The Origins of the Scanifly Academy, Now That We’ve Educated 1,500+ Solar Professionals
After launching the Surveyor Associate Program in November 2021, over 1,500 solar professionals signed up to learn the basics of drone flight, getting a Part 107 license, and capturing solar survey data using drones.
With the success of the program, we’re not just continuing it. We’ve expanded and launched a second course, the Advanced Surveyor Program, focused on practical elements of internal surveying and more in-depth drone surveying techniques. Our initial group of 20 surveyors reported that the new course gave them the knowledge and tools they need to become advanced solar drone pilots, something they could use in their jobs or businesses to become more efficient and earn more money.
In this article, we’re sharing a little more about the origins of the Surveyor Associate Program, and the launch of Scanifly Academy with the Advanced Surveyor Program.
A Need for Solar Drone Education
Demand for solar of all kinds, but particularly residential ones, is growing quickly. That means existing contractors and new entrants to the space need to be more efficient throughout the whole process, from surveying to design, permitting, and installation.
At Scanifly, we identified that collecting accurate survey data is the single most important factor when it comes to a project running smoothly. But it’s also one of the most time-consuming; in our 2021 Solar Surveyor and Designer Outlook, surveyors told us the average manual survey—climbing on the roof and measuring by hand—takes 30 to 90 minutes per roof.
This is where drones can exponentially increase efficiency and safety—a drone survey is equally accurate as a manual survey but only takes 5-10 minutes and surveyors don’t have to climb on the roof. This makes surveyors not just safer but also 5x more efficient on average (one surveyor even got 26 surveys done in a single day using a drone).
But a problem emerges: Flying drones for solar is a relatively new use case. It’s not the same as flying a drone for pleasure and requires an FAA Part 107 license. We also learned that while many people are interested in learning about drones, there is no centralized place to learn about drone flights and solar specifics.
We launched the Surveyor Associate Program to fill the gap between interest in drones for solar surveying and opportunities to learn.
It was our way of giving back to the community and helping surveyors who want to up their game, whether for personal curiosity or the great pay bump that drone skills can provide.
It’s Not Just Surveyors Who Want to Learn
When we launched the Surveyor Associate Program, we assumed the course would be packed with surveyors who wanted to pick up drone skills. We were right about it being packed—1,500 people signed up over a few months—but it wasn’t just surveyors.
In almost equal distribution, the SAP course drew in every kind of role from the solar industry:
CEOs
Executives
Team leaders
Surveyors
Designers
Installers
They also came from all over the world. While most were from the United States, we had participants from Canada, the UK, Israel, and more.
To us, this signals a much broader movement. While not everyone in the course wanted to actually fly the drone themselves, they understood the value drones can bring to a solar company and wanted to learn more.
From a Single Course to Building Scanifly Academy
After the launch of the Surveyor Associate Program, people started asking for more advanced courses. They wanted to learn the deeper mechanics of flying a drone such as learning about roof health or getting multiple different photo angles for both design and marketing use cases.
Knowing our community asked for it, we built a level two course, calling it the Advanced Surveyor Program.
The Advanced Surveyor Program launched its first official cohort in September 2022. Now the Surveyor Associate and Advanced Surveyor programs will each run once per month. Both are free for participants.
With two courses running and inquiries about even further courses throughout the solar life cycle, we knew we needed a better home for all our education. That home is now called Scanifly Academy. The goal of the Academy is eventually to build courses that teach all aspects of using drones throughout solar projects.
By running monthly cohorts for free, anyone interested in drones can learn. It’s our way of giving back, helping more people earn a living through drones, and continuing our mission to empower solar professionals with tools to work quickly and safely, avoid mistakes, and exceed customer expectations.
