Obtaining permission from the IAA

So you’ve done it, you have an aerial work permit! If you need to find out how to get an aerial work permit, this is a good place to start .

So where are you flying?

So the first question is, are you flying in a restricted zone. This is where your trusty aeronautical map can come in handy, of why not use this online plugin for google earth. It will help you figure out where exactly you’re flying.

Check out the area/Do a survey

It obviously best to check out where you’re flying yourself in real life but if you just can’t then have a look around on google maps to see what exactly is going on. Is there any wires overhead, where can you take off from, have you good visibility of the drone, is there any big metal sheds that will freak out the compass on the drone.

You’ve checked and you’re good to fly.

Once you know you’re good to fly break out your application form (U.F. 101), you can get this from the IAA website, they change it quite regularly but here is a link to the one at the time of writing this post.

Filling out the form

Forms, there is nothing quite like filling out a form. Not necessarily how you might want to spend your time but hopefully this will make it a little easier.

SUA Operator Name & SOP Permission Number

Your name and your operator number, fairly self-explanatory. Eg: aerial.ie, 12345

SUA Model & IAA Registration Number

This is the type of drone that you have and its reg with the IAA.

Eg. DJI Phantom 3 Professional, 12345

SUA Pilot(s) Name(s)

This is just the name of the people who are going to be flying it. These people obviously have to be registered with the IAA.

Mobile Phone Numbers: Primary / Alternate (2 Numbers Required)

This is a pretty straightforward too but it’s important to know that when you ring the Station Manager on the day, that they will ensure that you have these numbers on hand. They will also in certain cases test that you can answer both numbers from the site.

Controlled Airspace Location

The controlled airspace in which you will be operating, for example in Dublin city its EIDW. You can find this on the plugin linked above or with you OSI Aeronautical map.

Latitude/Longitude, (degrees/mins/secs)

The IAA have recently sent out notices to SUA holders to let them know that getting this right is non-negotiable. If you, like us, you use google maps on a desktop as your primary way of planning a flight then here is a great way of making it work for the IAA. First, go to the location you want to fly. Then right-click and select, “What’s here?”. You’ll then see a card come up at the bottom of the screen with the coordinates, however, these are in decimal format.

First, go to the location you want to fly. Then right-click and select, “What’s here?”. You’ll then see a card come up at the bottom of the screen with the coordinates, however, these are in decimal format.

Copy this and paste it here (http://www.rapidtables.com/convert/number/degrees-to-degrees-minutesseconds.htm). You’ll get back the degrees/mins/secs format.

It’s super important to cross check this, so reenter it into google maps to make sure the marker is in the same place.

This is a little time consuming but its better to get it right then to have the IAA station manager or the Flight Operations Department getting in touch with you.

Location, Bearing & Distance from Aerodrome

The location should be the general area of the shoot, so to continue the example we used above, it would be Clonskeagh. The Distance to the nearest aerodrome or airport is 11.8km, this is measured to the centre of the nearest runway.

Radius Of Operation

This is the maximum distance that you’ll send your drone away from you. This must be not more than the limit you set in your operators manual. If you’re in a location that is quite difficult to navigate to, it’s a good idea to lower this number as it might make it more likely to get permission.

SUA Maximum Altitude (AMSL) & Height Above Ground Level (AGL)

This is one that has confused me many a time. The AMSL is the height you’re flying from/standing on (i.e. height above sea level) and the height that you’re going to fly to, added together.

If we look back at our example in Clonskeagh. We can check the elevation on ‘https://www.freemaptools.com/elevation-finder.htm’ the height that we are standing on/flying from is 20m. So when our drone is on the ground, it is 20m above sea level.

The height that we are flying to is 120m from the ground, this is also know as ‘AGL’. So our ‘AMSL’ is 20m (our ground height above sea level) added to our ‘AGL’ which is 120m. This shows us that our AMSL is 140m.

Proposed Date(s) & Time(s) (Local)

This is much more straight forward, what date or dates are you applying for and at what times. By keeping this broad it allows for you to have flexibility with weather and with your client.

So for example: 22/11/17 – 26/11/17, from 7am-6pm. You use the time zone where you are flying.

Duration (HH:MM)

This is the total duration of the flights in the time slot that you’ve proposed. So for example, we want to fly 4 hours a day and we have applied for permission for 5 days so we will put in 20 hours.

Declaration of Completion & Documented

Do your survey and risk assessment now if you haven’t already. We will link some info on how to do a risk assessment here when we post it in the coming blogs.

Map of Location /Area of Operation Aeronautical Chart etc. – Insert Below

This is fairly straight forward. Go to google maps and take a screen grab of where you’re planning to fly. Then paste it in and you’re all set.

Finally send your form to the appropriate air traffic agency and wait for a response. At the beginning, you should expect to wait about a week although it can be a lot quicker than that.

They say to give 10 working days to get a response. This may seem like quite a long process to make an application but once you’ve done it a few times it gets much quicker.

Happy flying!

In the next post we’ll cover the flight itself and communicating with the agencies.