Take Drone Academy on the Go With New iOS and Android Apps!

Ok…so, it’s 2022 and like most of you, I wanted to start this new year off with some momentum. If I’m being honest, 2021 was rough for most of the world (myself included) so instead of doing a recap of last year I’m going to look forward to the next 12 months and set a vision for the upcoming year. This is important to me for a couple of reasons;

• First, it helps me lay out some of my plans and solicit community feedback on what matters to you.
• Secondly, it helps keep me honest.

Once I set a goal, it creates an expectation, and that expectation helps keep me pressing forward to provide our members with the absolute best product I can! The last thing I want to do is to let people down so if I say it, I better deliver.

It’s Happening Now!

But before we get into my plans for the rest of 2022, I want to talk about something that is happening right now!

I mean, what better way to get things moving than to start the new year with a feature release! We haven’t really made much noise about this outside of our own community, but today we’re excited to take the wraps off a new Drone Academy feature that has been in the works for quite some time and one I think you’ll be excited about; The Drone Academy App is now available on iOS and Android!

If you haven’t had a chance to check it out yet, I encourage you to go to the app store of your choice and download it today! This free app provides all the same great functionality you’ve come to expect from the website, plus some additional tools like mobile pre-flight checklists, offline course downloads, and push notifications to ensure you never miss a thing. Some of those notifications will take you to member’s only giveaways that will only be open to app users, so you’ll want to make sure you keep your eyes peeled!

We’ll be actively working on this app over the next 12 months, improving the tablet experience, adding live message loading, dark mode, and a bunch of other features.

New Courses!

Drone Academy is, first and foremost, about learning. Our members trust me to provide comprehensive and up to date information about drones and how to use them safely, legally, and effectively. That is why I’m excited about two of the newest courses we have coming soon; Drones 101: An Introduction and Airspace & Authorizations (LAANC & DroneZone). If you want to get an early invite to those courses, let me know!

The Drone 101 Course is a great for those who are just entering the drone world as either hobbyists or commercial pilots. We cover the history of drones, types of drones, various components, payloads, applications, and basic drone regulations.

The Airspace & Authorizations course is great for those who want/need to fly in controlled airspace around the hundreds of airports in the U.S. This course covers the various methods of obtaining airspace authorization and the best one to use for various cases.

We’re also working on Video Basics and Mapping Basics courses which I’m hoping to get out sometime in Q2-Q3 of 2022.

I’ve also been evaluating the possibility of doing a bi-weekly, livestream covering regulations, best practices, and all sorts of drone related topics. Let us know in the comments below if you’s like to see something like that.

Website / Community Improvements

I know some prefer the visual real estate of a full website, so we’ll be investing there as well. The aforementioned live loading messages, push notifications, and a visual refresh are all coming in the next couple of months.

Additional features like Social Login, an improved forum experience, and better video upload handling are all in the pipe. We want to make it easy for our members to connect with each-other, share content, and find answers to their questions.

We Want to Hear From You!

More courses, improved website, and updated app functionality…what did I miss? Let me know what else you’d like to see in the comments down below and I’ll make it happen!

I’m looking forward to an AMAZING 2022, I hope you are too!

Until next time…Have Fun & Fly Safe!