Q: Why do you need to learn to fly a drone as they are automated? A: Learn about the National Air Space (NAS) and where you can fly as well as other tips for flying drones safely. Otoh, you still need to learn how to drive a car, get a license even with self driving cars, or at least for now ;).
Q: Do classes include a live demonstration flight? A: Demonstration flights are weather and other condition dependent.
Q: Can students bring their drone to the classes? A: Yes.
Q: Where have you taught classes in the past? A: Anoka/Hennepin Community Education, Eden Prairie High School, Eden Prairie Central Middle School, Minneapolis Public Schools Community Education, North Central University STEM, Stillwater Area Public Schools Community Education, and Stillwater Public Library among others.
Q: How long have you been flying drones? A: Over 10 years for singles and quads for about eight years.
Q: How long have you been commercial licensed drone operator? A: Since May 2018
Q: How long have you been waivered to fly at night commercially? A: I received my 107.29 (daylight waiver) back in December 2018 which was valid until April 21, 2021 when daylight waivers were sunset (e.g. phased out). As of April 21, 2021 for those who have either taken the new initial, or recurrent part 107 test, you are now authorized to fly at night without a waiver (e.g. daylight and night waivers no longer exist).
Q: Do you have any other waivers? A: Yes, 107.39 (Operating Over People e.g. OOP) and 107.145 (Operating Over Moving Vehicles e.g. OOMV)
Q: How hard is it to get certified? A: Depends on how well you can learn (or memorize). Getting your FAA TRUST (The Recreational UAS Safety Test) certificate is relatively easy and quick, its free from various organizations such as AMA here. The next step takes more time which is getting your part 107.
Q: How many flights have you flown? A: Many thousands including indoors and outdoors.
Q: How many hours in the air do you have flying? A: Over 600 hours air time.
Q: How many miles total have you flown drones? A: Spanning thousands of flights several thousand miles flown.
Q: If I am not going to fly drones for commercial, why get a part 107? A: Additional experience, you also get access to additional airspace and privileges by being a part 107. Keep in mind that part 107 is often thought of as being commercial license, when in reality, its a category or type of certification that allows you to do more, one of those things being commercial activity.
Q: How much money can you make flying drones? A: Like many things it depends, keep in mind your costs of equipment, spare batteries, apps, licenses, registration, insurance among other costs that will impact what your earnings will be.
Q: Have you ever flown FPV, what do you think about them? A: Yes , check out our FPV experiences page here. FPV drones are great for those who like the FPV gaming experience, including racing, general recreation, as well as for action cinematography videography indoors as well as outdoors. Keep in mind if you are going to fly FPV outdoors you will need to have a Visual Observer (VO) standing next to you watching the aircraft (drone).
Q: Whats different from flying indoors vs outside? A: Besides obstacles, biggest difference is you may have poor to no GPS coverage that can impact automated flight modes, in other words, you want to practice your heads up and stick flying skills (or learn to fly FPV).
Pictures Over Stillwater is involved with Community Education presenting UAV UAS Drone classes at various venues around the greater Minneapolis St Paul Twin Cities metro area as well as online.
In addition to scheduled community education, STEM and other classes, Pictures Over Stillwater also provides one on one, small group along with custom drone classes, education, consulting and coaching services. Our custom knowledge transfer, education and consulting services include test and certification preparation, general as well as advanced along with hands on training for those new to drones, as well as those who are experienced and want to learn more or sharpen their skills. Contact us to learn more and discuss how we can assist you or your organization.
Winter and Spring 2026 Webinars & Other Events
July 8, 2026 – Barron County WI – Men’s Shed
April 25, 2026 – Drone Day event Maplewood Library – Details Soon
April 25, 2026 9-10AM (Webinar) – Sat Morning Coffee & Wings HAPPY DRONE SAFETY DAY!! – Airspace Planning And Authorization Tools, Tips And Tricks For Drone Operators (Free Reg here).
April 8, 2026 – Eden Prairie High School – Aeronautics Class
Spring 2026 Drone Comm Ed Classes Stillwater MN
Drones 101: Ready for Takeoff Monday May 11, 2026 Pony Activity Center (PAC) Stillwater MN 6:30-9:00PM Learn more and register here.
Summer 2026 Comm Ed Classes Roseville MN
Summer 2026 Roseville Comm Ed
Drones 101 – Takeoff Monday June 22, 2026 Anpetu Teca Education Center 1910 County Rd B W Roseville, MN 55113 6:00-8:30PM Registration coming soon, learn more and early here.
Drones Aerial Photography Monday July 13, 2026 Anpetu Teca Education Center 1910 County Rd B W Roseville, MN 55113 6:00-8:30PM Registration coming soon, learn more and early here.
Spring & Summer 2026 Drone Comm Ed Minneapolis MN
Drones 1: Essentials Monday April 20, 2026 Ella Baker School Minneapolis, MN 6:00-8:30PM Learn more and register here.
Drones 2: Aerial Photography & Video Monday April 27, 2026 Ella Baker School Minneapolis, MN 6:00-8:30PM Learn more and register here.
Drones 3: Aerial Photography & Video Advanced Monday May 4, 2026 Ella Baker School Minneapolis, MN 6:00-8:30PM Learn more and register here.
Drones 4: Practice Workshop (Fly Time) Thursday July 16, 2026 Northeast Middle School : Parking Lot Minneapolis, MN 6:00-8:30PM Learn more and register here.
Check Back For Additional Spring & Summer Classes
Recent Minneapolis Winter Classes
Drones 1: Essentials Monday February 23, 2026 Ella Baker School Minneapolis, MN 6:00-8:30PM Learn more and register here.
Drones 2: Aerial Photography & Video Monday March 2, 2026 Ella Baker School Minneapolis, MN 6:00-8:30PM Learn more and register here.
Drones 3: Aerial Photography & Video Advanced Monday March 9, 2026 Ella Baker School Minneapolis, MN 6:00-8:30PM Learn more and register here.
Recent Roseville Winter Classes
Drones 101: Ready for Takeoff Monday February 2, 2026 Anpetu Teca Education Center 1910 County Rd B W Roseville, MN 55113 6:00-8:30PM Learn more and register here.
Drones 101: Ready for Takeoff Friday March 6, 2026 Anpetu Teca Education Center 1910 County Rd B W Roseville, MN 55113 6:00-8:30PM Learn more and register here.
Drone Aerial Photography Monday March 16, 2026 Anpetu Teca Education Center 1910 County Rd B W Roseville, MN 55113 6:00-8:30PM Learn more and register here.
Fall 2025 Drone Comm Ed Classes Roseville MN
Drones 101: Ready for Takeoff! Saturday November 1, 2025 Anpetu Teca Education Center 1910 County Rd B W Roseville, MN 55113 C207 – Fairview Room A 9:30AM-Noon Call Roseville Area Schools for registration (651) 604-3500
Fall 2025 Drone Comm Ed Classes Minneapolis MN
Drones 1: Essentials Monday October 6, 2025 Ella Baker School Minneapolis, MN 6:00-8:30PM Learn more and register here
Drones 2: Aerial Photography & Video Monday October 20, 2025 Ella Baker School Minneapolis, MN 6:00-8:30PM Learn more and register here
Drones 3: Aerial Photography & Video Advanced Monday November 3, 2025 Ella Baker School Minneapolis, MN 6:00-8:30PM Learn more and register here
Previous Classes
Drones 101: Ready for Takeoff! Monday September 15, 2025 Anpetu Teca Education Center 1910 County Rd B W Roseville, MN 55113 C207 – Fairview Room A 6:00-8:30PM
Stillwater Area Public Schools Adult Community Ed Drones: Aerial Photo & Video Registration Saturday June 14, 2025 9:00AM-Noon, SAPS High School/PAC
Minneapolis Public Schools Adult Community Education Drones 1: Fundamentals, Registration Tuesday June 24, 2025 6:00-8:30PM Justice Page School
Minneapolis Public Schools Adult Community Education Drones 2: Aerial Photo & Video, Registration Wednesday July 16, 2025 6:00-8:30PM Dowling School
Minneapolis Public Schools Adult Community Education Drones 1: Fundamentals, Registration Monday April 14, 2025 6:00-8:30PM Ella Baker School
Minneapolis Public Schools Adult Community Education Drones 2: Aerial Photography & Video, Registration Monday April 28, 2025 6:00-8:30PM Ella Baker School
Minneapolis Public Schools Adult Community Education Drones 3: Aerial Photo & Video Advanced, Registration Monday May 12, 2025 6:00-8:30PM Ella Baker School
Minneapolis Public Schools Adult Community Education Drones 1: Fundamentals, Learn more and register here. Monday February 24, 2025 6:00-8:30PM Ella Baker School
Minneapolis Public Schools Adult Community Education Drones 2: Aerial Photography & Video, Learn more and register here. Monday March 10, 2025 6:00-8:30PM Ella Baker School
Minneapolis Public Schools Adult Community Education Drones 3: Aerial Photo & Video Advanced, Learn more and register here. Monday March 24, 2025 6:00-8:30PM Ella Baker School
Pictures Over Stillwater In Person Training and Consulting
Picture Over Stillwater also provides in-person custom one on one, and group UAS, UAV, Drone classes, seminars, coaching and consulting. Give us a call or send an email to learn more about our drone school, custom education, training, consulting and other drone service offerings.
On Thursday February 6, 2025 Pictures Over Stillwater Founder Greg Schulz (me) was an in the KSTP TV studio guest for a live segment on Minnesota Live with Megan Newquist, Chris Egert and Ken Barlow.
Our conversation included how I got into doing drone aerial photography and video, as well as ground based photos & video, drone safety, covering and capturing events, drone community education and more.
During the conversation several video and photo images appeared from around the twin cities metro area along with Stillwater and St Croix River Valley. Catch the replay here at Minnesota Live.
Courses are lead by Pictures Over Stillwater founder and chief remote pilot Greg Schulz. Greg is an professional FAA Part 107 certified (e.g. licensed) commercial drone operator (e.g. Remote Pilot In Command RPIC). In addition to being FAA Part 107, Greg is also MnDoT aeronautics licensed and insured. His drone flight experience includes having a 107.29 daylight waiver for night flights, 107.39 (Operating Over People e.g. OOP), 107.145 (Operating Over Moving Vehicles e.g. OOMV) along with various 107.41 airspace authorizations to fly in “0” or no fly zones as well as above published altitudes with FAA approval. Greg has accumulated hundreds of drone hours in the air, flown over a thousand drone air miles, spanning thousands of drone flights. As a professional drone operator Greg does projects involving aerial photography, video, FPV, thermal, photogrammetry (2D/3D model map image survey), inspection and other activity for construction, real estate, events among others, including indoor flights. Greg is also an FAASTeam Lead Rep and DronePro representive for Minneapolis region.
Pictures Over Stillwater is involved with Community Education presenting UAV UAS Drone classes at various venues around the greater Minneapolis St Paul Twin Cities metro area as well as online. This course is for those who want to learn more about drone based aerial photography and video (recreational and commercial). Topics covered include rules of the road for aerial photography and video, license and registration, where to fly (and not fly), flight planning and weather, autonomous and manual modes, equipment, hardware, software and other tools.
Also covered are drone and camera photo and video modes, settings, time lapse and hyper lapse, panoramic, automatic vs manual settings and much more. Additional topics include what type of drone and camera equipment are best as well as accessories, along with post processing tools. Students aged 12-17 may attend with an adult. Weather permitting a demonstration flight will be flown. Click here or on the following to view more information including registration, dates and locations.
Pictures Over Stillwater is involved with Community Education presenting UAV UAS Drone classes at various venues around the greater Minneapolis St Paul Twin Cities metro area as well as online. Recreational drone hobbyists will gain information on basic operations and a foundation for expanding to commercial operations. This course moves beyond the basics looking at drone decision making, flight planning, how to prepare for your FAA Part 107 (commercial) and TRUST (hobby recreational) among other certifications.
Also covered are basic tools, simulators, apps, cameras, commercial considerations, new and emerging regulations, insurance, practical tips, techniques, trends to be aware of. Weather permitting drone demonstration flights may be held. Students ages 12-17 are welcome to attend with an adult. Don’t be a dummy, learn to fly drones safely. Click here or on the following to learn more as well as view links for registrations, times and locations.
Pictures Over Stillwater drone school are held at various education venues presenting UAV UAS Drone related topics. These safety and awareness education and outreach activities include introduction, basic, beyond the basics, as well as advanced topics such as aerial photography videography, among others topics.
Education and awareness sessions range from large adult community education, high school, individual custom training along with STEM programs around the greater Minneapolis St Paul Twin Cities metro area and online. Click here to learn more about Drone Education and upcoming events.
Pictures Over Stillwater is involved with Community Education presenting UAV UAS Drone classes at various venues around the greater Minneapolis St Paul Twin Cities metro area as well as online. Click on the following to learn more as well as links for registrations, times and locations.
Note that Minnesota in addition to FAA Part 107 certification requires an additional licenses from Minnesota Department of Transportation (MNDoT) Aeronautics for commercial drone operators doing work for others. Pictures Over Stillwater is FAA Part 107 certified including Operating Over People (OOP ) and Operating Over Moving Vehicles (OOMV) waivers and various airspace authorizations as well as registered aircraft. In addition to meeting FAA requirements, Pictures Over Stillwater is also licensed by MNDoT for drone operations including aerial photography, videography and imaging for construction progress reporting, real estate, event coverage, and other commercial work activity in the state of Minnesota.
