Ridgeline High School offers a wide variety of concurrent enrollment classes to help students get a head start on their college education. These classes can range from advanced math and science, to floriculture, to music, and now flying drones. Aviation 1900 and Aviation 1910 are the classes now offered for college credit at Ridgeline.

Aviation 1900 and 1910 are mixed into one class that is taught by Mr. Wade. Despite its fancy name, the aviation class is where you learn about and fly drones.

Jace Saunders, a very knowledgeable student in the field of drones, takes the class and says that “for me, it’s a class of common sense.” It’s super easy, says Saunders. He goes on to say that he is also learning a lot of new fun stuff.

Some people in “drone flying class” say that sometimes it’s boring learning about weather and air space, but the fun of the class always comes out on Fridays. “Drone Friday” or “Fly-day Friday” are some of the name’s students have given the special day of the week where they get to go out and fly the class provided drones. “Drone Fridays definitely make up for all the boring stuff we do in class” says Luke Sorenson. “Oh yeah, we have fights with the drones, we can do flips with them” says Trent Godfrey.

Jace Saunders even brought his own DJI FPV drone to school to fly it one day. The $1000 invention tops out around 87 mph and can be flown for up to half an hour. Saunders impressed the class and Mr. Wade with his flying skills.

Mr. Wade, the teacher of the class, loves teaching about things that fly and even has his own private pilot’s license. He owns a couple of drones of his own and likes to fly them recreationally. “He keeps the class easy and interesting,” says Kayson Reeder. All the students in the class love having Mr. Wade as their teacher because he is so knowledgeable and funny.

The drone flying class is rapidly gaining popularity as many students see drones whizzing around in the air on Fridays and Max Baer and multiple other students in the class say “it’s the best class ever.”