Pre-Flight

A prepared pilot Crew needs to have the following:

Flight Plan: contains research, site assessment, permissions (property owners, municipal permissions), crew/equipment, site layouts

Flight briefing: defines and communicates action plans for normal and abnormal situations, confirms applicable crew member roles & responsibilities, flight area, objectives, flight plan, comments/concerns, potential points of conflict with other air traffic 

Aerial Property Survey: uses latitude and longitude coordinates, class of airspace, is it in/near an airport.

Canada Flight Supplement: has information about airports and aerodomes. Any runways will match the magnetic heading they point toward.

Pilot Crews should do the following:

Complete a Site assessment: look for an emergency access point, obstacles, power source, and anything that can limit the height of the drone (buildings or people). A site assessment should also consist of examining:

• Foot traffic: control by 30 meters (100 feet) horizontally (bystanders can’t be nearby unless it’s an advanced operation).

• Take off and landing zones: clear these as it’s the most likely times a drone will hit a human

• Launch points: Take off area. Needs to be level, in an open area, away from people not involved in the operation. 

• Recovery points: landing area. This can be the same place the RPAS took off, but should have a backup just in case. 

Complete a Safety Check of the Drone. Make sure all parts of the drone are in working order and undamaged.