DRONE LAUNCH ACADEMY, LLC
LAKELAND, FLORIDA

David is the Founder and Chief Instructor at Drone Launch Academy. He is a drone enthusiast and an FAA-certified Advanced Ground Instructor, which means he has been tested and approved by the FAA to help students take and pass their FAA knowledge exams, such as the Unmanned Aircraft exam required for the Remote Pilot Certificate (what you need to fly drones commercially). David has held a FAA Private Pilot Certificate since 2007, which he obtained while studying at the College of Aeronautics at the Florida Institute of Technology. David is an entrepreneur who loves to help people by taking complex or arduous tasks and making them simple and easy to digest. As the owner of DCY Consulting, LLC, a finance and analytics firm, David has consulted with Fortune 50 companies such as Google and various start up companies such as SoapBox Soaps, Razoo, and From the Farmer. Mr. Young is a Certified Public Accountant, Certified Fraud Examiner, and holds a graduate degree in finance from Johns Hopkins University. Andrew Zimmitti is our legal instructor here at Drone Launch Academy. Andrew has been practicing law for over 20 years and is currently a partner at the law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips in Washington, DC. We are thrilled to have Andrew bring his legal expertise to Drone Launch Academy and have our students learn from his experience. Colonel Berchoff is one of our weather instructors at Drone Launch Academy. As CEO of TruWeather Solutions, Don is engaged in operational weather by leading a company that provides the transportation industry (including UAVs) tailored, real-time and forecast weather information to improve safety, and operations efficiency and effectiveness. Prior to leading TruWeather Solutions, Don served as the Director of Science and Technology at the National Weather Service where he worked with the Federal Aviation Administration to implement the Next Generation Air Traffic Management System Weather Concept of Operations. Don started his career in the United States Air Force (USAF.) In his military career, Don earned non-rated crewmember wings for over 300 hours as an airborne meteorologist on EC-135 command and control aircraft. He served as Air Force One meteorologist for President H.W. Bush and led several large weather operations centers focused on providing mission critical weather services to Air Force and Army operations. Don also led the Chairmen, Joint Chief of Staff, Afghanistan military policy and strategy from 2002-2004 and was the Base Commander at Manas, Kyrgyzstan, where he led 1,500 coalition forces and Kyrgyz contractors in staging personnel in and out of Afghanistan and supporting air refueling combat missions over Afghanistan. Don brings amazing experience and expertise to Drone Launch Academy. We are excited for our students to be able to learn and benefit from one of the foremost experts in aviation weather today. He can be reached at Major Green is another of Drone Launch Academy’s weather instructors. As the Meteorological Operations Manager for TruWeather Solution, Nathan is in a unique position to see how weather specifically impacts drone operations. Nathan holds a bachelors degree in meteorology and a masters degree in geosciences. We are thrilled to count Major Green among our distinguished Drone Launch Academy instructors. Jasmine is the Customer Care Manager at Drone Launch Academy. If you have any questions about Drone Launch Academy, need help with your student account, or just want to talk to a friendly person...Jasmine can help! We are so glad to have someone on our team who is so positive and cares so much about our students and visitors.