Capstone Assignment 4 Part 1: Putting Together an Introduction

Overview

As previous blog posts have noted, I am heavily invested in research for improving the safety of UAS operations. As the weeks progress, you will notice significant GIS applications that will be used to demonstrate training scenarios, mission planning, and aviation law, but for now, below is an early draft of an introduction to creating effective training content. 

Capstone Bibliography Introduction Draft

Training material for Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) is often vague, meticulous, and difficult for users to comprehend. Whether consulting difficult to read manuals, YouTube, or online discussion boards, striking a balance between establishing a clear and concise training process without sacrificing procedures vital to the safety of a UAS operation has been a reoccurring challenge that has proven costly to the UAS industry (Wyman 2019). As a result, poorly trained UAS personal have violated FAA regulations in the form of unauthorized flights, accidents, and lawsuits. 

According to UAS sightings report data produced by the FAA, manned aviation pilots submit more than 100 UAV sightings each month (UAS Sightings Report 2019). Although the sightings fail to clarify the type of UAS operation that occurred, airborne UAVs are not authorized to fly in the proximity of an active manned aircraft even if the manned aircraft are in the path of a UAV. Other examples of unauthorized flights include UAVs operating in airspace reserved for commercial aircraft, restricted airspace, prohibited areas, or areas with temporary flight restrictions. Referring to a United States database documenting UAV incident articles, there are numerous accounts of military, civilian, and Part 107 personal that have violated airspace regulations (World Wide Drone Incidents 2019).

In some cases, unauthorized flights lead to UAV accidents but in any case, UAV accidents tend to be a result of pilot error, lack of situational awareness, or poor mission planning assessments. This leads to the question, do you think UAS pilots have documented safety procedures in place to keep accountability for their actions? If so, are public, environmental, operator qualifications, crew resource management, and aviation law adjusted to suit to specific missions? Chances are, unless UAS operators are exposed to clear, concise, and free training material, how likely is it that the operators who need training content will pay for it let alone be able to comply with the rules of the National Airspace System?

From an aviation law standpoint, there are few free resources that address UAV related issues, and the most resources fail to stay up to date with current FAA regulations. As a result, UAV related lawsuits are on the rise (Consumer Safety Guide 2019). Although it is unclear what audience of UAV operators cause the lawsuits, one of the most costly was the result of a commercial UAS company flying UAVs in airspace without the correct authorization. Had the operators within the company been educated about airspace and aviation law, they could have easily avoided a 1.9-million-dollar suit from the FAA (Daileda 2017).

To combat the outcomes of poor training material, I must demonstrate, provide, and deliver free clear and concise training material from a smaller scale. Therefore, my first objective will be to create multimodal training content for specific UAS platforms, the C-Astral Bramor PPX and the DJI Matrice 600. After producing deliverables such as step by step how to videos, Power-points, Diagrams, and improved user manuals, my second objective will be to create a best practice training program that can be applied to commercial UAS systems defined by FAA part 107.

References

Daileda, C. (2017, January 18). The FAA just settled one of the biggest drone lawsuits ever.                            Retrieved September 5, 2019, from https://mashable.com/2017/01/18/huge-drone-lawsuit-settled/.

Drone Lawsuits on the Rise. (2019, May 21). Retrieved September 10, 2019, from                                             https://www.consumersafetyguide.com/news/drone-lawsuits-on-the-rise/.

FAA Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing (ASIAS). (2014, September 14).                                    Retrieved September 15, 2019, from https://www.asias.faa.gov/apex/f?                                                  p=100:446:::NO:446::.

UAS Sightings Report. (2019, July 22). Retrieved September 9, 2019, from                                                         https://www.faa.gov/uas/resources/public_records/uas_sightings_report/.

World Wide Drone Incidents. (2019, January 1). Retrieved September 9, 2019, from                                           https://www.dedrone.com/resources/incidents/all.  

Wyman, O. (2018, October 15). Why The Use Of Drones Still Faces Big Regulatory Hurdles.                             Retrieved September 10, 2019, from                                                                                                        https://www.forbes.com/sites/oliverwyman/2018/09/10/why-the-use-of-drones-still-faces big-regulatory-hurdles/#7a6ff3451c0d.