Behind the Scenes: Raising the bar on drone risk management

Being part of the aviation industry means not only adhering to CASA (Civil Aviation Safety Authority) regulations, but a responsibility to develop high safety standards and a comprehensive risk management strategy.

At Hoverscape, our background is in aviation. Our experience as pilot’s in almost every sector of the industry (General Aviation, Regional aviation and Commercial Airlines) has equipped us with an understanding and appreciation of how risk management strategies are paramount to success in the industry.

When it comes to operating drones, our approach is no different to the level of professionalism and respect we show manned aircraft. We plan for countless failure possibilities and develop procedures and modifications to prevent that failure from occurring.

So what’s involved in managing risk before we conduct any aerial photography or video? One part of the equation is performing a risk assessment on the area of operation. We consider every aspect such as classification of airspace, potential obstructions to flight (power-lines, trees, buildings etc), possibility of manned air traffic operating in the vicinity, weather conditions, ability to stay a safe distance from people, plus many more.

It is expected to identify risks, especially when operating in urban or busy area’s such as Sydney. Whilst presenting a greater challenge, there are many strategies that we employ to mitigate risks in these area’s.

We may chose to use smaller or lighter drones, specific altitude or distance limits, or put limits on environmental conditions such as maximum wind speeds to name a few.

In certain circumstances we even utilise dedicated Safety Crew, who’s responsibilities may include assisting the licensed UAV controller in maintaining separation from manned air traffic or keeping the public at a safe distance.

The team at Hoverscape never rests on our safety standards. We continually strive to improve them by enhancing our drones with additional fail safes and redundancy features, and evolving our safety practices to stay industry leaders.

We do all of this to ensure we deliver not only the highest quality aerial photographs and video, but the capture them in the safest possible way.