A drone with an attached camera used for aerial photography.[ photo / spire Drones ]
Kenya will soon have its first drone academy following the latest assurance by the civil aviation authority to approve the application of drone school license by Astral Aviation firm.
According to KCAA director-general Gilbert Kibe, the regulator has already received an application from Astral and they are still reviewing it.
“We have received their application and it is in the reviewing process. We will definitely approve it because we need more of drone training schools to create local capacity,” said Kibe.
Currently, Kenya has no drone pilot nor a training site for the drone operators and the approval of Astrals application to begin such classes would rank kenya the second country in the continent to have such a training after South Africa.
Drone also best known as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) is a small aircraft that flies remotely without a human pilot aboard. It is controlled from the ground at a command center by an operator or a pilot.
Drones are used mainly for surveillance, photography , traffic management and transport of light cargo.
Astral chief executive officer Sanjeev Gadhia noted that they have already identified two possible sites far away from the airport where they would set up the institutions.
He added that they will be bringing in instructors from South Africa as they will first be using their syllabus and curriculum for training of local pilots before the local programmes are developed.
Last year, Kenya approved the commercial use of drones after restricting its use outside the Millitary two years before due to lack of a legal framework.