Highly Experienced Pilot with Respected Commercial
UAS Background to Oversee USI's Growing Operational Footprint

Port St. Joe, Fla. (December 1, 2022) – Unmanned Safety Institute (USI) announced today that they have hired Thomas Reese as their new vice president of operations. In this role, Reese will oversee the company's continued growth in both its academic and commercial markets. Reese brings his education in aeronautical science along with significant operational experience in both crewed and remotely piloted aviation to USI.

USI President and CEO Josh Olds commented, "Thomas brings very unique qualifications to USI, continuing our commitment to integrate aviation safety practices into emerging technology utilization. Not only does he possess pilot qualifications and experience from both crewed and remotely piloted operations, but he is also a certificated A&P mechanic and brings recent four years of large-scale commercial UAS operations experience with a Fortune 500 company that was committed to a best-in-class type of program. " Olds added, "Thomas' focus will be on managing USI's operational growth as we scale past 500 academic institutions leveraging USI's workforce development programs. He will also be supporting a rapidly growing number of commercial operations that are scaling to hundreds of aircraft and pilots over large geographic regions."

Reese first started his relationship with USI as a customer. "I was able to experience the USI commitment to excellence in UAS operations firsthand," said Reese. "I was extremely impressed with how USI focused on helping us as their customer achieve the ROI that is expected of commercial drone programs. Seeing how USI leads the UAS industry in standardized workforce development through their commercial, high school, and collegiate programs, added to my excitement about my new role." Reese continued, "The industry will need hundreds of thousands of well-trained workers over the next decade, and I'm proud to join USI in leading the development of the workforce, establishing and implementing safety standards and best practices, to provide a highly-sought-after talent pipeline."

Reese is replacing industry pioneer and long-time USI Vice President Don Shinnamon. Shinnamon will continue his work at USI as director of audit programs shaping the growing safety programs, gap audit, and best practices product line.

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The Textbook was Designed to Provide Valuable Legal and Business Considerations to New or Growing Commercial UAS Operations

AUVSI XPONENTIAL 2022 – Orlando, FL – The Unmanned Safety Institute (USI) has released a brand new textbook titled Unmanned Aircraft Systems – Legal and Business Considerations that was created to provide much needed insight to new or rapidly growing Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) commercial operations. Additionally, the new textbook will be used as part of USI’s offering to the academic marketplace, specifically for those collegiate programs who are building either two-year or four-year degree programs for their UAS students.

“USI takes great pride in being a thought leader for the UAS marketplace,” remarked Josh Olds, USI President and CEO. Olds added “A successful commercial UAS program must deliver a return on investment for the operator. If an operation isn’t built on top of a strong safety, legal, and risk-based foundation, the entire UAS program is putting that ROI in jeopardy”.

USI contracted with USAF Col (Retired) Dawn Zoldi, Esq. to author the new textbook. Ms. Zoldi, through her company P3 Tech Consulting, is featuring the new textbook in a workshop that she is producing and hosting at XPonential 2022 titled “Law Tech Connect Workshop”. The Workshop is a Florida-bar CLE accredited educational event designed to elevate the attendee’s legal, regulatory and policy knowledge related to UAS, autonomy, and advanced air mobility.

Ms. Zoldi had this to say about USI’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems – Legal and Business Considerations textbook, “There is no other resource in the marketplace like this textbook. I commend USI for having the foresight to commission this book at this early stage of commercial UAS adoption. I recommend that every commercial UAS operator uses this book as a resource for planning, starting, and scaling their UAS operation.”

The textbook is available on USI’s website: https://unmanned-safety-institute.myshopify.com/ for $99.00.

With Increased Remote Pilot Training for Commercial and Academic Clients, USI Receives FAA Part 107 Waiver to Support Growing BVLOS Safety Education and Training Requirements

AUVSI XPONENTIAL 2022 – Orlando, FL – The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued Waiver Number: 107W-2022-00254 to the Unmanned Safety Institute, Inc. and its Training Director, Devin Allen. The waiver allows USI to operate small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) beyond the visual line of sight of the remote pilot in command (RPIC) and in operations in which a participating visual observer (VO) is not able to see the sUAS. The operational location applicable to this waiver is USI’s Training Center for Excellence located near Panama City, Florida where USI is performing significant UAS flight training on behalf of its academic and commercial customers.

“We appreciated the professionalism and courtesy extended to USI from the FAA representatives throughout this process,” stated Devin Allen. He added, “This waiver immediately creates value for our academic workforce development program by allowing USI to train students to levels of expertise and proficiency demanded by our commercial clients. The Censys Sentaero BVLOS aircraft that we utilized in our waiver application provided the perfect combination of performance and capability that will allow operators to maximize their return on investment in both VLOS and now BVLOS applications.”

USI utilized the FAA Part 107 Waiver Support Services offered by Censys Technologies for their application. "Helping USI get this waiver approval is rewarding,” John Lobdell, Censys CTO and Waiver Specialist said. “Having the ability to provide true BVLOS operations training is a game changer for future customers operating BVLOS with the Sentaero platform.”

USI has issued over 11,000 certifications to academic and commercial UAS pilots since 2015. These certifications are issued as digital badges, powered by Credly, and are the only UAS industry credentials that provide assurance that the data associated with each badge has been vetted and verified. USI’s curriculum and certification program is active in over 300 high schools and more than 20 colleges across the United States. In response to industry demand, USI has created its Panama City, Florida Training Center of Excellence which offers training to numerous USI Certifications and OEM authorized training Programs.

The IBAC Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) Auditor Training Will Be Based On USI's Education, Training and Certification Program

AUVSI XPONENTIAL 2022 – Orlando, FL – The International Business Aviation Council (IBAC) and the Unmanned Safety Institute have announced plans to develop and implement the International Standard for Business Aircraft Operations (IS-BAO) Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) auditor training program. Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems are quickly becoming part of existing business aviation operations, or as completely new aviation programs within the business aviation marketplace, IBAC is adapting its safety standard and audit program to ensure that it will be relevant and applicable to RPAS operations now and in the future. Professionally trained and credentialed auditors will be critical to internal and external assessments of RPAS programs.

“The business aviation industry is filled with highly experienced and knowledgeable operations and maintenance personnel coming from traditional piloted aircraft backgrounds. However, the RPAS operational environment is relatively new with fewer industry experts”, commented IS-BAO Program Director Andrew Karas. "As with any successful safety program, well trained and qualified auditors are essential. We chose to partner with the Unmanned Safety Institute because of their experience of educating, training, and certifying RPAS operators for 6 years, with a recognized and respected program that has achieved over 11,000 USI certifications."

Josh Olds, USI's President and CEO added, “IBAC's globally recognized IS-BAO and IS-BAH standards and audit programs are highly regarded by the business aviation community as they focus on building a culture that promotes continuous improvement in safety practices and risk mitigation. USI is proud to have been selected by IBAC to develop and implement a RPAS auditor training program that will ensure that the auditor's existing aviation background and expertise will be augmented with knowledge and awareness consistent with the evolving global RPAS marketplace."

Under the terms of this agreement, IBAC will require the RPAS auditor training as part of its auditor credentialing programs and provide oversight of the development and implementation of the training program. USI will create the training program content including coursework materials and online learning management system that will allow a global implementation resulting in newly created co-branded digital credentials for successful participants. The program is scheduled for development and launch later in 2022.

About International Business Aviation Council (IBAC)

IBAC represents the interests of business aviation worldwide. IBAC is a non-profit, international trade association with official observer status at the International Civil Aviation Organization, the UN Specialized Agency for aviation matters, in Montreal, Canada. IBAC promotes and manages the industry-leading standards for best safety practices through its International Standard for Business Aircraft Operations (IS-BAO^TM); International Standard for Business Aviation Handling (IS-BAH^TM); Safety Management Tool Kit; SMS eLearning training; and Aircrew Identification Card. Recently introduced in partnership with CTX, the IBAC Carbon Credit Exchange provides the business aviation community a reliable resource for real-time offsetting to reduce its carbon footprint. More details at www.ibac.org.

Contact: Marj Rose
comms@ibac.org

Increase in commercial UAS operations prompts need for more and better documentation

March 21, 2022 – As FAR Part 107 (commercial) operations utilizing Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), including many larger fleet operators, continues to increase, UAS operators are recognizing the need for more and better operational documentation that can be kept updated and shared with pilots spread across a wide geography. As USI offers commercial UAS operators’ holistic solutions to successfully manage their drone programs, the company has partnered with industry leader, Web Manuals, for managing, editing, and distributing the documentation needed to ensure organizational and regulatory compliance.

“UAS operations are literally, by design, anywhere, anytime, and almost any mission”, stated Josh Olds, USI president and CEO. “Scaling out a commercial drone operation presents many challenges, but with Web Manuals, the challenge of ensuring that current and accurate documentation related to regulatory compliance as well as company policy and procedures, is met with an intuitive, modular structure to allow for scale from simple to complex operations”

Web Manuals maintains a library of current and accurate regulatory, operational, and maintenance related documents that the company’s subscribers can initially draw from as well as the ability to store manuals completely authored and maintained by the user. Subscribers can easily edit, review and distribute documents that clearly communicates any updates or changes and proactively tracks each user’s receipt and acknowledgement of the most current documents. The Web Manuals software allows you to link applicable regulations to your own manuals so that you can be certain of compliance initially, and with each change or update.

Web Manuals vice president of sales, Krister Genmark remarked, “USI has set the standard for both UAS pilot training and education as well as commercial industry best practices for done operations. We recognize the challenges and importance of document management in this unique environment and are proud to partner with USI to offer a solution that solves this problem for commercial UAS operators.”

USI and Web Manuals will be adding a UAS specific Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) manual and Emergency Response Plan (ERP) manual into the library for download with special promotional pricing for new subscribers.  

About the Unmanned Safety Institute

The Unmanned Safety Institute (USI) is the industry’s most widely recognized leader in flight safety solutions for individuals, academia and organizations focused on integrating and operating UAS for civil or commercial purposes. The Unmanned Safety Institute provides UAS flight safety training and certification to operational standards based on the adoption and modification of time-honored aviation safety practices. With more than 300 instructors and over 10,000 USI Certifications awarded around the world, USI works with large commercial enterprises and nearly 300 schools in all 50 states.  USI is the global leader in commercial and academic UAS training and certification, delivering the most highly regarded training program of its kind. Programs include the Small UAS & Advanced Safety Certifications, Visual Line of Sight Systems Operations™ (VSO) and Professional Remote Operator™ (PRO) certifications and Unmanned Connect™ workforce development initiative. USI’s training and certification programs are endorsed by major aviation insurance providers and incorporated into aviation association professional development programs and have been evaluated and recommended for college credit by the American Council on Education. Discover more at www.UnmannedSafetyInstitute.org. 

USI – Stephanie Holland
Stephanie.Holland@unmanned-safety.org

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