UK Renewing PFAW with the CAA

[apsussex]

Just adding my experience of renewing both my BNUCs and CAA PFAW.

Both went very smoothly. The trick is to leave enough time for each to renewed to process. The Euro USC BNUCs renewal involves submitting the flying / pilots log and reviewing and updating the operations manual. This was quite useful as I could streamline several of the operational checklists and the process reminded me of the training I received the year before. Overall I feel the training needs to be further adapted towards DJI Phantom and Inspire pilots because the technology has leapt forward even in the 2 years since I commenced flying. So I had a bit of a to and fro about where the centre of balance of craft is, vital in larger craft with variable payloads but not so relevant with the Inspire with its fixed battery and proprietary camera systems.

The CAA renewal is very straight forward. Takes a while as there are so many of us registered Pilots here in the UK now. 1769 as of the 20th May 2016. That's actually not as many as I had thought there would be so that seems to have slowed down.

All you need to do is fill in the online form SRG1320, pay them £56 and let them see copies of your Operational Manual, BNUCs or equivalent, insurance and Flying logbook. My renewal came back after 4 working weeks. I had phoned them to enquire about the status of my renewal as I was about to commence a large project and they were very helpful.

So I'm now into my second year of commercial UAV operation, I've yet to recoup my original investment of around £7 thousand pounds for the equipment, training and insurance but we have recently been awarded a contract that will run over the next 6 months and will put the UAV side of the business into the black.

Overall I feel more confident now although I still face each flying mission with a level of trepidation, not for my flying abilities, I play it pretty safe, but for equipment malfunction, especially battery failure. And battery / firmware management seems to be at the heart of safe UAV operations.

Best of luck with your second year of commercial UAV operation, and also with the contract you have been awarded. It has suprised me how many people drop off from any renewal because I think many expect to suddenly find loads of work the second they get their PFAW, and this is certainly not the case. You definitely need to have a business plan set out. I am awaiting my renewal to come through with added night operations as I have some projects coming up which require this. The Inspire has been a complete joy and dream to use, couldn't have been a better decision to go with for me. Looking forward to a second year of UAV work and some exciting projects in the pipeline although the weather does drive me mad! I am more obsessed than the trypical Brit!! which is saying something, and even some of my clients have become obsessed too.

 

[Cyclops]

Hi apsussex, yes the weather here in the UK has been really bad for UAV operation recently. I've had 3 aerial shoots cancelled recently. With one we drove up to Essex to film a highway surfacing contract on a rural lane and having waited half a day had to pull out. We were ok to fly but the humidity was too high for the process we were capturing. Shame as it was a perfect location, a shut off road, no trees and hardly any wind.

The knock on effect of a cancelled shoot is that all the preparation needs redoing, checking the location, checking Notams etc etc. And you left with a pile of fully charged batteries that need to be sorted. I take my inspire out to a local field and run them down to 50% as instructed. All this takes time and is part and parcel of operating these types of Drones commercially.

But a recent job of taking aerial pictures of a group of churches in East Sussex went like a dream. Brilliant weather and an interesting project.

 

[MarkLincs]

CAA PFAW is now at 90 days apparently due to staffing…. probably holidays etc etc

but theres a backlog from what I hear.

 

[apsussex]

CAA PFAW is now at 90 days apparently due to staffing…. probably holidays etc etc

but theres a backlog from what I hear.

90days! christ thats a bit worrying considering I did mine 5 weeks before renewal

 

[MarkLincs]

yea might be a tad late back if what I've heard is correct!

 

[apsussex]

yea might be a tad late back if what I've heard is correct!

When I went to do the renewal it was roughly about 3 weeks people were getting their PFAW. I wonder what's happened for the delays to be so long suddenly, was this direct with the CAA you got this info Mark?

 

[MarkLincs]

It's been on the web a while it could be wrong but there are a few reports of this from different sources.

Probably staff holidays causing delays as its a small team that do the pfaw stuf.

 

[The Editor]

Just an update on wait times for renewal.

Yours truly has just received his back after the usual SRG1320 renewal went in.

Wait time was 28 days from the day of sending in the email to receipt of PFAW renewal.

As previously, I did not submit my whole logs (just the last two months) and no need for resubmission of a photo of your UAV's (they have these on record with your initial application).

All straightforward but a longer wait currently than this time last year.

 

[apsussex]

Same for me, Although wait time was 36 working days!

 

[The Editor]

Same for me, Although wait time was 36 working days!

Ouch.