Carbon Career & Technical Institute has taken to the skies with a brand-new piece of technology — a top-of-the-line drone.

“Drones, as we’ve seen over the last few years, have pretty much been the hot-trending technological item out there,” CCTI’s Director of Technology Nate Rinda said. “And as people get more familiar with it, and adapt to the technology, how it can be utilized, you’re going to be seeing a lot more of it.”The drone package, a DJI Phantom 4 Executive Kit, is one of the latest and greatest models in a fast-moving market.Countries including New Zealand and Australia are already using drone deliveries. Companies like Amazon and Domino’s have been exploring the possibility of drone delivery services in the near future. The presence of drones is becoming incredibly widespread, with applications ranging from disaster management and monitoring to agricultural surveying.“Last year, at the beginning of the year, one of our goals was to increase technology in the classrooms,” Reinbold said. “We’re looking at this as being an emerging job market for students. That’s our goal, to prepare students for future jobs,” Reinbold said.Drone Training Headquarters, which highlights education programs and schools that teach the technology, predicts that the economic impact of drones could reach $13.6 billion within the next two years. In addition, there could be over 70,000 new jobs related to drone manufacturing, repair, and piloting by 2018, with pilot salaries averaging around $104,000.Rinda spent several weeks conducting drone research in order to find the best model for school, eventually selecting the highly respected Phantom 4.This model can fly at a maximum speed of 45 mph, with a battery life of about 28 minutes. It can traverse distances up to 5 miles from the controller, though Rinda said he had read several accounts that claimed some pilots were able to go even further.Propeller guards, flight stabilization, and obstacle sensors ensure the safety of the pricey piece of technology. But, even if the battery runs out, there is no need to worry about a crash — it will automatically return to its launch point before anything can happen.With so many features in such an advanced piece of equipment, one could expect the device to be tricky to handle, but it is actually quite the opposite.“The Phantom 4 is easier for beginners to pick up and use,” Rinda said. “I had it out of the box, in 15 minutes I was flying with no issues.”The software that runs the drone allows the user to monitor every flight detail, including airtime, flight distance, speed and more. It can even provide warnings when the pilot is encroaching upon protected flight areas, which is an FAA violation.The school’s drone will be used in a number of classrooms, including drafting and design, electronics, and graphic design.Some may focus upon the mechanics of the drone and its setup, possibly allowing CCTI to reverse-engineer and create additional parts — or maybe even a whole new drone — with its 3-D printer.One of the prime highlights of the Phantom 4 is the high-resolution camera, which can match the quality of professional movie cameras in aerial shots.“It’s tremendous for graphic design, photo and video. This one we have here has a 4K camera, 16 mega pixels. It’s pretty much top-notch for what they’re using out there,” Rinda said.Science instructor Anna Leigh Conway is excited for the variety of applications for the drone, which could play a big part in several science courses.“We’re going to use the drone footage to do some land plotting for growing herbs, fruits and vegetables. We’re also going to do some land plotting of specific wildlife habitats, and unique ecosystems in northeastern Pennsylvania. For the field biology curriculum, we do at least one field trip per marking period. We’re going take pictures of the trails that we go on, look at some of the trails and pathways that the animals use.”The school is even looking to go beyond the confines of the school environment, and allow the community to utilize the drone as well.“We were just in touch with some people at the Carbon County Environmental Education Center, and we just thought maybe we could partner with them somehow, maybe they could use our drone,” Reinbold said.Some suggestions for drone use by the group includes filming the release of rehabilitated birds from an aerial perspective, providing virtual flyovers of trails, locating eagle nests for observation, and participating in the CCEEC flight education program.The school’s position at the forefront of STEM initiatives is clearly taking off with the new drone, which seems like it will provide plenty of opportunities for everyone at CCTI, and the community beyond.“The two ways we use it are to enhance instruction in the classroom, and to prepare students for jobs that involve drone technology, which is our job as a tech school. It can certainly enhance our learning activities, but there are also jobs directly related to it that we can prepare our students for,” Reinbold said. Video demonstration:

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