DJI Inspire 1 – Literally my Inspiration.

The title is absolutely no word of a lie. The DJI Inspire 1, inspired to complete my BNUC-S Pilots Licence and use UAV’s, for commercial purposes, not just for long range Selfies

Here is a piece of kit, that puts a what has been the privilege of a rich few, into the hands of normal people like me. And most likely if your reading this, you too.

Ok how will it compare to DJI S1000 with top of range Gimbal and Cannon 5D Mk3, well, it mostly likely produce the same quality pictures and video, but unless your Hollywood, will that matter?Secondly the Inspire 1 is coming in at around £2700 for dual controller kit (needed if you ask me) and maybe buy a few batteries at £150 each. So all in all around £3500 to shoot in 4K HD 30fps. Not bad, considering the S1000 plus essential kit, you wont see much change from £10,000. I cant imagine it will be long before a comparison video is posted showing an Inspire 1 Vs S1000 running a 5D or a Lumix GH4, on youtube.

Anyways, the whole reason i wrote this post is i came across this short video, showing how ‘easy’ it is to fly an Inspire 1 indoors. If flying the Inspire 1, is as effective as it appears, i can see so many business opportunities for something like this!

The DJI Inspire 1: finally, a drone that flies well indoors

There are a good few videos on the Inspire 1 on youtube, but for the most part these tend to be promotional or from known Photography bloggers. What i really want to see is a ‘first time flight’ video from a ‘normal’ (like us) to see how they get on. Ive found flying my Phantom to be fairly straight forward, and i’m hoping the Inspire 1 will be more of the same.

Cant wait till next year, when i will most certainly (as long as there are no major firmware issues) be purchasing my very own DJI Inspire 1!

Till then, Thumbs Up

http://www.dji.com/product/inspire-1

BNUC-S Ground School Day 2

Following on from my post last week, i wanted to quickly cover what happened on day two of my BNUC-S training day run by EuroUSC.

A 9am start. First off we went through the mock exam paper they had given us the previous day. I will do a more in-depth post on the theory exam and the kind of questions you might expect to answer shortly.

We then had 2 hours theory on preparation for the Ops Manual and what to expect on the Flight Assessment. They actually give you an almost completed Ops Manual, that you can submit to the CAA with some minor alterations and additions, again i will discuss this in a later post.

By 11 we had a short break and then covered Risk and Hazard Assessment, planning and justifications. This was a really interesting subject and before i knew it, i was lunch time.

We were told the exam would commence at 2pm. At 1.45 we were given the same map we had taken home the night before for revisions, an answer page and then the examiner (John, the tutor) passed out the papers and we were off!

I found Navigation the most difficult part – if you have never seen an Aviation VFR Map before, go and buy one for your area, you will need it for later, and will help with your exam.  I went straight to that questions. Out of 60, 6 or 7 questions all relate to the first Longitude / Latitude question, so if you get that wrong, you wont be able to answer the rest of the map questions. If you get the Lat/Long question right, you can almost guarantee yourself 6/7 right answers!

The exam is 1.15 hours long. Its multiple choices; 4 possible answer per question. only 1 right answer! You need to score 85% and above to pass.

At the end of the exam, we had a short break and we chatted amongst the group, the first question everyone asked was the first map question, seemed everyone got it right. We were expect our results within a week.

By 3.45 we were done and everyone left, seemingly very pleased about the exam, and about the two days training in general. I was defiantly one of them, and have stayed in touch with one of the guys on the course. He’s way ahead of me in terms of flying knowledge and experience, so it was great to pick his brains about the Platform he flies, and what he plans to do commercially in the future.

All in all a great two days, and very much worth the £840 i paid. Just wait for my result and hope my revision paid off!

Results days tomorrow – Fingers Crossed

Thumbs Up

Ground School BNUC-S Theory – Day One

On monday of this week i undertook day one of the two day BNUC-S Pilots Licence to fly commercially in the UK.

The course is run by EuroUSC, one of two companies that have been accredited by the Civil Aviation Authority to train people to legally fly UAS. They have been running the course since 2008. This is an except from their site….

“The Basic National UAS Certificate (BNUC™) introduced in 2008 for Visual Line of Sight Operations (VLOS) and the recent BNUC-S™ for Small Unmanned Aircraft commissioned by the UK CAA in 2010,  adhere to the recently developed Flight Crew Licensing Standard (LUASS-FCL™) which covers fixed, rotary and multi-rotor systems.”                   (http://eurousc.com/services/pilot-qualifications/)

They run a few courses a month across the country, There was about 18 of us on the course, which was presented by a chap called John. What a fantastic teacher. Very knowledgeable, concise and fluent in his material. Before you attend their course you receive 2 course books. I read them both throughly about a week before hand. In addition to briefly covering the important elements of the course book, the trainer also gave additional information, (much of it actually came up in the exam the following day, so make notes!)

The topics covered included.

• Aviation Safety
• Air Law
• Airworthiness And Tech Spec
• Flight Performance & Ops Planning
• Human Factors, Performance and Limitations
• Communications
• Meteorology
• Navigation – Map Reading
• OPs Manual – Introduction
• OPs Manual – Organisation
• OPs Manual – Operational Control
• Procedures: Planning & Risk Management
• Procedures: Flight Operations

The reading Aviation VFR Maps was the most difficult part of the whole day. I have always been able to read standard OS Maps with ease, so i was expecting it to be easy, but for some reason i simply couldn’t get my head around reading Latitude co-ordinates. Longitude fine, ARCs fine, Danger Zones fine, but for some reason co-ordinates like 0001223e confused the hell out of me. It wasn’t until the following morning and speaking to the trainer again, i finally got it. Dont bother watching youtube videos, because they’ll just confuse you! Listen to the trainer and ask until you get it, thats what your paying for. Speaking of which, how much does it cost. Well, the Ground School theory costs £700 and with the VAT its £840.00 (the theory is £350 plus VAT)

Click to access FTCUK-Issue-3.2-web1.pdf

If you fail the exam, you are able to re-sit as soon as their is a space on the next available on a course or when you are ready, but within a year i think. A resist costs £175 plus VAT. The company actually allows you to decide if you want to actually sit the exam right until 15 minutes before the start of the exam. I was so close to taking them up on this offer. Everyone on the course had been booked on for months, and i had only just decided that i actually wanted to fly aerial systems for work, two weeks before hand. But i had revised hard, and decided i would regret not doing it and not knowing, than if i had sat it and failed. At least i would have known how the exam questions were asked.

By the end of the day i must admit i was pretty drained. The tutor used graphics, text as well as numerous Internet and YouTube clips. Mainly of people doing stupid things with UAS or hurting people through a lack of thought and planning. One clip shows a man in America getting minor injuries by falling Drone. While competing in a Bull Run. Couldn’t help but find this somewhat amusing and ironic.

Speaking of the US, I could see how a course as in-depth and intensive as this, coupled with suitable company insurance, is the way to government approval of UAV’s to operate commercially.

At the end of the course, which started at 9am, great lunch at 1pm, finished by 5pm, we were given a mock paper of 10 questions, which i found very helpful that evening when doing my revisions.

The Exam was on the afternoon of the following day, Tuesday, with a bit more theory and discussion in the morning. I will be discussing the exam questions in my next post. Something that i should inform those of you who are thinking of taking the BNUC-S (i cannot speak for the RPQ exam) Examination; YOU CAN TAKE YOUR TEXT BOOKs AND ALL YOUR NOTES INTO THE EXAM – And it is also worth noting EVERY ANSWER TO EVERY QUESTIONS, IS EITHER IN YOUR BOOK OR YOUR NOTES!!!! – Just thought you might like to know 🙂

Anyways, I have to say i thoroughly enjoyed day one of the course, the content was really well delivered and interesting.

Thumbs Up

What Qualification should you choose – BNUC-S or RPQS?

I decided after much deliberation that i was going to choose the BNUC-S qualification and training to gain my UAS Pilots Licence. It came down to two major factors. Cost and Scope.

In the UK you need to hold a CAA approved UAS Pilots licence to operate drones less than 150KG. There are a few other determining factors, such as MTOM etc, but in general for Aerial Photography, 3D Mapping, Surveying etc, As i said i was a total beginner when i decided this is what i wanted to do, and i still am!

The BNUC-S – Basic National Unmanned Aircraft Systems Certificate, is run by EuroUSC. The guys are the market leaders in the commercial UAS training world. They initially worked with the Civil Aviation Authority to write the qualification, and until recently, it was the only one they acknowledged.

http://eurousc.com/about-us/

The RPQ – Remote Pilot Qualification, run by The Resource Group. I did have a long chat with these guys before i made my decision to go with EuroUSC. Apart from the cost element which i will discuss in a later, the main factor was the training.

http://uas.resourcegroup.co.uk/

The EuroUSC course is run across the country, from Heathrow to Leeds, Manchester to Edinburgh. This means you can always find a course close to you. Secondly they run courses every month, so if you are unlucky enough to fail to theory, you can usually get another space sooner rather than later. The Resource group tend to run courses somewhere in Wales and Northern Ireland, and they are not as frequent.

The EuroUSC course was also cheaper at £740 plus VAT for the theory and £350 plus VAT or the flight assessment. Resource Group was £1600 inc VAT. That said the Resoucse group is a 3 day course, as opposed to the EuroUSC which is 2 days. Some of you will prefer to cram and get it over with, other will prefer a more relaxed approach.

Finally the last factor that made me opt for the BNUC-s run through EuroUSC was scope. EuroUSC use this course and operate with offices throughout Europe, Belgium, France, Malta, Spain, Netherlands etc. The RPQs certificate is not recognised by the Civil Aviation Authorities of those countries, something to bear in mind, fi you don’t want to be stuck working just in the UK?

I would like to say, that although i have completed BNUC-S theory, on Tuesday of this very week, i will defiantly be looking to train with the guys at Recourse Group, once i’m up and running and established. Firstly to expand my skill and knowledge base. Secondly to network more, we are quiet a small community and people know people. Finally, they know what they are talking about. EuroUSC has, to an extent had a monopoly on the training of UAV Pilots since 2010. The Resource guys just seemed a little less ‘salesy’ (if thats a word), the Resource Group, guys seemed to be very knowledgeable and precise – no waffle or sales jargon at all!. I reckon most of them are military, so you know your training will be first rate.

Till next time

See you in the sky!

My first post! – An Introduction to the world of flying Drones Legally and Commercially in the UK

In January 2014 i was decided to close my recruitment company. It wasn’t making the money it once did, and i had simply lost interest in long hours stuck in an office behind a desk, staring out of the window. I knew whatever i did next, had to be something that i enjoyed and would get me outdoors, rather than a well paid job that i had. I went through a few months of toying with various ideas and business plans, but noting got me excited.

I have always been a geek. I was as a child, teenager and grown man. Radio Controlled toys were always my passion, but never once thought i could make a living from them….

Then the 22nd November 2014, i had the moment of ‘inspiration’ i had been waiting for. It was a saturday night, i was watching TV, Grand Designs. They were filming an old barn from the ground, then the shot flew up and away from them, with such speed and grace, i was amazed. I wasn’t sure how they had done it, as a helicopter obviously wasn’t used. After a few minutes on Google, i had come to two conclusions. One, it was a filmed with by a Drone. Two, thats what i wanted to do with my life!

If you have read this far, thank you, and learning to become a qualified Unmanned Aerial Systems Pilot to fly UAV’s commercially is something your thinking about. What i aim to do is give you,         an honest and frank account for my own personal introduction to the world of UAV’s, the Legal requirements, insurance, training and qualifications. How i will write my Operations Manual (i haven’t even started writing that as of this second, thats how new to this i am), how i found the theory training and exam which i took yesterday (!!!!!) and anything i think will be useful as an additional source of information for newbies like me. I will also use this site as a source of all the news reports i read on the use of UAS, more commonly referred to as Drones.

One last thing before i go, i would recommend if you are reading this in the UK and you haven’t come across a site call HexCams, i suggest you go there now. It was the most valuable source of info on the different types of UAS qualifications are available i could find. Below is a link the their WordPress Site. Its run by a chap called Elliott, who also offers training, and i will be giving him a call tomorrow, now i know what Platform (UAS) i want to buy.

See you in the sky

https://hexcam.wordpress.com/2013/02/21/bnuc-s-and-registration-for-a-caa-permission-for-aerial-work/