Free Training Resources: What We Wish Someone Had Given Us

When we started in this industry, we didn't know what we didn't know. We had pilots who could fly. We had cameras and sensors. We had clients who needed work done. What we didn't have was a clear picture of how to build the systems and documentation that separate a competent operation from one that's just winging it.

That gap took years to close, and we closed it mostly by learning from others - from Transport Canada's guidance documents, from operators who'd been doing this longer than us, from clients who pushed us to be better, and frankly from our own mistakes. Every lesson costs time, and some cost money. A few cost opportunities we didn't get back.

We've put together some free training resources that try to capture what we wish someone had handed us at the start. They're not comprehensive. They're not a substitute for formal training or regulatory guidance. But they might help fill in some gaps for people working through the same questions we did.

Why This Matters

The path to competence in drone operations is harder than it looks from the outside. Getting a pilot certificate is the easy part - Transport Canada's Basic and Advanced exams test knowledge, and knowledge can be studied. What's harder is building the operational habits, documentation systems, and safety culture that make you actually good at this work.

The regulations give you requirements. They don't give you implementation. They tell you that you need Standard Operating Procedures, but they don't tell you what those procedures should actually say. They tell you that complex operations need a Safety Management System, but they don't walk you through building one. They set the bar but don't provide the ladder.

We spent years building that ladder for ourselves. The resources we're sharing are an attempt to make that climb a little easier for others.

What We're Offering

The training materials focus on three areas where we struggled most:

Standard Operating Procedures. What should an SOP actually contain? How do you write procedures that people will actually follow? How do you balance specificity with flexibility? We've included templates and examples that reflect how we approach SOP development, not as bureaucratic box-checking, but as genuinely useful operational guidance.

Safety Management Systems. Transport Canada requires SMS for complex operations, and even for simpler operations it's increasingly what sophisticated clients expect. But building an SMS from scratch is daunting; the documentation requirements alone can seem overwhelming. We've tried to break it down into manageable pieces: hazard identification, risk assessment, incident reporting, safety assurance. The goal isn't perfection on day one; it's having a framework you can grow into.

Professional Licensing and Certification. The Canadian licensing system is more complex than many people realize when they're starting out. Basic vs. Advanced. Flight reviews. Complex operations certification. The path from recreational flyer to commercial operator to advanced operations authority isn't always clear. We've put together guidance that tries to map that progression, what's required at each level, what the practical implications are, and how to prepare for the step you're trying to take.

What This Isn't

We should be clear about what these resources are not.

They're not official guidance. Transport Canada publishes the authoritative interpretation of regulations. What we offer is one operator's approach to meeting those requirements, an approach that has worked for us but isn't the only valid way.

They're not a substitute for formal training. If you're pursuing complex operations certification or specialized work, you need proper instruction from qualified providers. Our resources are supplements, not replacements.

They're not complete. We're still learning. We update these materials as regulations change, as we learn better approaches, and as users point out gaps we missed. If you find something that's wrong or unclear, we genuinely want to know.

Why Free?

People sometimes ask why we give this away. The honest answer is that we got more help than we paid for when we were starting out. Other operators shared their approaches. Regulators answered questions they didn't have to answer. Clients were patient while we figured things out. We benefited from an industry that, on balance, has been more collaborative than competitive.

Sharing what we've learned is partly paying that forward. It's also practical: a rising tide lifts all boats. When the industry as a whole operates more professionally, with better safety records, more consistent quality, and fewer incidents that make headlines, it's easier for all of us to do business. Clients trust drone operators more when the bad actors are fewer and the baseline competence is higher.

There's nothing proprietary about operating safely and professionally. The more people who do it well, the better.

The Hard Truth

Reading materials won't make you competent. That takes practice, mentorship, and experience - ideally including some experience of things going wrong in ways you can learn from without serious consequences.

The best operators we know are humble about what they don't know. They treat every flight as an opportunity to learn something. They debrief honestly, including about their own mistakes. They seek out feedback from crew members, clients, and colleagues. They treat near-misses as gifts - information about vulnerabilities that didn't cost them anything this time.

Documents and procedures support that mindset; they don't create it. An SMS is useless if people treat it as paperwork rather than a genuine system for learning and improving. SOPs are useless if they sit in a binder while operators do whatever feels right in the moment.

What we're offering is a starting point, a set of frameworks that might help you build something better than you could build from scratch. But the work of becoming genuinely good at this is still yours to do.

Getting Started

The training resources are available on our website at no cost. No registration required, no email capture, no sales pitch attached. Download what's useful, ignore what isn't, and let us know if you find errors or gaps.

If you're just starting out, we'd suggest beginning with the SOP development guide. Having clear procedures forces you to think through your operations systematically, what you're actually doing, why, and what could go wrong. That thinking process is valuable even if the documents you produce are imperfect.

If you're preparing for advanced certification or complex operations, the SMS materials will be more immediately relevant. But don't skip the fundamentals; complex operations require basic operations to be solid first.

If you're studying for exams, the licensing guidance might help you understand the bigger picture that the exam questions fit into. Knowing why something is required often makes it easier to remember what's required.

We're Still Learning Too

We don't present these materials as experts handing down wisdom. We present them as fellow travellers sharing notes from the road. We've made mistakes, sometimes expensive ones. We've had projects that didn't go as planned. We've been humbled by situations that were harder than we expected.

The difference between a good operator and a bad one isn't that the good operator never makes mistakes. It's that the good operator learns from them, documents them, and builds systems to prevent repeating them. That's what we're trying to do, and that's what these resources are trying to help others do.

The road to competence is long. We hope these resources make it a little shorter, or at least a little less lonely.

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The training resources are available at aeriasolutions.ca/training. If you have questions, find errors, or want to suggest improvements, contact us. We mean it about wanting feedback—it's how these materials get better.