NORTH BAY -- Training new drone fliers to get a bird's eye view, that's the goal of a North Bay company that teaches the mining industry how to fly drones.
Safesight Exploration Inc. is starting to offer flight training school to eager drone users to get them high in the sky safely.
"It is exhilarating," said SafeSight Exploration Inc. Missions Logistics Manager Nathan Lintner. "The biggest thing for me is the footage you get. Flying over your house and you see the top-down in a live feed."
SafeSight is a company that works with mining corporations to map underground mines. It is now evolving to a flight school offering general and advanced flight certification.
"We're hoping everything from entrepreneurs to hobbyists take advantage of obtaining their advanced certification," said Mike Campigotto, company president. "My personal hope is that those people will become entrepreneurs themselves."
A year ago, Transport Canada required all drone pilots in the country to be licensed.
Through using drones in the underground mines, SafeSight Exploration began to see many requests for aboveground work. That's when Campigotto noticed there was a shortage of certified pilots in northern Ontario.
"Drones can now go inside buildings and in areas where there is no access to barometer or compass or GPS features," said Campigotto. "More and more applications are being built."
As part of the flight school, there will be in-class sessions and hands-on training. The curriculum will include aboveground flight and underground training.
Campigotto says drones have become more prevalent in the last few years and many job markets are finding ways to use them.
"In real estate, construction, manufacturing, etc., architecture, civil engineering," said Campigotto. "There's lots of opportunities for people to get their advanced pilots license."
SafeSight Exploration Inc. began operations four years ago. Since then, over 100 drone missions have taken place in underground mines.
"The sky is the limit," said Lintner. "What we've seen in the last four years in the evolution is amazing."
Campigotto says the flight school aims to offer training to the north for the north and so he can see more drones in the air flown safely.
More information on the flight school can be found here.