Biography

An FAA Part 107 UAS ('Drone") Pilot accumulating over 2900+ hours of flight time, within 4100+ incident-free missions flown. Michael has earned safety and industry certifications from the FAA, FEMA, OSHA, and NIST and has achieved the highest level of drone safety certifications, Pro Level III, from the Unmanned Safety Institute (USI).

Michael’s experience includes using uncrewed technology for missions on the land, in the air, and at sea for projects such as aerial mappings, telecom inspections, wind turbine inspections, oil & gas inspections, critical infrastructure inspections, cargo resupply, search and rescue missions, as well as underwater inspections of critical infrastructure.

Serving as an uncrewed aviation consultant to organizations on integrating Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) vehicles into their respective industries, he has helped develop a training curriculum for workforce development within several organizations and school districts around the country, and regularly speaks at community and industry events on the advancements of uncrewed technology.

Michael has introduced many community members, business and civic leaders, legislators, first responders, and various organizations to the uncrewed technology industry and has trained and mentored many of these individuals to become certified remote pilots.

His volunteer work as Chairperson for the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG), UAS Taskforce- Legislative & Policy Committee, as well as a sitting member of both the Texas HB2340- Public Safety UAS committee and the Texas SB763- AAM Committee in engaging politicians, government officials, and large businesses, in helping to develop UAS and AAM policies and procedures, are helping change these regulations in Texas.

As the Director of Unmanned Operations (DOU) for the Texas Wing of the Civil Air Patrol, Michael has become a certified Search & Rescue Drone Pilot covering SAR missions throughout the United States.

As a part of the leadership team for the North Texas Public Safety Unmanned Response Team (NTXPSURT). He volunteered as their Training Officer, to help them in establishing an organizational presence, which included offering his experience to help fire depts, law enforcement, and emergency management teams on any number of tasks from event surveillance to flight training.