As festivities fire up this holiday season, so do the dangers to people and property. Holiday decorations, heating, winter storms and candles all contribute to an increased risk of fire during the winter months, according to the National Fire Protection Association. To help firefighters and police handle increased winter emergencies, Aquiline Drones (AD), a commercial drone manufacturing and cloud technology company in Hartford, Connecticut, is giving them the gift of free drone pilot training to use drones in the line of duty.
Any first responder can enroll in the company's online Flight to the Future (F2F) flight training program from now until June 2022 and receive free tuition, valued at $399. To date, more than 500 police officers, firefighters and emergency medical technicians nationwide have enrolled in AD's proprietary drone training program.
"We initially offered free Flight to the Future training to all first responders in honor of the twentieth 9/11 anniversary; however, overwhelming demand inspired us to continue arming these heroes with crucial training to keep them safe and secure by raising situational awareness with drones and cloud computing technology whenever they answer a call," said Barry Alexander, Founder and CEO of Aquiline Drones.
Alexander notes that through its teaming agreement with GlobalFlyte, its F2F program - specific to first responders, is now enhanced with AWARE® technology, a centralized incident response platform that improves situational awareness for all involved in a crisis before, during and after the event. The integrated platform of communication and visualization tools created by GlobalFlyte delivers boundary-less, location-based, cloud-hosted services to public safety field personnel, 911 operators, dispatch centers and command centers at their particular geography for a quicker and safer response through improved communication, collaboration, and comprehension.
AWARE is as useful to a small department as it is to a major urban disaster response and can be easily displayed on a tablet, vehicle's MDT, large screen, computer or smart phone.
"Both AD and GlobalFlyte understand that in the chaos of a new incident, time is the enemy," explains Alexander. "The longer it takes to assess needs and deploy the appropriate response, the greater the chance of the incident escalating to dangerous and deadly proportions. Integrating AWARE technology into AD's drone and cloud technology ecosystem ensures enhanced situational awareness and, therefore, better allocation of resources."
The F2F interactive online course teaches police and fire professionals how to utilize drone and cloud technology safely and effectively - embedded with Artificial Intelligence (AI) in their daily missions. The educational content is available on-demand at any time, so participants can take the course at their own pace and convenience. Besides earning their FAA Part 107 commercial drone pilot certification, F2F program participants will also learn about cloud computing, AI, the Internet of Things (IoT) and other technologies transforming the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) industry.
Interested parties may apply for free enrollment by sending an email with full contact information to: [email protected]. For a summary of the curriculum, please visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMpMdKKRPkY
Some detailed, real-world applications that drones can fulfill for firefighters, police officers and EMTs include:
Alexander highlights that a F2F Smart Firefighting module is in development and scheduled for release during first quarter of 2022. The specialized training teaches fire departments advanced applications of drones in battling a variety of conflagrations, structures, environments, and HAZMAT situations. For a sneak peek of the new training, please visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-Uo98PSEKU.
"Since the holiday season is a time of giving and helping others, we could not think of a better gift than ensuring all first responders partake in this essential training at no cost," concludes Alexander. "Drones have always been the eyes in the sky and offer immeasurable benefits to the entire public safety industry - ultimately protecting and saving human life, which is priceless."
Alexander is planning to raise awareness of the benefits of drone use for first responders by speaking at meetings and gatherings of fire, police chief and EMT associations in the new year.
Source: https://www.aquilinedrones.com/