K-State Salina Trains Kansas Farmers to Fly Spray Drones

Kansas State University Salina is putting agricultural drone spray operations directly in farmers’ hands. The university’s UAS program is offering a two-day in-person course covering everything from regulatory compliance to live spray missions, with the next session scheduled for May 28-29, as KSAL reported.

What the Course Actually Covers

The course is called UAS Aerial Applications and Regulations, and it’s built to move fast. Both days run 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Salina, and the curriculum spans the full operational picture rather than a single slice of it.

On the regulatory side, attendees cover FAA Part 107 rules, Section 44807 exemptions, Part 137 aerial application requirements, and the certificate of authorization limitations that govern where and how spray operations can legally happen.

That includes FAA reporting and registration procedures for aircraft under and over 55 pounds, plus the state-level pesticide applicator licensing requirements specific to drone operations, including the business obligations that come with running a UAS spraying service.

On the practical side, students get hands-on time with drone setup and maintenance, preflight inspection procedures, and both compass and flowmeter calibration. That last skill matters more than it might sound: if a spray drone’s flowmeter isn’t calibrated correctly, application rates are off, which means either undertreated fields or chemical waste.

The course also includes instruction on manual and automated spray missions across multiple spray types, the combination that separates a farmer who can operate a spray drone from one who can trust it.

The Instructor’s Case for the Training

Hunter Allison, a UAS flight instructor pilot at K-State Salina, is leading the course. He makes the argument for it plainly.

Allison points out that operating ag spray drones is still a relatively rare skill set, even as the machines become more common. The course prepares students to handle larger platforms, with some reaching 400 pounds or more as the industry scales up, while grounding them in the regulatory and procedural knowledge that actually protects operators, crops, and neighboring land.

The goal at the end of two days is straightforward: a farmer or operator who can plan a legally compliant aerial application mission, execute it safely, and troubleshoot the process when something needs adjusting. That confidence doesn’t come from watching a video or reading a manual.

Who Should Be Registering

Attendees are strongly encouraged to arrive with a Remote Pilot Certificate or prior completion of K-State Salina‘s sUAS Commercial Remote Pilot Training program before enrolling. That prerequisite exists for a reason: the course focuses on ag-specific operations, not introductory flight training, and students who arrive knowing the basics of FAA airspace rules get significantly more out of the two days.

The $499 registration fee covers flight instruction. Travel and lodging aren’t included, which makes geographic planning worth doing early for farmers coming in from across Kansas.

The course serves a dual audience. The first is working agricultural producers looking to bring spray drone capability in-house, cutting the per-acre cost of applications by eliminating a hired contractor. The second is anyone looking to start or grow a UAS pesticide application business, a segment that’s expanding steadily as row crop and specialty crop operations across the Great Plains begin budgeting for drone applications alongside traditional equipment.

K-State Salina’s Applied Aviation Research Center

The course runs through K-State Salina’s Professional Education and Outreach program in partnership with the Applied Aviation Research Center, or AARC. The AARC provides the professional flight instructors and the flight instruction locations that give the hands-on components their value.

Training at an applied research facility means the instruction environment is built for real-world skill development rather than classroom demonstration.

K-State Salina has positioned itself as one of the leading UAS education programs in the region, and its portfolio extends well beyond ag applications. Current offerings include law enforcement drone operations, emergency response flight training, thermal imaging courses, and a night operations certification.

The Aerial Applications and Regulations course slots into that ecosystem as the agricultural-specific entry point for operators who want to work in crop production.

DroneXL’s Take

Here’s what I find genuinely significant: K-State Salina isn’t teaching farmers to fly drones. It’s teaching them to operate spray drones as agricultural infrastructure, which is a meaningfully different thing.

A farmer who finishes this course walks away knowing not just how to launch and land a 400-pound spray platform, but how to stay legal doing it, how to calibrate the application system so the chemistry lands where it’s supposed to, and how to build a business around the capability if that’s the direction they want to go. That’s the full stack.

The AG drone spray market in the United States is early but accelerating. Courses like this one are part of how the workforce actually gets built, and Kansas is exactly the geography where that workforce matters most. Wheat, corn, sorghum, soybeans: the application opportunities in this state alone are substantial.

The May 28-29 session is close. If this is on your radar, registration closes a week before the course start date.

Photo credit: K-State Salina