some farmers and agronomists, however, may need to get an Advanced Certificate. This is the case if you will be operating your drone:

within 3 nautical miles (5.6 km) of any certified airport (as listed in the Canada Flight Supplement)

within 1 nautical mile (1.9 km) of any certified heliports

within controlled airspace (interactive map)

with a takeoff weight of over 25 kg (Special Flight Operations Certificate required)

​

Questions?

Learn & Fly Discount

Learn & Fly

up to 50% off

To encourage customers to fly legally, anyone who attends our Ag Drone School gets a one-time "Learn & Fly" refund of a portion of their registration fees when purchasing one of our packages:

​

20% of registration fee refunded with any non-NDVI package over $2,000

30% with any mapping package

50% with any multispectral or Matrice 300 RTK packag

100% of the Spraying Clinic registration with any Agras package

​

That's a refund of up to $590. It doesn't matter whether you attended in the past or are registering now. Just remind us that you attended Ag Drone School when you place an order.

​