The industry
The Canadian remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) industry is a rapidly growing sector of the economy. Focused on the collection of images, video, and other data in fields as varied as entertainment, infrastructure inspections, surveying, wildlife conservation, and accident scene reconstruction, RPAS are becoming a very useful tool in many applications.
Transport Canada has issued more than 12,000 Advanced Pilot Certificates, and that number is steadily increasing.1 Projections for generating revenue with drones are on the rise, from US$22.5 billion in 2020 to US$42.8 billion in 2025 (Drone Market Report, as reported in Canada Gazette).2
The RPAS Hub
The Hub is a central location for RPAS knowledge and resources, including drones, cameras and sensors, software, training equipment and manuals, image/video data sets, and discipline-specific expertise.
All BCIT schools and departments have access to these resources for instructional, demonstration, and research purposes, both on and off campus.
To obtain RPAS Hub resources
Contact Eric Saczuk for a complete inventory of all available RPAS equipment, manuals, Transport Canada regulations, and BCIT RPAS policy, as well as project and research support and sample data sets:
Email: esaczuk@bcit.ca / Phone: 604.376.0588
Learning and Teaching Centre media producers pilot a hexacopter drone with a camera mounted for aerial videography
1 Transport Canada, Drone Zone: Transport Canada RPAS Team Newsletter, January 2024
2 Government of Canada, “Regulations Amending the Canadian Aviation Regulations (RPAS – Beyond Visual Line-of-Sight and Other Operations),“ Canada Gazette, Part I: 157(25), 2023