DronePrep Pilot in Residence Chris Gorman (AKA Big Ladder Photographer) has been featured on BBC Breakfast this morning talking about his incredible and unique portfolio of aerial work collected during lockdown:
He also gets a DronePrep gong for being the first Drone Pilot to mention the importance of #landownerpermissions to enable drone flight on live on #BBCBreakfast.
Landowners and Drones – The Problem
Currently in the UK there is a lack of conversation between landowners and drone pilots. Landowners are concerned about drone flying (particularly rogue flights) on their land, while pilots often do not know they need permission to take-off, land and overfly on certain areas.
Do you know how many landowners and pilots there are in the United Kingdom?
There are… 220,000 drone pilots and 56 million landowners (CLICK HERE)!! Consequently, getting both parties to communicate is a humongous mission!
Could you class us as the ‘modern day’ hero?
Airspace Growth Programme – The Solution
…DronePrep to the rescue!
We aim to bridge this divide between landowners and drone pilots to create a safe and fully integrated airspace. The tool to achieve this is The Airspace Growth Programme.
So what actually is the Airspace Growth Programme? We are striving to give landowners a way of communicating conditions to allow access of their airspace directly above their land. Once decided (with our help) on what and where they are happy for drone use, we add it to our online platform for all members and drone pilots to see!
This is growing more important everyday. Each location onboarded onto the DronePrep platform unlocks the potential for incredible and innovative projects including future medical drone deliveries, search and rescue efforts and operational and R&D testing.
A well communicated Drone Access Policy opens up huge possibilities for both landowners and drone pilots. It can allow for fun flights for the drone community to obtain beautiful imagery of which can be shared with the general public to help market landowners incredible properties which deserve to be seen.
How to Make Tomorrow, Today – What Next
To make the Airspace Growth Programme thrive, we need your help. If you know of any large landowners including farms and stately homes you can refer them to us to put on our platform. If you register to be a member (CLICK HERE) you can receive up to £25 for every successful land referral and become a Community Hero! What more is there to know? GO GO GO!!
A real student lead course, Geography at the University of Worcester puts you first! Due to the lecturers having a real passion for what they teach it allowed me to find my niche – Drones. This was kick-started from one Phantom 4 Pro demonstration in a Level 4 module of my undergraduate degree.
Knowing that my passion lay with drones, I actively sought for as much experience as possible.
Learning and Teaching Project
Through a competitive selection process I was chosen to participate in a funded project to aid future students. The project involved travelling to the Swiss Alps to collect drone imagery to be used in practical classes in Level 5 modules. Behind the scenes work for this required: identification of new and suitable sites within the Arolla Valley, obtaining baseline data at each site including the distribution and surveying of GCPs and IVPs with a as well as being a co-pilot for numerous Phantom 4 Pro with onboard RTK flights!
Fieldwork Assistance
If, when and how I could participate in drone fieldwork, I did.
This began with assistance on Masters and PhD students projects. For this I undertook tasks such as laying and surveying GCPs with the Trimble R10 GNSS, setting up and calibrating the drone before flight, experience with the DJI Go App and undertaking supervised flights.
From this my fieldwork experience took off- the most memorable being in the Arolla Valley 2020. Myself and two fellow students on my course aided Senior Professor Ian Maddock in his study of using a Phantom 4 Pro with onboard RTK to measure snow depth. Although the week-long excursion involved a lot of perseverance; walking through 2m snow with non-waterproof boots (not my best idea) and thinking on the spot with the kit constantly failing due to the extremely cold temperatures, it was a lot of fun! I was able to get some incredible flying experience in a totally new environment with people that shared the same passion, this made it all worthwhile.
Student Academic Partnership
Student Academic Partnerships involve a close relationship between lecturers and students to create a project beneficial to all. Our project involved a practical session in the form of a powerpoint, interactive exercises and quizzes to equip undergraduate Geography students with the
knowledge to pass the CAA Drone Safe Drone Code test. Noting the importance of this, we sought to make the practical as fun and inclusive as possible, hoping these key practices stay in their minds for future flights! Due to the current COVID-19 crises the practical has not been implemented, however, I look forward to hearing about its potential success in upcoming years.
Dissertation
Your independent study is all about expressing yourself in your field of expertise- for myself this was a no brainer. My project was titled: Assessing the effectiveness of drone imagery in identifying Channel Geomorphic Units. Undertaken upon a 200m sinuous reach of the River Teme, I conducted supervised flight with a Phantom 4 Pro using a flight plan I generated myself through the DJI Go App. Although this sounds smooth sailing… as with all flights unexpected problems can arise. The growing issue with shared airspace was apparent when I had to quickly move the university drone out of the way of an oncoming military helicopter. Avoiding any near-misses and on return to the office I was able to freely process my dataset of 720 photos in Agisoft Metashape Pro creating fully referenced and high quality orthophotos and DEMs.
Work Placement
A very big step in my UAV career progression was my work placement at Geodime. The placement allowed me to transfer my educational knowledge of UAVs into a working context- meeting real and tight deadlines. My role at Geodime was ‘ Assistant Pilot and Photogrammetrist which saw me working closely with large scale companies such as Hanson, to generate their monthly stock surveys. To achieve this I performed supervised drone flights and processed any datasets through complex softwares such as Klau.
Flight: My Next Steps
Since graduating from the University of Worcester in Summer 2020, I wanted to turn my experience with UAVs into a career. Personally, I couldn’t have found anywhere better than DronePrep to start. It is clear we share the same passions, the want to be a part of this ever changing discipline by helping their integration both safely and effectively into modern society. I look forward to my part in this mammoth task, opening up the airspace bringing landowners and the drone community together.
A consortia led by DronePrep has successfully been awarded €200,000 via the Government’s Emergency CV19 Future Flight Fund to fast-track plans to establish a UAV/Drone Emergency Medical Airbridge and consult with landowners about using low-level airspace in Cornwall for emergency drone use.
The Cornish project will run for four months and pave the way for establishing future Drone Corridors, Medical Airbridge capabilities and goods transfer in low-level airspace via Drone in Cornwall. Early during Lockdown, the Transport Secretary (Grant Shapps) instructed the same team to conduct the first-ever Medical Drone deliveries to assist the NHS between Lee-on-Solent and the Isle of Wight https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRH7aiULmHc
Now members of the same consortia including DronePrep, Windracers and Consortiq are running a project in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. The team includes drone, logistics, transport planning and medical experts.
Claire Owen, Co-Founder of DronePrep comments
“Commencing in September, our team will be engaging with Cornish landowners on both the mainland and the Isles of Scilly to help define future flight plans. We are absolutely delighted to be leading the project which could lay the foundations for similar emergency services to other remote locations.”
Gareth Whatmore, Co-Founder of DronePrep said
“If remote areas of Cornwall are affected by a second wave of CV19 it will be important that we have commenced the necessary consultation with landowners and regulators to prepare for flexible drone deliveries to support the NHS.
“The feedback from the public and ground stakeholders on this pioneering project will help us achieve this new service for the people of Cornwall and will help the industry develop more understanding of how to integrate essential emergency Drone services elsewhere in the UK. We are thrilled that the government have supported this project to help maintain the flow of NHS supplies to the Isles of Scilly”
During an inspiring Royal Aeronautical Society event in February 2020 which covered the amazing exploits of Richard Browning (Gravity), Nick Dyson, Francis Holland School’s Director of Creative Enterprise and DronePrep’s Gareth Whatmore hatched a plan over coffee aimed at inspiring the schools students. The goal: to demonstrate how we could use Landowner consents to open up the largest ever low-level airspace envelope over Central London.
A few weeks later in the midst of lockdown, a brief was agreed to realise this plan. We knew this project could raise spirits, help galvanise the students who were working remotely and to achieve London first which the School could be proud of.
The Sloane Square school lies within London’s Zone 1, and is deemed a very congested area therefore any drone flight within this region requires a number of permissions, including landowners, NATS, CAA and the Metropolitan Police Commissioner.
After receiving the brief, DronePrep started the necessary consultations to ensure the flight would be compliant and safe which included speaking with the Grosvenor Estate and Cadogan Estate which resulted in opening up 400 acres of low-level airspace.
PfCO DronePrep Pilot-in-Residence Chris Gorman (The Big Ladder Photographer) was able to advantage of the quiet streets and brilliant air quality that London experienced during the initial lockdown period. The footage is simply stunning and it was a absolute pleasure to work with Francis Holland School on this project and open up the largest ever flight envelope in Zone 1, London.
We are delighted to continue the collaboration with the London school on more pioneering work and STEM projects in the making.
If you have a Drone project brief you would like to discuss, please get in touch with DronePrep Founders Gareth Whatmore & Claire Owen.
