On Sunday, July 15th, a group of Rockhurst High School students gathered to learn the brave new world of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). On top of being an amazing hands on learning experience, the camp doubled as a competition and two students walked home that day with their very own drone!

Aerial picture of camp particpants taken by drone.

Earnest McCoy, camp instructor and Rockhurst High School 2006 graduate, recently left an engineering career at Burns & McDonnell to start his own venture called AltSpec UAS. The young men loved learning all the ins & outs of drone flight ranging from the legal rules, the ways to achieve a pilot’s license, and the various standard maneuvers. Moreover, he opened up the students eyes by sharing a multitude of ways that drones can be applied to solve real world problems.

Earnest McCoy, CEO of AltSpec UAS, teaching students about safety and legalities of unmanned aerial vehicles.

Rockhurst is thankful for Earnest’s expertise & goodwill. We hope to continue to educate our young men on cutting edge technology so that they will be ready in this 21st century to, as St. Ignatius said, “go set the world on fire.”

Camp participant flying a drone through an obstacl course.

Hi Mr. Owsley - I am emailing you because over the summer you and I were part of the drone camp this summer. So I was wondering if we could make that camp into a club because I found what we learned at the camp to be awesome.