Drone Mapping, Photography & Videography Q&A Published January 21, 2022

Interview with Nicole Whisenhunt, CEO of Queen Drone Dronography 

In January 2022, Rose State College created the first Drone Mapping, Photography & Videography class to help participants get the most out of their small Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) – aka drones. Designed to provide hands-on training, the simple, yet in-depth class provides new skills covering the basics of aerial photography, videography and mapping. 

Nicole Whisenhunt, CEO of Queen Drone Dronography, was recently one of the first participants in the class. We asked Nicole about her experience and what advice she might have for those considering the class. Below is our Q&A with her. 

Why did you decide to take this class at Rose State College?

I got my FAA Part 107 and really didn’t know what direction I wanted to go from there. When I saw that Rose State College was providing a drone program for mapping, I really wanted to get into that. Drone Mapping is used for insurance companies across the country, it’s used for land surveying, natural gas and big gas companies to measure where pipelines are at, horticulture and more. 

There is no school here in Oklahoma that is teaching you the mapping part so it’s one of a kind and is really going to help a lot of individuals take the initiative and the right steps. 

What made you decide to learn more about drones? 

Like many others, I wanted a career change during COVID and the shutdown after a career in insurance and sales. A lot of people went into different directions, and I’ve always read about drones, how they are used in the military, for mapping, helping with architectural designs, insurance companies and more. I mean, it’s an airplane in the sky that you can operate on the ground – it’s pretty neat. 

You don’t have to use drones for the business side, you can just take amazing photos. I can program my drone to just follow me and I don’t even have to fly it. I can ride my bicycle and it will follow me all the way around the neighborhood – it’s pretty cool the amount of things you can do with the tool.
I'm already thinking about even beefing up my fleet and probably getting another drone, but just a different style.  

What did you learn in this class? 

When we first started out, the instructor went over the basic rules of the sky when we're flying. Now, if anybody is trying to get in this class thinking that they're going to be able to pass their Part 107, that is not the case. The instructor just gives a brief overview of information. 

The cool thing about this is even if you don't have a drone yet, and you're thinking about possibly getting one and wanting to make a career out of it, Rose State College provides a drone and it's all hands-on training. You're able to also get an introduction to a drone, turn it on, see what the screen looks like and how the drone operates. It also gives very in-depth information about the software and the programming that you're going to use with the drone, DroneDeploy. I found that really awesome and very informative. 

This class was another step up to mapping. I had no idea how they did roofing inspections. I thought you just went out there with your drone, flew around and took a few photos. No, it's a whole program. Once you learn it and you learn it in this class, it can take like 15 minutes and you've got a three-dimensional house that you can zoom in and count every little brick or see any mess ups with a window that you need to fix. It’s pretty fascinating what they can do. 

How will you use this information in the future?

The class really does a lot of hands-on training with the drones and the programming, and you get a lot of benefit out of it because even after you leave the class, you get to still use the DroneDeploy program for three months. You're able to take this home with you and practice out in the field and get some more experience under your belt. 

DroneDeploy is pretty familiarized across the nation with insurance companies. A lot of them are using it now because it's a lot easier to do a roofing inspection when you can just hire a pilot in command to launch an unmanned aircraft in the air, take 15 to 30 minutes, depending on how large the project is, then the drone flies right back to the home point and uploads the information. It's already sending the database to the insurance companies. So, it's a great program. Most definitely, I would like to use mapping, not just for insurance companies, but in the future, I would like to do horticulture and detect plant life and health. 

What do you think about the future of drone technology? 

I honestly think in the next five years, drones are going to be a huge aspect in our world. I mean, I saw the other day on the news that Boeing is designing a drone that they're going to put on battleships and fly up to help fuel the airplanes in the sky instead of sending up an airplane that may get shot down. If a drone gets shot down, we just lost a drone – we didn't lose any lives. A lot more people are using it for safety precautions and for convenience.

I can't wait to see what happens in Oklahoma – I think a lot of people are going to benefit from it. 

What advice would you offer to others considering taking this class?  
If you’re someone that has never gotten into drone work, maybe you're just doing it recreationally and you want to get more serious or even if you already have your Part 107 and you're someone like me, not quite sure what direction you want to go with it, this is a great class to start out with. 

The next classes will be offered in February (2/11-2/12), March (3/11-3/12) and April (4/8-4/9). Learn more about the Drone Mapping class and future offerings at https://www.trainingatrose.com/.