TRAINING

The first thing you should be checking for in a UAV/UAS/RPAS training organization is whether or not they are CASA certified or approved to deliver any aviation training at all.

Be aware there are 2 different streams to becoming qualified on UAVs/UAS/RPAS and both streams are quite different in what is taught. (and what isn’t) A ‘PPL’ based training course is typically heavy on general aviation theory & manned aircraft, and lighter on the practical RPAS training. The RePL1 training course on the other hand is very specific to RPAS and more evenly balanced in both theory & practical content.

It is important you ask to see written evidence of CASA certification or approval to deliver all aspects of any UAV/UAS/RPAS courses on offer. Both Theory & Practical course content must be approved by CASA.

Some businesses will give every appearance of having CASA approval, even using language that is loaded with all the right aviation jargon, but when you read it again more closely the business doesn’t actually have any approval at all, it’s just very craftily worded to sound like they do.

Note there are some businesses which have legitimate CASA approval to deliver aviation theory courses at the (manned) PPL level, but may not have CASA approval to deliver any practical RPAS training. In the opposite vein, there are UAV/UAS/RPAS manufacturers who are CASA approved to deliver practical ‘Type Training’, but are not approved to deliver any theory courses.

Be aware there are also businesses springing-up offering a ‘one-stop-shop’ for everything and generally making the certification process look very complicated. These businesses offer to hold your hand through the training & certification process, even offering to write all your Manuals for you and do just about everything except pay for the CASA certificate. What they don’t tell you is that the CASA website today provides excellent information for new entrants to the industry, and CASA also publicly provides the templates for any manuals or documentation you need to produce.

You don’t need to pay thousands of dollars for something that’s essentially already mapped-out and written for you, but if that is your choice, please be aware that some of these businesses may have never actually been through the certification process themselves, let alone know all there is to know about CASA certification & licencing.

ACUO wish to advise potential new entrants to the industry to exercise caution in who they accept their advice and assistance from. The best advice is to only seek assistance from those people, businesses or organizations who can provide written evidence of CASA certification or approval to deliver a specific UAV/UAS/RPAS service.

The one exception to this rule at present is RPAS Manufacturing. There is no ‘airworthiness’ certification for small UAVs/UAS/RPAS because there are no design standards, no certification standards and only existing manufacturing standards developed yet for small UAV/UAS/RPAS. As a result CASA is not in a position to approve or authorize small UAV/UAS/RPAS Manufacturers until manufacturing standards are developed.

The only aspect that CASA can approve with manufacturers at this time is the manufacturers practical ‘Type Training’, to customers of their own UA/RPA systems. This is not the same as RePL1 training unless the manufacturer has been certified by CASA to deliver RePL1 training and holds a UAV Operator Certificate (UOC) or a Remote Pilot Operator Certificate (ReOC) specifically for RPAS Training.

[RPAS manufacturing standards are in development between CASA and industry through the CASA Standards Consultative Committee.]

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