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Ops Manual Revision

FlushVision

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Just spent the last two days revising my Ops Manual to bring it it line with the latest regulations and CAA guidelines. Almost completed, but my head is well and truly done in. Anyone else had the same nightmare?
 
Just spent the last two days revising my Ops Manual to bring it it line with the latest regulations and CAA guidelines. Almost completed, but my head is well and truly done in. Anyone else had the same nightmare?
Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, I haven't renewed my PFCO this time around. I just felt the CAA rules and regulations were going in the wrong direction. Let's face it, in the UK, attaining your PFCO (equivalent of part 107 in the US) is an expensive and time consuming affair already, without the constant operations manual updates. When I first went through the process back in 2015, I paid the best part £2500 to get through the PFCO (then called PFAW). That's including buying the aircraft that I intended to use. Which was at that time a Yuneec Q500. I get it, that you have to amend your ops manual as the regulations change but the CAA should be making it easier not harder for commercial operations. Last year the CAA rejected my ops manual twice because 2 words were wrong? And they wouldn't even tell me what page they were on....!

The final nail in the coffin for me was last years Department For Transport's so called consultation document. How they could've got it more wrong just beggars belief! I feel the weight of over regulation on my shoulders and not renewing my PFCO has (at least partly) lifted some of that weight. And of course there's the extortionate annual renewal fee to consider! The DOT's massive over estimate on drone proliferation made me laugh out loud. OK, so there might be a lot of people flying drones in the UK? But when I've been out flying, or even when I've been travelling anywhere come to that, I've yet to come across someone flying a drone...

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed going through the process of attaining my PFCO. The company I trained with (RUSTA) personnel are all ex RAF or Army flying staff, so they know what they are talking about. I learned a lot from it and the other people who were on the course with me were all great people. We had a good laugh, as we all ended up staying at the same hotel near Blackpool:)

But for me, as a sole operator, it's just not worth my time or indeed all the effort anymore. I'll continue to fly my drones as a hobby flyer at least until the new regulations kick-in, in November this year. I will then consider if I want to carry on flying drones full stop. I have turned all my attentions to another life time love that I have had and that is motorcycles. I have last year bought myself a 2016 Triumph Bonneville T120 and have set about customising it a bit. Happy days.
 
Last edited:
Ren57,

I’ll only suggest you try to stay abreast of regulatory changes as there may come a day where a long term employment opportunity could present itself. Easier to qualify if you’re up to date with the regulatory environment.
 
Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, I haven't renewed my PFCO this time around. I just felt the CAA rules and regulations were going in the wrong direction. Let's face it, in the UK, attaining your PFCO (equivalent of part 107 in the US) is an expensive and time consuming affair already, without the constant operations manual updates. When I first went through the process back in 2015, I paid the best part £2500 to get through the PFCO (then called PFAW). That's including buying the aircraft that I intended to use. Which was at that time a Yuneec Q500. I get it, that you have to amend your ops manual as the regulations change but the CAA should be making it easier not harder for commercial operations. Last year the CAA rejected my ops manual twice because 2 words were wrong? And they wouldn't even tell me what page they were on....!

The final nail in the coffin for me was last years Department For Transport's so called consultation document. How they could've got it more wrong just beggars belief! I feel the weight of over regulation on my shoulders and not renewing my PFCO has (at least partly) lifted some of that weight. And of course there's the extortionate annual renewal fee to consider! The DOT's massive over estimate on drone proliferation made me laugh out loud. OK, so there might be a lot of people flying drones in the UK? But when I've been out flying, or even when I've been travelling anywhere come to that, I've yet to come across someone flying a drone...

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed going through the process of attaining my PFCO. The company I trained with (RUSTA) personnel are all ex RAF or Army flying staff, so they know what they are talking about. I learned a lot from it and the other people who were on the course with me were all great people. We had a good laugh, as we all ended up staying at the same hotel near Blackpool:)

But for me, as a sole operator, it's just not worth my time or indeed all the effort anymore. I'll continue to fly my drones as a hobby flyer at least until the new regulations kick-in, in November this year. I will then consider if I want to carry on flying drones full stop. I have turned all my attentions to another life time love that I have had and that is motorcycles. I have last year bought myself a 2016 Triumph Bonneville T120 and have set about customising it a bit. Happy days.
I seriously considered letting my PfCO lapse. In fact I agonized over it since it cost me so much to get my original PfCO...like you somewhere in the region of £2500. And yes, I trained with RUSTA too...in Bispham, Blackpool!

What changed my mind was the fact that a media producer named Stephanie from a media company called SASSY approached me last week initially asking if I had any footage taken on Ashworth Moor Nr Rochdale. It happened that I did have some in my archive so I quickly flung together a two minute edit containing several 10 to 20 second clips and sent it to her via Dropbox. She chose one of those clips and paid me £100. Not bad for a ten second clip from archive! Subsequent emails led me to conclude that she and SASSY will be knocking on my door fairly regularly in the future...I've got my foot in the door, so to speak. But to benefit from that media company's interest in my work I need to renew my PfCO.

I was on the 'phone to the CAA today to ask a couple of questions regarding the renewal process and was a bit shocked about the current cost of renewal...quite a jump up from the last time I renewed. I've also just got my renewal notice from my insurer too, although that wasn't too bad at around the same price as last year.

PfCO renewal is expensive and if it weren't for that interest from that media company I don't think I would have considered renewing. I just hope that SASSY makes good on their promises.

My Ops Manual revision is now completed and I now only need to gather together supporting documentation before applying. I just hope they don't fling my Ops Manual back at me.
 
Fortunately it doesn’t cost us nearly as much on this side of the pond, but I understand the pain.

I spent years, lots of $$$$, travel, training and effort to be a Scuba Instructor. Over the years I worked my way to PADI IDC Staff Instructor. I could teach just about all specialties and certify up to Assistant Instructor. I worked for a PADI Course Director and we conducted IDC’s at a PADI 5 Star shop. My weekly classes had 12-14 students every week, so at a commission of $100 per student, it was great secondary cash, doing something that was a blast.

Then 2008 hit. The bottom dropped out....the first thing to go was disposable income. That’s what Scuba Diving is. Recreational and only moderately expensive....but when folks were struggling to make mortgage and buy food..... classes diminished. By 2010 I was lucky for a class of 4 to even make, once a month. It got to where I was paying money to continue to teach.

So I let it go.....I got 10 years out of it. I haven’t been in the water in 5 years. I could pick it back up for around $1k in review material, fresh teaching materials and a couple check out dives.....but the shops are still struggling to fill classes. Still nowhere near the “Gold Rush” of the early 2000’s......
 
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Fortunately it doesn’t cost us nearly as much on this side of the pond, but I understand the pain.

I spent years, lots of $$$$, travel, training and effort to be a Scuba Instructor. Over the years I worked my way to PADI IDC Staff Instructor. I could teach just about all specialties and certify up to Assistant Instructor. I worked for a PADI Course Director and we conducted IDC’s at a PADI 5 Star shop. My weekly classes had 12-14 students every week, so at a commission of $100 per student, it was great secondary cash, doing something that was a blast.

Then 2008 hit. The bottom dropped out....the first thing to go was disposable income. That’s what Scuba Diving is. Recreational and only moderately expensive....but when folks were struggling to make mortgage and buy food..... classes diminished. By 2010 I was lucky for a class of 4 to even make, once a month. It got to where I was paying money to continue to teach.

So I let it go.....I got 10 years out of it. I haven’t been in the water in 5 years. I could pick it back up for around $1k in review material, fresh teaching materials and a couple check out dives.....but the shops are still struggling to fill classes. Still nowhere near the “Gold Rush” of the early 2000’s......
I trained as a PADI diver in the mid 1990's (recreational down to 20m) doing my training dives in a flooded quarry. Cost to me was £99. It should have been far more expensive but I did it as part of a sports NVQ. After qualifying, my best dive was on to a ship wreck off the Florida Keys in 1996. The fun didn't last long, though. I had a heart attack in 1997 that put an end to my diving.

@Ren57 My other love is motorcycles too. Been riding them for years. My current bike is a Suzuki GSF SA-K9 'Bandit'. I have the dubious honour of being the Suzuki Owner's Club forum Global Moderator. An odious task at times but the rewards of getting to know other old codger bike riders makes it worth while.
 
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My other love is motorcycles too. Been riding them for years. My current bike is a Suzuki GSF SA-K9 'Bandit'.
I've had many Suzukis over the years. A100, GT185, X7 GT500 (loved that bike) GS750, GS850, 650 Katana and finished with a GSX1100R - the first one with the upside down forks. That GSX1100R saw me attaining a large number of surgical grade metal parts in my body, they are still holding me together to this day!
 
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Motorcycling is what I went to as well. I bought Heritage Softail back in 2008 new, still riding her today. I’m in an MC, so ride with my Brothers a lot. Not 1% but 3 piece. It’s a different world. Lots of fun and always something to do.
 
I’ve been trying to do mine for 18 months. Just can’t get started!
Did the training organisation you did your training with not provide you with an ops manual template? Mine did!

I've just finished the final touches to my revision and gathered together my supporting documents. Gonna do the on-line form to the CAA tomorrow.

The good thing was that all the real hard work was done a few years ago and, until now, I have never had my ops manual rejected. But there's always a first time particularly in view of the fact that the CAA have been getting far stricter regarding ops manuals if other comments in this forum are anything to go by.

I added a section on night time procedures and another on restricted airspace at aerodromes. My ops manual is now 52 pages long!
 
I’ve been trying to do mine for 18 months. Just can’t get started!
Indeed. Out of the whole process of getting that coveted PFCO, I found writing my ops manual the hardest part. Rusta provide you with a template. You can't simply copy that template because your ops manual should reflect how YOU intend to operate. But there are large parts of the ops manual that are going to be the same because they are to do with safety. It's a bit of a laborious process but it has got to be done.

Start at the beginning and state what aircraft you intend to use. Then what you are going to be called, whether you are going to make up a company name of trade under you own name. Then set out an amendment record for future updates to your manual. And an accountable manager statement. Next you should list all your procedures. You'll probably have to come back to this when you've completed your ops manual and list what page everything is on. Like I said, laborious....!

Make the sections something like:

Definitions -

Operating Procedures -

On Site Procedures -

Emergency Procedures -

Appendix -

You'll probably have to write about 10 - 15 pages on each section. My last ops manual (which was my version 4) was 49 pages long. If I ever decide to dip my toe back in the water, I'll have to amend my ops manual to include the recent changes that have been made by the CAA and any other changes in air law or changes to any Air Navigation order which might come up in the future that apply to UAV.

Once you've done the hard part - and that's writing your first ops manual and getting it passed by the CAA, then it's just a case of keeping it amended each year. Which on its own can be a bit of a nightmare! I'm going to keep mine amended just in case I ever decide to go back into it.
 
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I’ve submitted mine twice now, both times it’s been rejected for little things. Now legislation is going to change, I think I’ll wait and see how it pans out!
 
Apart from this post I am staying right OUT of this thread.
I have had about 2 dozen bikes over the past 10 years.
Had 3 in the garage at one point, only because there wasn't room for more
All gone now and keep my eye in with MGP whenever it's on.
cheers
 
What a nightmare!

Completing the on-line application form it became apparent that I should have included some stuff about the AAIB . I'd already had a section on MORS. I had to abort the application and do some more work on my Ops Manual to include AAIB the reporting of incidents to the AAIB. Finally got my application done and sent by about 10.pm (half an hour ago).

I think I've lost the will to live. It was all much more simpler last time I renewed.
 
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What a nightmare!

Completing the on-line application form it became apparent that I should have included some stuff about the AAIB . I'd already had a section on MORS. I had to abort the application and do some more work on my Ops Manual to include AAIB the reporting of incidents to the AAIB. Finally got my application done and sent by about 10.pm (half an hour ago).

I think I've lost the will to live. It was all much more simpler last time I renewed.
I'd be very interested to hear if they pass your amended ops manual or not. I will be amending mine but not applying for a continuation of my PFCO. I'd just like to know exactly what they would like including. Yes, I included a short section on AAIB last year. I just said something like it was all done electronically. Didn't go into too much detail and they passed it like that. I think they just want to know that you know what the correct procedure is.....
 

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