Wiscasset drones class learns airport safety
Wiscasset Municipal Airport Manager Frank Costa was able to do something Tuesday that he wants to do more of: Getting out into the community that the airport is a part of, he said.
Hours earlier, he and two pilots who use the airport visited Wiscasset Middle High School to talk with students in the school’s new course on drones.
The talk covered airport rules as well as problems that drones can create for pilots in flight, Costa said. It was also a chance for the town-owned airport to be helpful, he said.
“The airport is not elite. We are a neighbor,” Costa said.
Teacher Dawn Jones appreciated the help from Costa and the pilots.
“I think students left with a clear sense of the responsibility we have to respect that we are sharing airspace with manned vehicles, (namely) planes. Hearing this directly from professionals in our community was a great learning experience,” Jones writes in an email response to questions from the Wiscasset Newspaper.
The school will keep the lines of communication open with the airport by informing it when the class plans to be flying drones, according to Tuesday’s email.
Costa said the new class is timely, given new federal rules on flying drones as well as two recent local reports of drone-sightings. The latest report came in on Sept. 6, according to a Wiscasset police log released Tuesday. Costa said he told authorities that the airport had no activities under way with drones, so that if there were any in the area, they were not associated with the airport.
The log states that a caller reported that a drone, possibly a toy, flew over Maine Yankee’s protected area. State police and the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office were notified, which is protocol for suspicious activity near Maine Yankee, Wiscasset police have said. A group was found picnicking “or something,” the log states.
With drones on the market, it’s important for young people to know how to use them responsibly, Costa said.
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