FLY SMART, FLY SAFE
During a recent series of trial flights, NATS has been working closely with the Maritime Coastguard Agency (MCA) to assess how remotely piloted and unmanned aircraft can be used for search and rescue operations by HM Coastguard.
The trial flights involved several test ‘missions’ for a remotely piloted Elbit Hermes 900 aircraft, including a single 10-hour sortie where the aircraft took off from West Wales Airport (Aberporth), transited controlled airspace and performed a low-level overwatch mission in Oceanic Airspace off the south-west coast of Ireland.
An unmanned aircraft passing through controlled airspace alongside commercial manned traffic is a complex operation and close involvement was required from the team at our Swanwick air traffic control centre to plan, communicate and conduct the operation safely.
On its outbound leg, the aircraft (callsign ‘Coastguard 26’) spent around two hours in communication with Swanwick, covering 50 nautical miles through UK controlled airspace to the boundary with Irish airspace, where it was successfully transferred to Shannon Control.
Unlike many unmanned flight trials which operate in their own segregated areas, the Hermes 900 was handled by Air Traffic Controllers in the same way as other manned aircraft. The team at Swanwick leveraged the expertise they developed in previous projects to enable the Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) to fly safely in controlled airspace, despite the pilot being many miles away on the ground at West Wales Airport.
The most obvious difference was the speed of the aircraft itself, compared to jet powered, manned aircraft. This presented a challenge in terms of safely integrating with aircraft flying at normal cruising speeds – rather like riding a pushbike along a motorway! Thanks to the expertise of the team at Swanwick this issue was identified beforehand, and it was alleviated by ensuring the drone flew at the lowest available Westbound flight level (16,000ft) to allow faster jet traffic to overtake by passing safely above it.
From a NATS and ATM perspective, the flight was a complete success, with the aircraft flying its planned route within controlled airspace, remaining in communication with the team at Swanwick and safely separating from other air traffic at all times.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in all their forms are an inevitable part of our future and the demand for these aircraft is helping to drive the development of tools to assist in their safe control. This trial clearly demonstrated that integrating a UAV with manned aircraft is more than possible and should prove to be a significant milestone for the next generation of maritime operations – from search and rescue to counter-pollution patrols.
NB Imagery used by kind permission of the Maritime Coastguard Agency & Elbit Systems
26 November 2020
Information for standard permission holders:
The new UAS regulations will become applicable in the UK on the 31st December 2020, with the intent of simplifying the overall process for UAS operations. Once in UK law operations of unmanned aircraft will fall into one of three categories:
Open category – operations that present a low (or no) risk to third parties. Operations are conducted in accordance with basic and pre-defined characteristics and are not subject to any further authorisation requirements.
Specific category – operations that present a greater risk than that of the Open category, or where one or more elements of the operation fall outside the boundaries of the Open category. Operations will require an operational authorisation from the CAA, based on a safety risk assessment.
Certified category – operations that present an equivalent risk to that of manned aviation and so will be subjected to the same regulatory regime (i.e. certification of the aircraft, certification of the operator, licensing of the pilot).
Renewals
PLEASE NOTE: If you wish to renew your Standard Permission you may do so in the same way as before, however if your application is assessed on, or after 31st December the document you will receive will be called an Operational Authorisation, and will be based on UK PDRA-01, instead of a Standard Permission. You must not fall out of the oversight of the CAA to be permitted to renew the Standard Permission e.g. you must apply before your existing permission expires in order to be granted the new Operational Authorisation. If you wish to obtain an Operational Authorisation after your Standard Permission has lapsed, you must return to an RAE and obtain a GVC. The Full NQE recommendation or alternate means of compliance will not be recognised for Operational Authorisation applications based off expired Standard Permission.
If you determine that the type of operations you currently undertake as a Standard Permission holder, falls within the Open category then you must ensure the legal limitations of the category you are operating within is adhered to and that the flight can be made safely. The CAA does not hold any oversight responsibilities of open category operations and the police will take appropriate action on illegal activities.
Note: If, after the new UAS regulations become applicable, you allow your current permission to lapse, then you will need to apply for an operational authorisation as a ‘new’ operator – as a result, the requirements of UK PDRA-01 will need to be followed, which includes all remote pilots to be in possession of General VLOS Certificate (GVC) as demonstration of their competency.
Further information
Please see links below for relevant materials for you to read and contact your NQE/RAE for any additional assistance:
CAP 722: http://publicapps.caa.co.uk/modalapplication.aspx?appid=11&mode=detail&id=415
CAP 1789 (will soon be removed): https://publicapps.caa.co.uk/modalapplication.aspx?appid=11&mode=detail&id=9135
New UAS Implementing Regulation (IR): www.caa.co.uk/cap1789a
New UAS Delegated Regulation (DR): www.caa.co.uk/cap1789b
The UAS team at the Civil Aviation Authority
24 November 2020
 Further information Please see links below for relevant materials for you to read and contact your NQE/RAE for any additional assistance: CAP 1789 (will soon be removed): https://publicapps.caa.co.uk/modalapplication.aspx?appid=11&mode=detail&id=9135 New UAS Implementing Regulation (IR): www.caa.co.uk/cap1789a New UAS Delegated Regulation (DR): www.caa.co.uk/cap1789b The UAS team at the Civil Aviation Authority 24 November 2020 |
In ‘Viewpoints, the Official DJI Blog’ Brendan Shulman talks about drone safety, crunching the numbers to show that drones are the safest form of aviation.
*****
Drones are the safest form of aviation the world has ever known. That’s a bold claim – but it’s true. At DJI, we know this because we’ve done the math. Take a look for yourself.
We researched the issue earlier this year because we wanted to quantify what drone operators already know intuitively: drones are very safe. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) proposed a rule for identifying airborne drones that we worried would be too costly and complicated to be successful; we suspected those burdens were far out of proportion to the risk posed by drones.
DJI already knew that anecdotal evidence about drone safety was unreliable. Last year we released our “Elevating Safety” report, which methodically reviewed the available evidence about drones supposedly experiencing collisions or near-misses with airplanes and helicopters. Our study showed that most “drone sightings” – and even “drone collisions” – involve birds, bats, balloons, or nothing at all.
But there’s no substitute for data. And we had some available.
by Brendan Shulman, VP of Policy & Public Affairs at DJI
20th November 2020
The World Wildlife Fund has released Conservation Technology Series 5 – and it’s all about drones.
What they are, how they have evolved, and how to use them safely for conservation science and research.
The report is compiled by researchers from the UK, Germany and Brazil, bringing you case studies as well as best practices.