heliguy™ Granted Operational Authorisation for BVLOS Drone-in-a-Box Operations
ARPAS-UK member heliguy™ has been granted Operational Authorisation by the CAA (UK Civil Aviation Authority) to perform BVLOS (Beyond Visual Line of Sight) drone-in-a-box missions, in atypical air environments, using the DJI Dock ecosystem.
heliguy™ plans to use the authorisation as a framework for delivering automated and remote solutions for enterprise organisations. The approval enables the heliguy™ team to use both the DJI Dock 2 and the original DJI Dock, in non-segregated airspace.
Missions will be managed by their pilot team, either from the Remote Operations Control Centre (ROCC) at their headquarters or via the their Drone Command Unit.
This authorisation was awarded following successful BVLOS flights conducted at Komatsu’s Smart Construction facility in northern England.
We’re delighted to announce the publication of PAS 1905, providing essential guidance on aviation regulatory principles, management systems and the product lifecycle for future flight.
A huge thank you to all involved in the development of this PAS including the Technical Author, Mike Gadd, the Advisory Group, and all others who have shared their thoughts and contributed during the development stages.
PAS 1905 highlights core information to support innovation and scaling including:
Covering uncrewed aircraft systems to advanced air mobility
Connecting national and international regulations and standards
Setting out safety and risk considerations and assessments
Implications of different use cases for licensing, approvals, and authorisation
PAS 1905 was developed with extensive industry engagement as part of the Future Flight Standards Programme, backed by UKRI. Find out more on PAS 1905, and other guidance materials here.
Attention Drone Operators: CAA Service Charges to be Multiplied. Have Your Say by 6 Jan 2025!
Access the consultation HERE. Below is our draft response (will evolve until 6 Jan) which can support you in drafting your own response. UAS / Drone operators in the Specific Category (PDRA01, OSC/ORA holders): you MUST respond to the CAA Service Charges consultation by 6 Jan 2025.
Go to Section 3: Charging proposals by individual scheme
Do you have any comments relating to proposed changes for the Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems Scheme?
For your information, the table below summarizes our analyses of the proposed changes to the CAA Service Charges:
We profoundly disagree with the proposed changes to the Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) Scheme. These proposals are disproportionate, unfair, and lack adequate justification.
Proposed 2025/26 CAA Service Charges: Disproportionate Increases
The proposed increases are excessive and do not align with the principles of fairness or proportionality:
PDRA01 charges: from £234 to £500. Increase by 2.1x. PDRA01 has been in place for over 10 years (formerly PfCO). 95% of operators in the specific category are operating under PDRA01. With the introduction of the digitised DiSCO platform and a shift to declarative oversight with periodic audits (e.g., auditing ~20% of applications), labour costs should have decreased due to efficiency gains. Why, then, are PDRA01 charges doubling? What are the cost savings from digitisation if not reflected in charges?
New PDRAs: from £234 to £2185. Increase by 9.3x. “we will be exploring the delivery of additional PDRAs…. we will set an initial price point of £2185 for non declarative PDRAs”. PDRA-01 current charge is £234. Judging by the PDRA01 survey done in November 2024, it seems that the CAA is also considering transitioning all the way to SORA where the entry point is a SAIL I application at £2185 as well. This is not sustainable for small operators, forming the majority of the community.
The #1 target for new PDRAs will be to provide a simple regulatory scheme for most frequent user cases with lower risk-profiles, between the Open category and the Specific category, or In the lower part of the Specific Category.
What justifies such a level of charges? Are you implying that the entry point to the Specific category will shift to £2k+?
OSC/ORA renewal charges, before SAIL is implemented – or after: from £625 to £4992. Increase by 8x. Yet the process itself remains unchanged. How is this increase justifiable or reasonable?
RAE: Even RAEs level 1 initial charges would increase by 43%, despite no substantive changes to the service provided. What justifies this rise?
Transition from OSC/ORA to a SORA SAIL II: from £625 OSC renewal charge to £3994 SAIL II application. Increase by 6.4x
Worse, if SORA applications are indeed location-specific : “non technical SAIL II renewal” at £3995: the end of it.
The concept of location-specific vs annual renewals for OSC/ORA is in itself a profound setback that could jeopardize the industry. Adding a £4k charge per flight/mission would effectively kill the market. The CAA may be thinking in terms of repeated routes, like in CAT, but that is not at all the pattern for data capture with drones.
Excessive hourly rate at £312
The current hourly rates are excessive, far exceeding the fully loaded cost of a drone operator’s accountable manager – and probably of your own team’s wages.
How do you calculate those hourly rates? What is your proportion of overhead?
£312 per hour x 1800 hours a year = £561 600 per year
£468 per hour x 1800 hours a year = £842 400 per year
Operators also face a lack of transparency and visibility regarding the maximum hours billed, effectively giving the CAA a “blank check.”
Needless to say that the Price Increase Table (p. 44) indicating 5.9% overall increase for RPAS is extremely misleading. The reality, as detailed above, is that charges would be multiplied by several factors compared to last year.
The proposed 2025/26 CAA Service Chargeswill further push part of the community into hiding into non-compliance in the Open Category .
We’ve stated several times that the unintended consequence of complex regulation is that people eventually give up, they don’t try and understand, they eventually mind their own business in the Open Category, outside of direct CAA oversight, and where the risk of being caught by the police for illegal flying is minimal.
Increase in CAA Service Charges in that proportion will likely undermine safety and increase non-compliance.
The proposed charge increases will cripple an emerging sector and undermine its impact in terms of GDP growth.
If we consider the proposed Service Charges together with the transition to SORA:
A complex methodology that even the CAA operational teams will likely struggle to embrace it, and no signs at this stage that the CAA intends to absorb the SORA methodology in its role of aviation authority and produce simplified effective schemes for end-users;
Potential profound setback to location-specific, meaning mission specific, SORA applications (the administrative burden of it,, the delays with CAA teams overwhelmed by the multiplication effect on the number of applications, the catastrophic multiplier effect on the cost of compliance if location-based)
Lack of preparation on the drone operators’ side, by lack of visibility on the transition period.
There is no doubt that the proposed charges represent a clear threat to the sector’s growth and possibly economic viability.
It also raises serious concerns on the cost of compliance for the next steps, flightworthiness, product assessment RAE-F, and beyond the first steps of UTM. Are the cost of a full-blown complex regulatory approach compatible with the size and resources of the UK CAA and the UK industry? Clearly, the financial aspect MUST be factored into the decision-making process on regulation.
Finally, it raises the question of the regulatory approach that the CAA wants to embrace: FAA style where the cost of a Part 107 (equivalent to PDRA01) is $150, and the innovation approach is overall pragmatic? Or a European style, cascading the full SORA methodology with all its complexity from the “regulators think tank”, JARUS, straight to the local survey/construction/mapping/filming companies?
As a User payer, we seek transparency on the activities and costs behind those CAA Service Chargesincreases
Can you please provide details of the underlying activities and teams driving the RPAS budget?
Can you also provide details on the number of users, current and projected, supporting the individual charges?
What are the revenues generated by DMARES? Are they factored into the budget and calculations, so that the RPAS sector is considered as a whole?
What is the internal process for approving expenditures with such significant impacts on end-users? Why are end-users not consulted in due course? As expressed above, the financial aspect must be factored into the decision-making process on regulation.
You can also add a comment in Section 2: Overview of charging proposals. Do you have any comments relating to the proposals linked to changes in our regulatory perimeter?
“See in Section 3 our response relating to the proposed changes for the Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems Scheme and the exorbitant charge increases.”
SAM IS ....
DASA: Aiming Far and High – new Market Exploration into uncrewed systems
New DASA Market Exploration seeks revolutionary uncrewed systems. Novel solutions are being sought by the British Army to boost the range and effectiveness of uncrewed systems.
The Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) has launched a new Market Exploration titled “Air Launched Effects: Revolutionary Deployment Systems,” aiming to identify uncrewed systems (UxS) with extended range capabilities for the British Army. This initiative seeks innovative UxS technologies at Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 4 or higher, with potential deployment within the next 12 months.
Recent conflicts have underscored the strategic importance of uncrewed systems, demonstrating that cost-effective UxS solutions can effectively counter more expensive traditional systems. The rapid evolution of the UxS landscape necessitates swift iterations of platforms and components to meet emerging battlefield requirements.
This Market Exploration reflects the British Army’s commitment to integrating agile and innovative uncrewed systems into its defense strategies to address evolving global security challenges.
The British Army is particularly interested in developing an uncrewed Deep Recce Strike platform capable of operating beyond 80 kilometers and delivering shorter-range one-way effectors onto designated targets. The desired system should also incorporate advanced Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition, and Reconnaissance (ISTAR) functionalities to identify dynamic targets and conduct post-strike Battlefield Damage Assessment (BDA). A modular design is emphasized to ensure resilience against advancements in Counter Electromagnetic Warfare (EW) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies, enabling rapid development, testing, production, deployment, and iterative improvement.
Innovators with relevant solutions are encouraged to read the full Market Exploration document and submit their proposals by midday (12:00 GMT) on February 4, 2025.
This initiative highlights the British Army’s proactive approach to leveraging cutting-edge uncrewed systems, ensuring operational effectiveness in complex and contested environments.
Report No1 – DUAS xx21 – Loss of control following geofence breach
Report No2 – DUAS xx22 – Ageing batteries and what to look out for
Report No3 – DUAS 0032 – NOTAMs and whether they get read
Foreword by Rupert Dent, Drone/UAS Programme Manager
Welcome to CHIRP Drone FEEDBACK Edition 12.0
I hope you have had a good summer’s drone flying, whether for pleasure or professionally. Statistics from the Regulator indicate that the number of flyers continues to increase, albeit perhaps at a lower rate than before. However, there are a growing number of drones in the air, and economically sustainable use-cases continue to be developed in the professional market. Diverse use cases involve different aircraft variants that perform very different functions. All of them bring along different human/computer system interface risks to the party. Each of them have unique Human Factor related challenges. A couple of good examples are described in this edition!
Since CHIRP Edition 11, there have as ever been some excellent new regulatory and technical innovations in the world of drones. These include announcements about the Atypical Air Environment; plans for implementation of SORA 2.5 in 2025; as well as a new subscriber-based digital fight approval service, which aims to reduce administration time for managing requests to landowners for take-of and landing requests. Airports adopting this include Aberdeen, Southampton, Cambridge and a combined Oxford Airport and Blenheim Palace. Encouraging though this may be, we continue to collect evidence of good old traditional Human Factors having as much influence on day-today flying and learning, as ever!
Let’s look at several recent examples and see what conclusions we can draw.
PS it can’t go without a mention that winter is of course approaching once more! Watch out for the HF consequences of lower temperatures, fog, snow and frozen fingers!
Rupert Dent CHIRP Drone / UAS Programme Manager
SAM IS ....
The Thunderbird Project: Lifesaving Beyond Sight
The Thunderbird: Lifesaving Beyond Sight report, published in December 2024, outlines the United Kingdom’s advancements in integrating Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) drone operations into emergency services. These drones are pivotal in enhancing situational awareness, locating missing persons, and delivering critical medical supplies like defibrillators.
The report highlights several key trials:
Project SWARM: Evaluates drone swarming technology for fire detection and coordinated response.
National Project CALEUS: Conducts four drone-in-a-box trials in the West Midlands, Southampton, Gravesend, and Norwich, assessing various systems and procedures.
Project Skyway: Develops a drone ‘superhighway’ connecting Reading, Oxford, Milton Keynes, and Coventry to facilitate large-scale BVLOS operations.
National Police Chiefs’ Council Initiatives: Tests sub-25kg drones for policing applications and explores the use of drones over expansive areas alongside traditional aircraft.
The report identifies ten priority themes across five core areas essential for the successful deployment of BVLOS drones in emergency scenarios:
Emergency-Specific Systems: Developing specialized hardware, software, and payload delivery methods.
Operational Integration: Facilitating data sharing and inter-agency BVLOS coordination beyond existing protocols.
Commercial Scalability: Assessing the cost-benefit applicability for emergency BVLOS operations.
Public Engagement & Use: Enhancing public perception and community acceptance.
The Thunderbird initiative emphasizes stakeholder collaboration, open innovation, and shared learning to expedite the routine use of lifesaving BVLOS drone operations across the UK.
ARPAS-UK welcomes and supports The Thunderbird Project’s paper.
Upcoming Event @ qomodo: Cyber Threat Strategies for Unmanned Systems – 16 Dec @ 3pm UK
Stay Compliant, Stay Competitive: Cyber Threat Strategies for Unmanned Systems
The growing adoption of unmanned systems across critical industries, enabled by IoT connectivity, makes them an increasingly attractive target for cyber threats. As drones evolve into highly interconnected devices with expansive attack surfaces, adversaries are exploiting vulnerabilities in their hardware, software, and communication protocols.
Join qomodo CEO, Toby Wilmington, former NATO and BAE Systems cyber security expert, for an exclusive webinar that delves into the critical threats and solutions for safeguarding these advanced technologies. In this webinar, you will:
Explore the evolving threat landscape for unmanned systems across air, land, and sea
Gain clarity on the latest cybersecurity regulations and compliance requirements
Learn practical strategies to secure your unmanned assets
Understand how IoT integration impacts unmanned system security
Discover what lies ahead for unmanned systems and their future cybersecurity challenges
Exclusive Offer: Be among the first companies to register for a qomodo Unmanned System Cyber Risk Assessment and receive a 50% discount on your first project! This exclusive offer is available only to webinar attendees, join us live to receive a unique discount code during the session. Protect your business and gain a competitive edge.
