T-L Photo/JOSIE BURKHART Belmont College is offering a drone piloting course that will prepare students to pass the FAA Part 107 exam, which gives them credentials to operate a drone.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Belmont College students have the opportunity to take to the skies via a drone piloting course that will prepare them for an exam to receive a drone operating credential.

Belmont College is offering a drone piloting course that began last week and will run for 13 weeks. This course is considered to be a step toward achieving the FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate. The course will prepare students with the skills and knowledge they need to pass the FAA Part 107 exam, which will give them the credentials to operate a commercial drone.

Drone operation can be helpful in many different careers, according to the college, including aerial photography, inspection, surveillance or mapping.

The course is being offered through the college’s Workforce and Community Education Department and taught by Robert McAninch, who is a retired Black Hawk Army pilot.

Simulators and other devices will be used in the course for students to practice with.

This class prepares students to take the exam and for the many opportunities of drone operation, Director of Industrial Trades Keith Kaczor said. He noted the world is changing with unmanned technology. He said Uber is going to be using unmanned taxis to pick people up at airports, so technology is advancing.

“It will benefit just about any industry,” Kaczor said. “Whether you’re in real estate, you want to take videos or pictures of real estate properties, anybody that’s in industry like insurance that wants to record damage done to property or anything like that. … These vehicles can fly up and take a look at everything that’s going around.”

Even the heating, ventilation and air conditioning industry will be using drones to look at roofs after a storm.

Kaczor said many new drones will be equipped to look at gas wells that have been abandoned and will be able to locate natural gas coming out on the ground. The person flying the drone can then mark the locations on a GIS map, and someone can go in and cap them so they don’t release gas into the atmosphere.

Kaczor said this course is just one step and part of a program the college is trying to build. It’s the first step toward an aviation program that Belmont College wants to have in the future.

Belmont College is partnering with Unmanned Safety Institute: USI to offer the course and training.

The course is described as a “self paced course that uses cutting edge technology.”

Kaczor and Belmont College’s staff wanted to bring this class to the college because many high schools in the area have offered drone programs, and they want to start building on that foundation.

He added that there is a need for drone operators in the Ohio Valley because drones can help people in many ways, such as deploying them to find lost animals in the neighborhood, for real estate sales and to monitor gas lines.

According to UAV Coach, a drone training, education and news agency, an individual will need an FAA-issued Part 107 Certificate to start piloting commercial drones in the United States.

“I’m hoping students will be able to pass this exam,” Kaczor said, “and we’ll have a better understanding of how we can continue to launch this program here at Belmont college.”