Recent content by SimonMW

I was lucky. We did our ground school with EuroUSC but did our flight test and OM approval with ICARUS (Aerial Motion Pictures), who were absolutely superb. But due to a combination of other commitments and the total lack of aerial work, the new price hikes have confirmed my decision not to...

Allow at least 90 days! And make sure your insurance has three months left on it when you renew (they refused mine unless I renewed my insurance a month earlier than I needed to). Make sure you are ready for the huge renewal price hike next year as well to fund things such as NQE inspections (I...

£600 sounds reasonable to me. Don't complicate things. Make things simple for the client. £600 is a pretty good rate, and gives you the freedom for time to do the the site survey, risk assesssment etc. It is time that you are charging for, not the gear you use. It's a good start point. When it...

Just read through the official docs. £173 per hour for procedural changes etc (which I assume includes operational procedures for any new type of aircraft you add) is overly steep. I wouldn't mind, but, frankly, actual work has been ridiculously thin on the ground, mainly due to ultra cheap...

Maybe. But I really don't think the NQE's would have either the manpower or the inclination to want to do it unless they could make a good business profit from it. I know from my own perspective I'd rather stick lit matches in my eyes than read through peoples OM's. You'd have to pay me a lot of...

Nope, they read through it all. They've said as much. They can't cope with the workload, hence the reason they are considering upping the costs. Why do you think it's such an issue for them if they weren't doing this? There's no random spot checks. You submit your manual, and they read through...

I would not want to see the NQE's do the renewals. The costs would go up significantly! I really do not know why we need to submit Ops manuals in the first place after initial submission. We have already been assessed by officially recognised assessors as safe to carry out operations, and the...

Perhaps the CAA should consider stopping the silly practice of asking us to renew every single bleedin' year! If it really is taking up so much of their time, it would seem like the brainy thing to do to ask for renewals every other year or more!

It appears now that the CAA are asking for people to apply for PFCO renewal three months (90 days) before the due date to ensure continuity. Many people are waiting 10 weeks in some cases, with the CAA computer system unable to cope with file sizes being sent. So now I need to cram in 2hrs of...

What I'm not clear on is whether we need to submit our insurance detail compliance now, or just when we renew (or if a new pilot on the initial application)? If we currently have a PfCO do we still need to faff around with this or can we just wait until we need to renew?

Has anyone here flown for a job in Greece recently (i.e. The last month or so)? There used to be very light regulation, but on 30th Jan they introduced a new licensing scheme for commercial operators. Does anyone know if they might accept the CAA PfCO as proof of competence?

CAA Clarifies 50m Rule — The UAV Academy LTD The CAA make reference to the fact that you could fly over someone at 51 metres height, as long as you could show satisfactory safety case and consideration for doing so.

Like I said, there is no ticket or offence that the Police can issue to you. Trespass is a civil tort, not a criminal one, so it is not an offence that the police get involved in. If you fly from land without permission and you are caught, then it is trespass. There is no special offence for...

The police wouldn't get involved unless it was illegal or irresponsible flying (and someone had called it in). The thing you would be guilty of by flying without permission from the landowner is trespass. This is a civil tort, not a criminal one, so the police would have no interest in dealing...

As commercial operators we are under more pressure to stay within the rules than hobbyists. After all, we can have our permissions taken off us. But where do you guys practice between jobs? I used to have access to a field from a farmer through a friend who rented some office space on a farm...