Seeking Drone Industry Participants for Professional, Responsible and Considerate Drone Use Online Focus Group
The Diversifying Drone Stories research project is seeking to recruit members of the UK drone industry to participate in upcoming online focus groups exploring professional, responsible and considerate drone use. In recognition that drones both enable and afford various benefits, and raise a range of challenges, the online focus groups will act as a forum for both sharing different experiences, practices and approaches, and networking with fellow members of the UK drone industry.
The online focus groups form part of Dr Anna Jackman of ARPAS-UK Member University of Reading’s Economic and Social Research Council research project, Diversifying Drone Stories, which explores the use, perception, and impact of drones in changing UK airspace.
The research project engages with diverse stakeholders (including emergency services, lawyers, industry, pilots, air traffic controllers, local authorities, regulatory, policy-makers, and members of the public) to understand different uses, experiences and perspectives on how drones may be (re)shaping UK airspace and everyday life.
If you have any questions or would like to express an interest in participating in the online focus groups, please email Dr Anna Jackman via email on a.h.jackman@reading.ac.uk and indicate your preferred date and time slot:
Wednesday 26 April: 10.30am – 12.30pm
Thursday 27 April 3-5pm
Wednesday 3 May 1.30 – 3.30pm
March 2023
SAM IS ....
Distant Clouds – Drone Flying on a Remote UK Overseas Territory – WATCH AGAIN
Flying a drone in a remote South Atlantic island has its challenges. Ben Sansom will give a talk about the use of drones on the UK Overseas Territory of St Helena and how they are being used to make decisions and to help save the island’s unique habitat.
Speaker:
Ben Sansom
Director, Arctium Ltd
Ben Sansom is a water resource consultant with over 25 years experience and has been using drones for environment projects since 2016. He is currently working in Kenya, Barbuda and St Helena with colleagues from the RSPB, UK Met Office, UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, FCDO and the Governments of St Helena and Antigua and Barbuda.
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Talk To The Eye In The Sky: Cambridge Wireless Event
29 March 2023: 10.30am – 4pm
Location: TTP, Melbourn Science Park, Melbourn, SG8 6EE
Join the Radio Technology SIG at their next in-person event where they will explore the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles industry, to establish the current landscape, the technology needs to evolve and hear from successful examples of UAVs being deployed in real-life.
From Tanzania to Scotland, demonstration missions have shown that UAVs can provide vital services such as delivering medical supplies to regions with limited road infrastructure and inspection of assets in locations hazardous to humans. Being able to do Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) safely and securely is key to make this commercially successful and enable large scale operations. Several pieces of the puzzle need to align to make this commercially successful – ranging from reliable command and control; means to integrate safely with airspace via various layers of deconfliction; optimising for size, weight, and cost to improve uptake; and close integration with enterprise or appropriate use-case workflows.
At this event, you will hear from various stakeholders on their perspective of where the industry is, how technology needs evolve and hear some successful examples of these being deployed in real-life.
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March 24 2023 Drone Related Jobs
Disclaimer: All jobs posted here are from LinkedIn and other job sites including member and non-member organizations.
HexCam is looking to hire for the position of Business Administrator / Junior Drone Pilot.
We had a great day, loved the talk by the coffee machine, can’t thank enough Cranfield University for hosting us at DARTeC and our Members who joined us in a day of drone related talks and conversations.
The video recordings and slide decks of each individual presentation are available, please follow the links below our chat.
CAA RPAS Unit at ARPAS-UK annual conference, March 2023
Graham Brown, Chairman, and Anne-Lise Scaillierez, CEO, shared an update on ARPAS-UK past activities; our priorities for 2023 following membership feedback: “Proportionate Regulations and Standards”, “Safe and Professional Adoption of drones by end-Users”, and “Conduit for future-facing issues“, as well as the set-up of a Regulation Special Interest Group REG SIG.
The presentation and Q&A with the GA&RPAS Unit at the CAA was certainly a highlight of the day. Thank you Kevin Woolsey, Co-Head, Mark Wharry, Safety & Oversight Senior Manager, and Callum Holland, Transformation Manager, for coming in person, and for your commitment to engaging better with the industry. It was welcome news. Our Members’ Regulation Special Interest Group, the REG SIG team, had prepared a list of top 10 priorities, and the CAA team’s presentation was designed in response to these 10 points (link below). We all know that there has been and are still challenges, our industry is growing and innovating at a fast pace. Regulations and the regulators are industry enablers, and we are keen to collaborate and help the industry move forward.
Thanks to Gordon Baker, Policy Lead at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, for providing an update on the newly created Department’s engagement with our sector of the market. It was exciting to hear more about the government’s commitment to robotics, and his insights on how to unlock the commercial drone opportunities.
We enjoyed content-rich presentations by Members, anchored in real-life operations and experience:
Great to hear how Mark Elliott, CEO of S4G Drone Services, transformed the engagement with an initially uncertain and concerned local council by demonstrating professionalism and demonstrating the value of the data collected and digital output. Your professionalism and positive attitude shone through in a highly engaging and informative presentation.
As ever, it was great to hear from Professor Graham Braithwaite, Director of Transport Systems at Cranfield University and the latest activities at DARTeC. Graham hit the nail on the head when he said the conversations over coffee were particularly pleasing to see and be part of. The connections made, questions explored, people meeting for the first time in person after only online contact – all this is so important to an industry that is so geographically disparate.
Even when Members can’t be there in person, they can contribute, as Andy Huggett and Chris Janes, Training Managers at Consortiq proved with their conversation about SORA. Andy and Chris explained the basics of the SORA methodology, how it can be a very powerful tool for complex operations, and how new PDRAs, possibly following SORA, could be a good way forward for the not-so-complex operations.
Alex Fraess-Ehrfeld, CEO of Airborne Robotics walked us through the approval process in Austria on a practical BVLOS flight operation to deliver a defibrillator, following the SORA methodology … Some of those timelines – 3 months from first consultation – definitely caught the eye! So did the advice to thoroughly prepare, chase those responses from the authority, and use simulation tools to facilitate the approval process.
We should mention that we had kicked off the event with the AGM element of the day’s proceedings, and voted on resolutions to enable hybrid General Meetings and Online Voting, as well as confirming Aleks Kowalski and Chris Daniels as Directors.
The last presentation of the day was from the ARPAS-UK team, Graham Brown, Chair, Anne-Lise Scaillierez, CEO, and Elena Major, Operations Manager. It was a whistle-stop tour of what we’ve been doing this last year, where we’ve been engaged on our Members’ behalf, opportunities taken and available. It presented a positive, forward looking vision for the industry working together for the benefit of Members and the wider industry.
Finally, thank you to all those who attended in person and online. We hope to see more of you next year in person, though appreciate it isn’t always possible. We always enjoying talking to Members, so please do contact us throughout the year, come to see us at conferences and exhibitions as well connect on LinkedIn.
For all recordings and presentations, follow the links below:
The Annual General Meeting presentation and resolutions submitted to vote can be found here.
Stuart Keenan made Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society
We are pleased to announce that our previous Chair ARPAS-UK, Stuart Keenan, of ARPAS-UK Member Frazer-Nash Consultancy has recently been awarded the grade of Fellow by the Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS), the highest grade attainable by the organisation.
Stuart said, “It is a great honour to be recognised by the RAeS for my achievements, particularly around the excellent cutting-edge drone development work my team has been involved with over recent years. This includes the development of novel UAS concepts as well as enabling future drone use cases by pushing the boundaries of regulation whilst remaining acceptably safe.”
Congratulations Stuart on this fantastic achievement!
Stuart is the Head of Unmanned Air Systems at Frazer-Nash Consultancy, and his vision is for drones to be commonplace in a way that safely benefits society. Stuart’s area helps organisations to make the most of drones, with 2 key focus areas: drone consultancy services, and the manufacture of bespoke drone systems for niche customer use cases.
Stuart is a CAA qualified SUAS pilot, and the SUAS Accountable Manager for his company, as well as being the UAS technical expert for safety and regulation. Under Stuart’s leadership, the Frazer-Nash drone business has grown in under 5 years from very little to a turnover of £multi-millions, and he is now leading activity to allow Frazer-Nash’s expertise to benefit the exciting growth areas of UAM and UTM.
Stuart has a background in aviation safety, developed during his 16-year career as an RAF engineer officer, which culminated in him designing, developing and introducing the Air Safety Information Management System (ASIMS) across the whole of the UK military air domain – ASIMS has become the tool which has underpinned significant increases in air safety performance standards across Defence aviation.
Stuart is a chartered engineer and a Member of the Royal Aeronautical Society, and has a BEng(Hons) Aeronautical Engineering degree from Loughborough University, as well as a Master of Business Administration degree from Cranfield University.
March 2023
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Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, Update.
Gordon Baker, Policy Advisor, Dept for Science, Innovation and Technology, shared with us his insights on the UK’s Commercial Drone Opportunity, its position within the wider innovation/technology landscape, and the path to unlock the commercial opportunities. ARPAS-UK annual conference, March 2023.
Engaging with Local Authorities – S4G Drone Services: ARPAS-UK Annual Conference, March 2023
with Mark Elliott of Sparks4Growth and Sunil Budheo, Transport Innovation Manager of Coventry City Council
Mark Elliott, CEO of S4G Drone Services, tells us how they transformed the engagement with an initially uncertain and concerned local council by demonstrating professionalism, safety and demonstrating the value of the data collected and digital output. Mark also shares the challenge of identifying bylaws, and understanding to what extent they are aligned with the RPAS regulations and apply.
Unfortunately we had issues with Sunil’s access on the day, but the presentation is here.
Lessons learnt by Consortiq on applying the SORA methodology
Andy Huggett andChris Janes, Training Managers at Consortiq, explained to us the basics of the SORA methodology, how it can be a very powerful tool for complex operations, and how new PDRAs, possibly following SORA, could be a good way forward for the not-so-complex operations.
