A service provider delivering a service in UK that utilises small unmanned aircraft systems for collecting data and imagery commercially, are legally required to apply to the CAA to allow them to operate. They will also require other policies, certificates and documents to support CAA certificate. This is similar to engaging other support services such as gas fitters (Gas Safe).

This article is aimed to be a brief explanation of the minimum evidence that you should expect to see as a customer from the sUAS (In our case an airvehicle less than 20 kgs) service provider in UK. It is not complicated, although some commercial organisations are making money from complicating it.

There are 3 main areas of documentary evidence relevant to a customer:

1. CAA Approval certificate – The operator should have a CAA certificate (Or copy) which clearly states the limitations and boundaries for operation. This typically is on a single page with who, where, when and how the operator is allowed to operate.
2. Pilot / Crew certification – As stipulated in the CAA certificate above, a pilot/crew member should have evidence to align with the requirements.
3. Insurance certificate – A valid certificate of insurance for a minimum of 3^rd party damage, is required by law.

The above are the basic legal requirements that we at A J S would suggest you ask for. Seeing these will give you a warm feeling that the operator is on the right track for safe legal operation.  Our further advice when selecting the provider, is not to be drawn in by and sold solely on a glossy certificate, there are many other signs that a service provider operates safely. As with other service providers you use, look for recommended providers or dig a little deeper.

READERS PLEASE BE AWARE - There is not one size fits all for the pilot certification. There are a whole range of aviation professionals including professional pilots and professional UAV pilots that are commercially operating sUAS in UK legally, and they are doing so under evidence to the CAA based on combinations of experience and/or qualifications. Contrary to some sales pitches, these are often the most professional that you will find in the country to deliver the  service to you.

The CAA references applicable are:

CAP 393 – AIR NAVIGATION: THE ORDER AND THE REGULATIONS – http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/CAP393.pdf

CAP 722 – UNMANNED AIRCRAFT SYSTEM OPERATIONS IN UK AIRSPACE – GUIDANCE – http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/CAP722.pdf

Looking back we view 2011 as a successful year. We have continued our support to Defence customers, we have made some progress with our commercial use of unmanned air systems and we have emerged better experienced and qualified in all areas of our business.

We are particularly pleased with this year completing our first contract at the MoD centre at Abbey Wood. We continue to be optimistic about our future support for the defence industry despite drastic MoD cuts and tightening funding constraints. We are already engaging in discussions for potential contract opportunities for 2012.

A J S considers short and long-term planning as essential to its business. This assists us to maximise the use of limited resource and to continue to work towards our overall business aims.  A large proportion of 2011 was set aside for us to focus on our training and qualifications. This activity included: training and experience in Defence procurement, accountancy and elements of sUAS certification and operation.

Internally we were investing in accountancy training. Partly driven by individual employee goals but also as an investment for the skills to be utilised in future as a business support service providing book-keeping assistance.

With our reliable and wind tolerant air system we have successfully maintained an effective flying rate and our pilot currency throughout 2012. sUAS Pilot confidence and experience has improved drastically on the back of our continuous pilot development plan incorporating basic rotary and aircraft system specific training. Most importantly we have gained valuable knowledge and experience of deployed operational support and maintenance of the systems.

In 2011 we have continued to monitor for changes to the law for operating UAS commercially in UK. This year has seen new operators springing up and others fading away. With rumour and conjecture rife in the industry, we continue to witness new operators commercially exploited during this time of change, with some organisations providing inflated performance claims and misinformation regarding the legal requirements, all to suit short-term aims. This remains for us an interesting and challenging market to be involved in. Bring on 2012 !!!

As we prepare for the A J S annual Christmas meal at the end of another busy year, our thoughts turn to our Armed Forces who are not so safe and sound for this Christmas period,. We will be thinking of them and raise a glass to those and all our absent friends.

Thank you to our customers and also the subscribers and casual visitors to this blog; for their continued custom and support.

As the temperature falls and the wind blows here in Wiltshire, we wish to send you all some seasonal cheer, with a few words from Sir Walter Scott to get us in the spirit:

Heap on the wood!
The wind is chill;
But let it whistle as it will,
We’ll keep our Christmas merry still.

Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year .

Thank you again for your support.

The A J S Team

AJS were recently selected to provide Supportability Engineering consultancy support to an MoD procurement team looking to develop a new misslie capability under Team Complex Weapons.

Team Complex Weapons oversees all air defence capability project teams and surface attack project teams within the MoD Team Complex Weapons initiative, plus a number of maritime radar projects.

The Team Complex Weapons Pillar contains seven Project Teams. These manage all the air defence and surface attack projects being managed under the Team CW initiative within the Weapons Operating Centre.

Lightweight Missile System (LMS) – The LMS Joint Project Team is responsible for High Velocity Missile and Lightweight Multirole Missile, their support equipment, trainers, and associated platform integration. Under LMS there is a project called Future Air-To-Surface Guided Weapon (FASGW).

Our contract delivered consultancy support to the LMS and FASGW Teams in a number of advice and guidance work packages. The work included the provision of supportability engineering consultancy support for a Main Gate submission, with work packages including support with:
- Support Solutions Envelope.
- ILS Strategy and Planning.
- ILS System Requirements.
- Whole Life Costing
- ILS SoW
- ILS D&M Phase Planning
- AR&M Planning.

I was at a flying site earlier this week, the wind was blowing golden leaves off the trees. It was looking like the start of Autumn. This prompted me write a summer summary update for this blog.

In terms of pilot/operator experience, I have now clocked up 130 hours actual flight time (600 flights) with an average of 20 hours per month through summer. This has been supported by many more hours spent on a tailored simulator.
The company has a draft pilot development program which once proven, will form the basis for training all sub contracted pilots; and I have been the guinea pig following it. Our pilot training plan develops pilot experience and service quality, by undertaking a full range of task scenarios, including task planning/risk analysis for various combinations of: weather, site locations, height, distance and payload.  In parallel, we have underpinned this experience with professional structured instruction on both basic helicopter and system specific systems. For the basic training I found Paul Heckles of Swindon to be above all, the most professional, and delivered an efficient and effective value for money service. We continue to use this service and I always leave Paul Heckles site having learnt and experienced a great deal and have new techniques for continuous development.

The increased flying activity during the summer months has placed additional pressure on the current sUAS and training systems. We are pleased to report that we have seen a high degree of availability, including flights in high winds and drizzle. It is noteworthy that our current sUAS has yet to fail on start. This is a breath of fresh air when we think back to our trials with the MD4-200 over a year ago. With the MD4-200 system it was always a lottery as to whether it would take off and if it did, how long over 3 mins would it remain airborne.

In summary – It has been a great summer for this service and our small UAS trial, with many hours spent operational in the air. We are now more than ready to deliver this service. The next stage is for us to schedule a service launch.

We have continued to develop knowledge and experience in the key business strands in which we operate, particular supporting the Defence Equipment Support Industry. We did however take the decision earlier in the year to dedicate a period of time in our busy schedule to undertake structured training, to improve and upgrade our qualifications and to learn essential new skills.

We have continued to gain piloting experience whilst operating unmanned aircraft. This has resulted in our service now at a level which has us fully operational. We are looking forward to a launch later in the year. A vital function of the unmanned air vehicle system service delivery is photography. This is both a science and an art which requires training, skill and experience.  After initially utilising subcontracted professional photography support, we have invested time and money in our team taking a professional photography course. Currently 50% of the modules complete to a Professional Photography Diploma.

Since our original company incorporation in 2006 we have used external book-keeping, tax and accountancy services. Over the last 3 years we have become self-sufficient in the majority of this management area of our business. An early training investment has resulted in a developing our own AAT Diploma qualified book-keeper in-house. We are looking to utilise this capability to offer book-keeping services in the near future.

All in all, a very productive few months.

This skill has many applications. There is of course an established range of free worldwide earth mapping and viewing services eg Google Earth. These are as accurate as the last time the area was mapped and there is an associated limit to the detail shown in the area of interest.

The level of detail available from our surveys is higher. The above image in reality is 8362 x 13975 and 19.7 MB in size. This means it is usable at a large scale for boundary review, but the supporting detail is also available for other survey situations. The image on the left is an extract in detail from the same image above.

We are able to provide a service delivering up-to-date, lower level imagery at cost-effective prices at the time when a customer requires it. This can be carried out carried out periodically to survey and record progress or degradation of an area.

Another service discovered during the same period of trials is that the same equipment has the ability to produce stunning panoramas using the system at various heights. Various effects produce images upto the CAA ceiling for our operation at 400 ft.

We admit that the figure does not sound note worthy on the face of it, and certainly may well not be a lot to some sUAS pilots reading this. We at AJS consider this to be a significant amount of running hours and an indicator of the reliability of the system on trial through the winter months. Oh and a wee bit of an indicator of pilot resilience to frozen thumbs.

This is us flying through winter months in flights of between 6 mins and 10 mins duration to gain valuable reliability data, and also pilot experience combinations of weather, site location, distance, height and payloads.

To date, in total, our pilot has flown 60 Flying hours (414 flights) supported by 120 flying hours on a simulator. None of our flying to date has been fully automated. There is however waypoint plotting and navigation assistance on the sUAS, but even this is pilot flown to system generated indications.

This Aerial Survey service is yet to go live for us, but we have continued to maintain pilot currency on the systems and to implement service development improvements. The aim is to improve the customer product and service delivery experience whilst improving the efficiency and therefore prove  (or not) the profitability of the potential service for our company.