Month: December 2023

SAM IS ....
Drones In Action Report 2024

ARPAS-UK is pleased to present the Drones in Action Report. A compilation of drone use cases from various industries showcasing the versatile application of drones. They present strong arguments as alternative businesses operation solutions, bringing cheaper, faster, safer, and greener benefits.

Click here to access report

Submit your use case for the next report!

If your company has an interesting use case that you’d like to get published in the Drones in Action Report then simply follow the link below:

Click here to submit your own use case

Once our team receive you’re submission we will get in touch with further details.

Legal Disclaimer: Please be advised that while we welcome the submission of various use cases, we cannot guarantee that all submitted use cases will be published or featured. The selection and publication of use cases are subject to our discretion, and we may choose to feature or withhold use cases based on our internal criteria. By submitting a use case, you acknowledge and accept that there is no guarantee of publication, and no legal obligation on our part to feature or publish any specific use case.

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Ajuno- assurance of UAS flight controllers survey

Ajuno are conducting a short survey on assurance of UAS flight controllers.

The flight controller is core to any UAS and is responsible for stabilising the aircraft, executing flight commands, and enabling increasingly autonomous navigation. Despite significant advancements in UAS technology, current flight controllers present both significant challenges and opportunities to future drone capabilities

Complete this <10min survey to help steer the future of flight controller development and have a chance to win a £50 Amazon voucher!

Click here to access survey

SAM IS ....
December 20 2023 Drone Related Jobs

Disclaimer: All jobs posted here are from LinkedIn and other job sites including member and non-member organizations.

UK CAA

CAA UAS Expert

Closing Date: Friday 12th January 2024 (may close early)

Interview Date: W/C Monday 22nd January 2024

Cyberhawk: Various roles

Business Analyst, Senior React Software Engineer, Senior Software Engineer – Full Stack, Drone Pilot, Oil,Gas & Marine Inspection Engineer & UAV Pilot

Careers – Cyberhawk™ (thecyberhawk.com)

UAS – Design Manufacture Integration Technician & Mechanical Design Engineer

UAS – QinetiQ Jobs

Flight Operator & Flight Planner, Program Manager, Software Development Team Lead, Logistics Project Manager, Avionics Production Technician

Launch your career to stratospheric heights – AALTO HAPS

GrahamAir: Multiple Roles, including Pilots – Oil & Gas, HAPS Software Engineer & Avionics Design Engineer

Opportunities | UAV Talent (talentaerospace.com)

Speeder Systems – Engineering Role

Iprosurv

Regional Business Director

UAVTek

Senior drone pilot & engineer

RUAS

UAS Pilot

Tekever

UAV Regulations Associate

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Emergency Drone Responder: Issue 6

In this issue EDR offers a wide variety of excellent articles that support EDR’s mission to promote the worldwide sharing of knowledge… They would like to thank The British Transport Police, Vendelin Clicques, DroneSense, The I.E.D.O, Excelerate Group, Dr Anna Jackman, JOUAV, Heliguy™, Venari, DroneControl, Smith Myers, Andrew Black and Scott Mlakar for their invaluable contribution to this edition.

Read EDR #6

Emergency Drone Responder Live:

  • The UAV & Robotics Public Safety Event: 6-7 June 2024
  • Fire Service College, Moreton-in-Marsh, UK
SAM IS ....
The Future of Drone Flight – Flying High with Wind Farm Test Trials: Watch Again

Join Mike Turner, Cloud Architect at Zenotech on

The SafeZone project is in full flight with an increasing number of successful trials. SafeZone is part of the Future Flight Challenge to position the UK as a leader in the third aviation revolution. With the initial project partners, Flare Bright, Zenotech’s project is designed to further safer and more viable drone flight.

The project has already achieved successful results at Cardiff Airport, St Athan Airport, and wind farms in the UK.

This webinar will delve into the results of these wind trials in Wales. Zenotech will show how the use of high fidelity computational modelling can improve drone safety by predicting areas of highly turbulent air.

Find out how Zenotech validated the computational models using physical flight trials with Flare Bright’s wind measurement technology.

Mike will also demonstrate the way the data from the computational models can be processed and used in mission planning and flight control.

Speaker Biography:

Mike Turner, Zenotech, Cloud Architect

Mike is a specialist in cloud computing and HPC. He has gained experience from working on numerous computing deployment projects at BAE Systems, the Financial Services sector and then as a Solutions Architect on global data centre consolidation and cloud migration projects.

Mike is responsible for managing the development of Zenotech’s EPIC product where he has developed the product from the early stages. He works closely with a variety of supercomputing centres and cloud providers to give Zenotech customers access to the latest world-class HPC hardware. Mike also works with customers to evaluate and benchmark engineering simulation workloads on cloud HPC platforms and demonstrate how these workloads can take advantage of new cloud services.

SAM IS ....
CAA Launches New UAS Integration Sandbox

The UK’s Civil Aviation Authority has launched a regulatory sandbox to help support the development for the integration of Uncrewed Aerial Systems (UAS) into UK Airspace.

Their intention is that the integrated Concepts of Operation (ConOps) be trialled by appropriate industry stakeholders to support the ongoing development of CAA policy and understanding for UAS flights integrated with other airspace users.

The call is open to individual organisations or consortia working on the development of UAS systems operating beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS).

Online briefing event

There will be a short briefing event on 10 January 2024 at 14:00 via MS Teams where you will be able to ask questions of the CAA with regards to the application process.

Please register below and you will be emailed joining instructions on the morning of 10 January 2024.

Register for the CAA RPAS Integration Sandbox Online Briefing

Application period

The application period for this sandbox has a staggered approach with three tranches:

  • Tranche 1 – Closing date 23:59 on Thursday 1 February 2024
  • Tranche 2 – Closing date 23:59 on Thursday 29 February 2024
  • Tranche 3– Closing Date 23:59 on Thursday 4 April 2024

Only those who are accepted into the sandbox trial will be able to establish a trial TRA. This is to ensure that the CAA can manage the trials as a controlled exercise, working closely with all successful applicants to ensure the airspace policy concept and the technical enables required to move the policy forward are proved.

Full details and how to apply are available in this supporting publication:

CAP 2616: Regulatory Sandbox for the development of capabilities to integrate Uncrewed Aerial Systems (UAS) in unsegregated airspace.

15 December 2023

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Altitude Angel: Project Skyway animation

Drones are catalysts for positive change, and this animation highlights some of their benefits.

Enter Skyway, the UK’s drone superhighway, unlocking the potential of Beyond Visual Line of Sight drone operations safely. Project Skyway’s dedicated team has been working hard in recent months, creating the necessary infrastructure and technological advancements that lay the foundation for a future where the skies are accessible, and society reaps the rewards of advanced drone capabilities.

13 December 2023

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CPC: Cohort announced for Future of Air Mobility Accelerator

Innovators in aviation will develop their clever ideas between now and next spring with the help of Connected Places Catapult.

Ten specialist companies have been welcomed onto the Future of Air Mobility accelerator, a six month programme designed to trial disruptive new innovations in the aviation sector.

Connected Places Catapult will support the small to medium sized companies (SMEs) by providing investment readiness coaching, advice on technology and product development, and introductions to potential customers.

Each company accepted onto the cohort has put forward a solution to one of five challenges: Integration of Future Air Mobility into existing transport networks; Future Airport & Vertiport Operations; Future Airport Security Operations; Decarbonising Future Air Mobility; and Inclusive Passenger Accessibility.

The Future of Air Mobility accelerator is delivered by the Catapult in partnership with the Future Flight Challenge, delivered by Innovate UK for UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). Partners on the programme are Ferrovial, Heathrow Airport, the Department for Transport, the Civil Aviation Authority, British Standards Institution, Cranfield University and Coventry University.

“We are delighted to launch our third Future of Air Mobility accelerator, and we have another strong and innovative collection of SMEs who will trial and test their innovations with support from our programme partners, whose support we value greatly. This is an important programme for Connected Places Catapult as we get the opportunity to explore the use of new and developing technologies to drive decarbonisation and improve passenger experience in aviation.”

Connected Places Catapult’s Interim Ecosystem Director for Air Mobility and Airports, Andrew Chadwick

The ten firms welcomed onto the Future of Air Mobility accelerator, and their challenge areas, are:

About:Energy (Decarbonising Future Air Mobility)

Providing data and models to improve decision making through a battery’s life cycle; helping industries to accelerate the development of electrified products.

Hello Lamp Post (Inclusive Passenger Accessibility)

Using digital assistants to help people navigate an airport, receive information and instant assistance. Its intelligent communication platform allows two-way conversations through interactive touch points.

Meteomatics (Integration of Future Air Mobility)

Creating precision forecasts of the weather’s impact on businesses. Its autonomous ‘meteo-drone’ plus high resolution weather models provide visibility down to a single square kilometre.

NW PRO (Future Airport Security Operations)

Determining the geometry of objects placed in airport security screening trays, to alert operators to misplaced or oversized items that can cause problems and delays.

OneSky Systems (Future Airport & Vertiport Operations)

Uncrewed Traffic Management (UTM) software for safe, scalable and integrated management of aviation, including enabling electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) services such as air taxis.

Optimal Cities (Integration of Future Air Mobility)

Providing an interface that integrates future air mobility – from site search and analysis to planning and monitoring infrastructure – using satellites, AI and human expertise.

Optimse-AI (Decarbonising Future Air Mobility)

Using digital twins and Generative AI to explore asset performance to help reduce energy and carbon emissions, and enhance operations, across airport sites.

Sequestim (Future Airport Security Operations)
Exploiting astronomy technology to create walk-through security body scanners detecting even tiny objects beneath and between clothing.

Virtual Tour Experts (Inclusive Passenger Accessibility)

Providing immersive virtual tours within the transport sector, to help improve passengers’ travel experience, especially for those with anxiety or mobility issues.

WeWALK (Inclusive Passenger Accessibility)

Enhancing the mobility of visually impaired people in airports using a new service called WeASSIST where users can remotely reach professionally trained, sighted guides using an app.

To read more about the 10 SMEs on the Accelerator programme view the cohort brochure.

SAM IS ....
2023 ARPAS-UK actions in numbers

Reflecting on 2023, we are proud to share with you the top 2023 ARPAS-UK actions to deliver on our 3 priorities:

Proportionate Regulations and Standards:

  • We set-up the Regulation Special Interest Group REGSIG
  • We responded to 6 formal consultations by the CAA or the Department for Transport
  • We have continued our dialogue with several teams at the CAA
  • We’ve set-up 7 webinars or speaker notes on regulations

Safe adoption of drones by end-user industries:

  • We have set-up 25 webinars this year, mostly with you members as speakers, disseminated to a broad range of stakeholders who can watch at their leisure on our YouTube channel
  • We organised our own ARPAS-UK annual conference hosted in Cranfield, and co-organised the drone activities for DroneX and GeoBusiness
  • We posted more than 200 newsfeed items on our website
  • We disseminated 400+ job opportunities.

Enabling the Future:

  • We set-up the BVLOS Special Interest Group BVLOS-SIG
  • We co-organised the BVLOS Risk Quantification training workshops in 4 locations across the UK
  • We set-up 8 webinars on future-facing issues
  • We are member of the Future Flight Industry Group FFIG led by the Aviation Minister and contributed to the FFIG Action Plan setting up the UK roadmap for drones and AAM, due to be released in Q1 2024
  • We also take part in a number of working groups and committees, representing the industry, including the NATS BVLOS forum, DfT or CAA-led forums or WGs.
  • We’ve additionally been involved in a Mentoring Project to encourage young people to consider a career in the drone industry.
  • Thank you to our members that are also active in CAA, DfT, BSI … working groups.

Through our monthly bulletins and topic-specific emails, we have done our best to keep you informed on key industry and regulatory developments. We look forward to continue our actions in 2024, with your support!

By: Anne-Lise Scaillierez. Members only: feel free to comment on this post, or share comments by email to membership@arpas.uk.

SAM IS ....
“PDRA01 Application on hold”: Top 3 reasons

We had a meeting with representatives of the CAA’s Shared Services Centre SSC team, and would like to share some useful feedback wrt PDRA01 Application on hold. In terms of process within the CAA:

  • The SSC team pre-screens  all Operational Applications “OA” in the Specific Category

  • The SSC team assess the PDRA01 applications only.

  • The SSC team transfers the OSC applications (Case 1, Case2, and special projects) to the RPAS Oversight team.

The top 3 reasons why PDRA01 OA are put on hold by the SSC team are:

1.     Inadequate Emergency Procedures. These are detailed in CAP722A 1.4.14 “Emergency Procedures”. It details the events triggering an ERP (loss of control, loss of propulsion, pilot incapacitated etc), the checklist of specific actions undertaken by the RP and the crew to reduce the impact of that particular event (activate RTH, landing etc). It also covers the checklist of actions post event (inform closest aerodromes, and/or emergency services, and/or make immediate note of chain of events, and/or report incident etc).

2.     Discrepancies or lack of Flyer IDs, Operator IDs, Remote Pilot Competencies documentation for the organisation and/or the team listed in the Operation’s manual. Remember that the details must match exactly the information in DMARES.

3.     Discrepancies in the legal name of the organisation applying for the OA, typically: “legal name registered on Companies House Ltd” trading as “Business Name, or Company name”.

We also noted that the text in the CAA’s response emails can appear as aggressive (“Your application is on hold”, application cancelled if no response after 14 days or if second application fails assessment), especially when the reasons for having an application on hold are not safety-driven or are not clear. The team acknowledged that the emails are standard communications issued automatically, regardless of the reasons.

Going forward,  the objective is to have a distinction between:

  •  Applications being put on hold on safety reasons

  • Applications that are processed and approved but with advisory recommendations and best practices that the operator must apply – for reasons that  are not safety critical.

By Anne-Lise Scaillierez.

Members only: please share comments below, or by email: regulation@arpas.uk.