Drones and unmanned aerial vehicle use in the mining and energy industries are really taking off. Australian Certified UAV Operators’ secretary Brad Mason writes about the current increase of drone use, as well as how to become a certified operator.
Australia has a rich history of drones going back to the 1940s with the highly successful development of the Jindivik target drones, but the market for commercial unmanned aviation in Australia appears to have been on the cusp of an ‘impending revolution’ since the 1970s.
It has only been in the last 15-20 years that the real commercialisation has been underway, and less than five years of the current boom in drones.
The Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) promulgated the world’s first civil aviation safety regulations for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in July, 2001. Just four months later we had our first certified commercial UAV operator. Since then, more than 500 commercial UAV operators have been certified by CASA, the large majority of them only in the last three years. Less than five per cent of the certified UAV operators have more than five years commercial experience in UAV operations.
Much of the staggering growth in unmanned aviation can be attributed to recent technological advances – the lithium batteries that power many of these aircraft today, the computers and processing power to fly them via palm-sized autopilots, the GPS systems to guide them, the wireless radiocommunications systems with which to command them, and the digital imaging systems they are primarily designed to carry.
All these technologies and more seemed to meld at just the right time that we can now mass-produce myriad small flying cameras, with more than 600 applications so far identified by industry.
But whilst all those applications are ultimately doable, many are currently out of reach pending further knowledge, new aviation regulations, increased systems reliability and wider public confidence. It will take time to educate our way forward into more ambitious and more ubiquitous operations within society. The future of urban drone deliveries is one such application eagerly awaiting further technical and regulatory developments before it becomes a safe reality.
In the interim, CASA is approving limited commercial operations under the following conditions:
- Daylight visual meteorological conditions (Day VMC)
- Visual line of sight (VLOS) operations only • Not above 400 feet above ground level (AGL)
- Not in controlled airspace
- Not within three nautical miles of an aerodrome, airport or helipad
- Not over populous areas
- Not within 30 metres of people – not associated with the operation (For an explanation of what these conditions actually mean please refer to: http://www.acuo.org.au/industryinformation/what-the-regulations-say/)
CASA permits many immediately useful applications such as aerial photography and cinematography, aerial surveying, mapping and asset monitoring, agricultural crop health analysis, and even agricultural seeding and spraying can now be approved for drone application.
More restricted UAV operations are being approved by CASA beyond the limited operating conditions listed above, but wider restrictions will persist until:
- we can resolve the inherent collision risks with manned aircraft operations;
- new regulations can be developed to encompass them safely in the national airspace; and
- we can trust the reliability of these systems not to fail and pose an unacceptable risk to the public (as they are sometimes prone to do still without warning).
Contrary to what some people have been led to believe already, the operation of all drones for hire and reward in Australia requires formal certification from CASA, regardless of drone size, and there are two certificates required.
The first is the personal certificate called a UAV Controller Certificate or Remote Pilot Licence. The second is the business certificate called a UAV Operator Certificate (UOC). If you don’t hold these two certificates and you are operating a drone for purposes other than sport or recreation, you are operating illegally and could be subject to enforcement action.
To obtain the personal UAV Controller Certificate, you are required to pass a formal course of basic RPAS training at level one (visual line of sight). This can normally be completed in five to ten days full time for an entry level pilot, depending on the complexity of the system you are training on.
The CASA list of certified UAV operators also contains the certified RPAS training organisations. This can be found on the CASA website.
Once you have obtained your personal certificate you are eligible to operate specified UAVs commercially, either for someone who already holds a UAV Operator Certificate, or you can apply to CASA for a UAV Operator Certificate yourself.
There is no formal training currently for the business certificate. Once you have successfully passed a course of basic RPAS training you will have acquired the fundamental aviation knowledge and skills to make your application to CASA for the UOC.
Over the last 12 months, the cost and complexity of this application has been significantly reduced by CASA. What used to cost between $5000 and $10,000 and take up to 10 months to complete, now costs less than $2000 and takes about 30 days for an entry level commercial operator.
In the future, this will be streamlined further. The CASA website now also provides the generic operations manual, and operational library frameworks, with which you will document your intended operations. Most of the hard work is already done for you, all you need to do is enter your business details and operational particulars, and submit it to CASA with your Form 041 application.
Why is all this necessary? The training and certification process provides the fundamental safety oversight required to ensure your commercial drone operations comply with the aviation regulations, and that your commercial operations are not going to present an unacceptable risk to aviation and public safety. It must be accepted, a small drone of a similar size and weight to a medium-sized bird, has the potential to bring down an aircraft if operated negligently or naively in that same airspace.
We all saw what happened on the Hudson river in New York a couple of years ago as a result of ducks being ingested into the aircraft engines on takeoff. It was a very lucky escape for all onboard.
Just because a drone is small and light doesn’t mean there is no risk to other aircraft in that same airspace. As such, a remote pilot must be knowledgeable enough to abide by the same aviation rules and regulations as any manned pilot in the same airspace, and be competent to operate a drone safely. Safety oversight in the form of training and certification ensure all remote pilots are knowledgeable and competent to a common safe standard. This includes the documented and demonstrated procedures for operating your remotely piloted aircraft safely in the national airspace.
Surveyors and mining companies have been quick to see the benefits of drones to their business bottom-line and have raced to certification in the last two years. In addition to the obvious safeguards with not having to put people aloft and on rope access, there are significant cost savings in new RPAS data capture, and much quicker turnaround times.
In many instances the data can be captured, processed, verified and delivered in the same day, providing for the most efficient and cost-effective of operations. Many of the large surveying companies and survey equipment suppliers have secured valuable market share already. More than a dozen well known corporations are now CASA certified to operate drones commercially across mining and resources, telecommunications and civil engineering sectors.
There is also a growing list of federal or state government agencies and departments certified to operate drones too, including the AFP, the Commonwealth Department of Environment and one or more branches of the police in most states now.
Mature certified UAV operators such as Airmap3D, Arvista, Australian UAV, Synergy Positioning Systems, and HELImetrex, have been servicing the mining and energy sector for years with accurate data for volumetric surveys, engineering design and planning, mapping and a host of related applications including infrastructure inspections. More specific tasks, often value-added to operator contracts, can include multispectral imaging for rehabilitation works, thermal imaging coal stockpiles for hot spots, and critical asset inspections without having to endure expensive shutdowns.
In many applications RPAS are alleviating timely and costly rope access, increasing safety and minimising downtime, but it isn’t always positive. One of the more challenging realities of commercial drone operations is bird strikes and in particular, eagle strikes. There is no escaping the territorial traits of the eagles, but some rather unconventional methods have been found to treat this problem, such as painting eyes on the UAV to resemble a large (and equally predatory) bird itself.
Drones are here to stay, of that there is no doubt, but how they evolve and become the ubiquitous tool for an increasing number of industries, is under continuous development. The recent regulatory amendments from CASA were publicised as a ‘boon for industry’, where the reality is that they have raised serious concern within the aviation industry for failing to consider the wider impacts on aviation and public safety, particularly around aerodromes and helipads.
CASA’s ‘dumbing down’ of the entry level standards, allowing untrained and uncertified operators to run amok in Australian airspace, also does nothing to foster essential baseline standards and a more professional culture in this new-growth industry.
For the industry to grow beyond its recreational roots, it is critical we understand that commercial drone operations are now part of the wider aviation industry, and as such, training and qualifications standards are essential at all levels, even the entry level.
The industry is wholly dependent on safety through this early growth phase. Any hits to aviation or public safety, to public confidence, will completely undermine the integrity already hard-won. The first collision between a manned aircraft and a drone, the first death from a drone accident in Australia will trigger swift action from the aviation regulator, to the detriment of the rest of the industry, no matter how professional. We really cannot afford to let that happen.
As the peak industry body for the commercial sector of unmanned aviation in Australia, ACUO is committed to promoting the integrity of professional commercial UAV Operators, and ensuring the industry is protected as much as possible from poor judgements, illegal operators and onerous regulations.
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