Dozens of area students became pilots Saturday during the Wyoming State Drone Championships and Bighorn Basin Drone Challenge Cup. But while flying is fun, what they are really learning is the art of remote control.

“The same skills used to fly a drone are used to remotely point a telescope that happens to be in Chile, or run a wind turbine that happens to be in western Wyoming. Or even running a mining robot that happens to be underground when you're on the surface,” said Tim Slater, Wyoming Excellence in Higher Education endowed chair of science education at the University of Wyoming. “But it's the excitement of flying drones that gets them here because if I said, ‘Hey, let's go learn to run wind turbines,’ they wouldn't show up. But if I say, ‘let’s go fly drones and crash into stuff,’ they love that stuff.”

As K-12 students arrived at the Yellowstone Building on the Northwest College campus in Powell, they first learned about piloting a drone and then immediately took the Federal Aviation Administration test necessary to fly. In order to fly legally under the FAA's Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Rule, you must obtain a Remote Pilot Certificate. This certificate demonstrates that you understand the regulations, operating requirements and procedures for safely flying drones.

Then the real fun started. Organizers of the event set up an obstacle course in the ballroom and a speed course in the hallways of the second floor of the building. Students took turns learning how to navigate the courses and then competed for the best times. They were quick to master the course, said Powell Middle School science teacher Necole Hanks.

“Many kids can just, within like five or 10 minutes, pick up a drone and start flying,” she said.

It wasn’t that long ago that Hanks was first learning to fly. She began teaching her students while being a beginner herself.

“We didn't know anything about it. But we all learn together and we all supported each other. The beautiful part of it is that we all learned and we got better together. And now I have kids teaching other kids. It just kind of blossomed from there,” she said.

Hanks contends mastering the skills boosts students’ confidence, and keeps them interested and motivated. For some, especially those not involved in sports or other after-school activities, the fun activity also helps encourage socialization.

“Their confidence just skyrockets,” she said. “It keeps them wanting to come to school and have some fun.”

The festival was sponsored in large part by the Wyoming NASA Space Grant Consortium, the University of Wyoming Excellence in Higher Education Science Endowment and the Wyoming 4-H Foundation. The Wyoming NASA Space Grant Consortium sponsors education and research programs in the state in support of NASA missions, including research fellowships and internships for students at UW and Wyoming community colleges, scholarship programs for community college students in STEM majors, grants for college and university faculty, and educational resources and programs for Wyoming K-12 students and teachers.

Students can go in many different directions with drone training, Slater said. Some will end up as engineers capable of building equipment and programming, including mapping flight patterns. Much of their time is spent in the lab in front of a computer. But there is also a burgeoning job market for pilots in a variety of industries, including agriculture, energy and specialists for military branches.

“Now there’s a whole other group of employees that are just really good pilots. They fly the power lines to look for tree limbs, they'll fly the railroad tracks, they'll fly large ranches, you know, watching the fence line and looking for places where an elk has gone through and broken down a fence,” he said.

Those jobs, including agricultural drone spraying, require really strong piloting skills. But the University of Wyoming doesn't train pilots. Most pilots trained in the state attend community colleges in Sheridan and Riverton, Slater said.

Steven Grende, of Ten Sleep, just received his license to apply pesticides and fertilizers for his ranch management position after spending years flying drones for fun. He and his wife Lacey and their children were at the festival.

“He's [Steven] really excited. And he's always done recreational drones,” Steven’s wife Lacey said, likening his excitement to the same level as their kids.

The kids are hoping to follow their father into his fun hobby. Five-year-old Keegan is already excited to learn to be a pilot, but 3-year-old Adeline is still just a little too young for the tests, Mom said.