Mark Kurzinski

Mark Kurzinski is originally from Syracuse, NY where he enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1993 and circumnavigated the world 4 times in the Aviation, Surface and Expeditionary Warfare communities. He started his military career as an Avionics Electronics Technician working on the F-14A/B/D Tomcat troubleshooting and repairing radar, electronic counter measures, communications, navigation and weapons delivery systems, ultimately achieving the rank of First Class Petty Officer (E-6) . Mark was selected to a highly competitive officer accession program in 2001 and was admitted to University of San Diego Naval Reserve Officers Training Course and received a BA in TV/Film Production Communication Studies May 2003. After graduation, he attended Navy flight school in Pensacola, FL and was selected to be among the first Naval Flight Officers to fly in the newest training aircraft, the T-6A Texan II. Mark retired at the rank of Lieutenant in 2013 and quickly founded MidWest Drone 3d Imaging in Cary, IL in 2014 blending multiple passions of flying, photography and video/audio production, and editing. He started in real estate photography/cinematography but soon found drones were being used for mapping, modeling and inspections. He has experience in the inspections realm with solar panel PV arrays, building façade, construction surveys, roofing, cell phone tower inspections and orthomosaic mapping/3d modeling.

Mark has over 1000 hours flying DJI sUAS with the Phantom(s) 2 and 3, Inspire(s) 1 and 2, Mavic 2 Pro, Mavic 3T, Matrice 4E and all the way up to heavy rotor aircraft Matrice 210 v2 and Matrice 300 RTK, his current aerial inspection asset. He also has experience flying the Autel Evo 2, Parrot Anafi/Anafi Thermal, Skydio(s) S2+, X2 and X10. The sensors he uses are the Zenmuse X7, XT2, H20, P1 and L1 . Mark has been a Part 107 Remote Pilot since 2016 and a Part 61 Multi Engine Private Pilot since 2006, logging over 900 fixed-wing hours in military and civilian aircraft.

Mark is also a Field Service Technician with Menet Aero in Genoa City, WI, a defense contractor manufacturing drones for the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps. He has experience maintaining, operating, repairing, and troubleshooting equipment and firmware of the PL-1200 “Intrepid” Variable Height Antenna tethered sUAS and has logged 23 hours. Mark is a certified Level 1 sUAS Thermographer (#197455) from the Infrared Training Center in Nashua, NH and a certified AUVSI TOP Level 2/3 Instructor (#1003-0039).

Mark has been with DARTdrones since 2018, providing superior training to organizations including Phillips 66, Sinclair Oil, CHS Petroleum, Wounded Warrior Project, Southern California Edison, Consolidated Edison, Big Horn Rural Electric Co, Tucson Electric, Verizon Frontline, PBLA Surveying, Feldman Geospatial, Charlotte NC Stormwater Authority, Santa Clarita Valley Water, Central State University, South Carolina State School of Agriculture, Ithaca College, CNN, NBC, NBC Telemundo, CBS, ABC, U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force, Chicago VA Police, DHS, FBI, CIA Global Response Staff, and Police/Fire/SAR agencies nationwide.