How to Become a Drone Pilot

Werner von Stein

Werner von Stein is from Hamburg, Germany and is fluent in both German and English. He is a tool and die maker by trade and an expert in the field of servicing commercial film and digital photo equipment. He worked for more than 30 years in the imaging industry where he held multiple positions, from field service engineer to service manager for the West Coast and Marshal Islands, looking after 12 field service engineers. In the mid-70s, Werner began to build and fly RC airplanes and helicopters. They were very different back then, and it was very important to fully understand everything about the models. He had to put his hobby on hold for about 25 years as work, family, and travel came first. In 2010 he started to get slowly back into the RC world by again building aircrafts, but they now included cameras to take photos and videos of landscapes. Again those where quite different, expensive, and big, and did a very poor job. After playing with different flight controllers, Werner finally found the one which worked best for him: the DJI Naza series; the launch of the DJI Phantom was another game changer for him. Due to his photo service obligations, he never really had the time to get really back into the world of flying. Every time he tried to focus on Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), a photo customer would call and needed his services. Now six years later, Werner can now put the photo world behind him and focus primarily on the UAS drone business. He is the owner of the SF Drone School where he teaches people of all ages how to fly safely in United States airspace. He has a 14CFR part 107 UAS pilot license as well as an FAA night flying waiver. He strongly believes that only a properly trained pilot is a safe UAS pilot. He is now shifting his focus to the San Francisco Drone School he founded in April of 2015, specifically the test flight research center, a branch of the school.