I’d like to start by acknowledging the Ngunnawal people as the traditional owners of the land on which we’re meeting and their continuing connection to land, water and community and pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging.
It’s always good to speak at the Australian RPAS industry’s landmark event and I’d like to thank Greg and the Australian Association for Uncrewed Systems for once again inviting me.
We’ve had a few exciting developments in the RPAS sector since we last met. Anybody who watched the spectacular National Capital Authority’s Drone SkyShow in Canberra was left in no doubt about how quickly this technology has become an exciting part of everyday life. Congratulations to Andrew and Sue and their team for putting on a great show.
Our teams have learnt much about how drone light shows work since CASA issued the first approval back in 2016. We have now issued more than 40 instruments for shows ranging from around 50 to over 600 drones – we are no longer issuing on a show-by-show basis, in fact most of the instruments now are for repeat shows.
2024 is shaping up to be a big year as we continue to engage with industry on existing and developing initiatives as well as our core job of overseeing Australian aviation safety.
One big initiative for 2024 was establishing a new unit in our RPAS Operations team to monitor and oversight complex RPAS regulatory service applications.
Another change has been in our executive leadership team with the addition of Steve Campbell as executive manager of National Operations and Standards and Matt Bouttell as EM of our Regulatory Oversight Division.
They will round out what I believe will be a highly positive, collaborative and engaged executive leadership team.
As anticipated at last year’s convention, Australia’s battle for aerial line honours has a new victor and I can reveal that holders of remote pilot licences now outnumber legacy pilots.
You are now the biggest pilot group in Australia with 33,388 members as of 20 February compared to 30,843 conventional pilots.
As recently as the middle of 2019, there were just 12,800 RePL holders. By June 30, 2021 – either despite or because of the COVID pandemic – that number had jumped to almost 22,000 and it has since soared by more than 50% to the numbers we see today.
The industry growth was underscored by the recently released report compiled for Airservices Australia, which I’m sure Pete will detail shortly, predicting drone flights will grow by 20% a year to 60 million annually by 2043.
And there seems no limit to the range of RPAS applications – from medical, food and goods deliveries to agriculture, mining and beach patrols.
In many areas, Australia continues to punch above its weight in this technology.
Recent examples include the first flight by an Australian-developed hydrogen fuel cell electric powered drone.
As our acting manager of RPAS Operations, Sharon Marshall-Keeffe, will explore in more detail how the use of drones is going from ‘novel to normal’ in many aspects.
What were unusual and innovative drone approvals a few short years ago – drone light shows are a good example – are now relatively routine.
Sharon will be outlining what you as an industry can do to support the transition to the ‘new normal’.
Nobel laureate and novelist John Galsworthy once said if you don’t think about the future, you cannot have one.
Working together to ensure that future arrives is a responsibility shared by all of us - government, academia and industry.
Last year, we combined two of our initiatives – the Future Strategies Taskforce and the RPAS and Advanced Air Mobility Strategic Regulatory Roadmap – and placed them under our Emerging Technologies and Regulatory Change Branch currently run by David Thomas.
The ETRC Branch helps us prepare for new technologies and capabilities and looks at how we need to shape our business to address the challenges we’re facing from emerging technologies.
It also manages other RPAS activities, including the drone registration and accreditation scheme and the automated airspace authorisations trial, and is responsible for RPAS policy and regulation.
When we introduced the RPAS and Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) Strategic Regulatory Roadmap in 2022 to outline our regulatory approach for the next 10 to 15 years, we promised it would continue to evolve.
Since launching the roadmap we’ve learnt a lot, which means we need to revisit some of the timeframes and the details. We’ll be working with industry to update the roadmap this year. We know you need as much accuracy as is possible to support your business.
Meanwhile, we’re taking a flexible approach to emerging technologies and accommodating new projects as they emerge.
One aspect of emerging aviation we’ve been examining involves providing a home for the new breed of operators – vertiports.
We now have a vertiport technical working group investigating future needs and challenges associated with these landing areas, including costs, viability, risks and controls.
We’re developing guidance material that builds on our published advisory circular on design standards for vertiports and we’re working on a draft AC for vertiport operations.
We will shortly release a guide for vertiports – designed to help those outside the aviation community, including planning authorities, councils and shopping centre owners, understand what they are and what to consider when designing, constructing or operating a vertiport.
An important aspect of all this, and perhaps the most complex challenge, is the concept of shared airspace.
We’re working with Airservices and the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts on developing high level UTM policy.
Planning is key, so we need the RPAS and AAM industry to tell us where they see the sector heading and to help us determine the regulatory advances we need to undertake. And forums like this event help!
Our automated airspace trial, as you know, drastically cuts the time it takes to apply for an authorisation from days to hours.
It works alongside our CASA-verified drone apps, which play a pivotal role in enhancing airspace safety by providing remote pilots with relevant aeronautical information and tools to ensure compliance with our regulations.
This is a win-win situation because it also alleviates strain on CASA and Airservices resources via automation without a reduction in safety standards.
The trial operates at 4 of 28 Airservices controlled airports – Adelaide, Sydney, Canberra and Perth. It was extended for 12 months in November and like you we’re keen to see this automated approach extend further.
The logic speaks for itself. We issued more than 1260 automated authorisations between May 2021 and February this year, which we estimated will have saved businesses more than $1 million.
Australia has been a leader in approving RPAS for use in BVLOS operations.
This has been possible due to CASA’s use of the SORA methodology.
SORA provides a structured approach for assessing and mitigating risks associated with RPAS operations and we see a continued role for its use in approving higher-risk RPAS operations.
As many of you are aware, an updated version (version 2.5) of the SORA methodology is currently under development.
CASA has played a significant role in the development of SORA and we continue to be actively involved to ensure it remains suitable for use in Australia.
We are currently preparing for the implementation of SORA 2.5 and we’ll be providing more information about this later in the year.
In the meantime, we’ve revisited the current version of SORA to explore how we might facilitate the safe and routine operation of RPAS over and near populated areas.
We know that existing pathways have presented challenges when applying to operate RPAS above populated areas. However, research indicates that certain operations can be done safely with minimal risk to people on the ground.
We are currently finalising an internal policy on RPAS operations over and near people. This policy is informed by SORA as well as international best practice, and we hope this will provide clear guidance and a streamlined process for the approval of these types of operations.
We’re working to set up a webinar to talk about the SORA methodology and we invite your participation. Keep your eyes peeled for details.
Last year we introduced a new exam for BVLOS, in non-controlled airspace.
The new exam was a 40-question multiple choice exam and replaced the previously required – and more onerous – Instrument Rating Exam.
It was one way in which we could improve the relevance of RPA qualifications and make life simpler for drone pilots. With almost 120 exams being sat last year the demand is clearly there.
We also know that many farmers are keen to harness the advantages of drones and that’s why we emphasised the agriculture sector when we conducted a survey about the utility and benefits of BVLOS.
We wanted a snapshot of how drones were used and an overview of the demographic and geographic determinants of drone uptake in Australia for BVLOS activities.
An area we focussed on was identifying where regulatory improvement may be applied for lower-risk, low-altitude drone operations.
What we found was not surprising – many of the respondents believed the regulations were still too complex and acted as a barrier to operations.
Just under 30% believed there was not enough time to apply for flight authorisation and about 28% believed these applications were too expensive.
We are continuing to review the regulations to facilitate more streamlined and appropriate BVLOS regulations.
The drones are getting bigger and in mid-January we approved the first exhibition flights of a large remotely piloted aircraft.
A West Australian start-up worked with us over the past 2 years to gain an experimental certificate of airworthiness for exhibition so they could demonstrate the 200-kilogram RPA to potential customers.
This provides assurance that we are focussed on developing the right systems and regulatory processes in place to make sure large RPA can fly safely in Australia.
It’s also a good example of how we can accommodate new ways of working, as we have with our continued support for drone deliveries in Queensland and local manufacturers.
Changes we’re introducing to the CASR Part 101 manual of standards are designed to cut red tape for industry and simplify requirements for RePL training organisations and ReOC holders.
The changes include a new Chief Remote Pilot Licence Instructor position, improved standards and flexibility, transition plans and minor amendments to provide clarity and remove ambiguity.
Consultation on the changes closed last week and we’re reviewing the results before posting them on the consultation hub.
The changes are set to take effect on 10 April, and we’ll monitor and review the new rules during the transition phase and beyond.
We’ve also consulted on the proposed Chief RePL Instructor assessment fee, which was developed in accordance with the government cost recovery policy and guidelines.
To allow for greater industry certainty, it was deemed appropriate to charge a fixed-fee of $623.00.
The fee will be waived for existing ReOC holders who ask us to assess their CRI application before 10 July 2024.
A successful start to a new Know Your Drone campaign received national media coverage over Christmas-New Year with an audience of about 1.4 million people.
We again worked with retailers to get the message out to recreational drone users that they need to know – and fly within – the rules.
Since the start of the new campaign on 4 December, more than 81,000 users have visited the website and half of those have clicked through to the rules page.
Almost 32,000 have taken our quiz testing their knowledge and some 20,000 have checked out where they can safely fly.
Our tracking results indicate recreational drone flyers’ awareness and support of drone safety rules is building and I would argue that’s a good result for the industry as a whole.
There’s no doubt that 2024 will be another interesting year for AAM after the developments of 2023.
Some companies are continuing to work their way through the US Federal Aviation Authority’s certification process and last November one of them conducted New York’s first air taxi flight.
A Chinese company went one better to become the first AAM company globally to receive a type certificate.
Australia has skin in the game with the emergence in 2023 of an alliance which brings airports, universities and green energy providers together with some Queensland carriers.
The aim is to produce Australia’s first commercial, emission-free hydrogen powered flight using a rebuilt 15-seat Beechcraft 1900D.
One of our regional airlines is looking at converting turboprops to electric propulsion and last year took a stake in an electric aviation company to further their ambition to make its regional fleet emissions-free.
Other developments include our first Australian AAM certification application and several deals involving Australian companies committing to import AAM aircraft once they are certified.
That bodes well in terms of establishing a local industry, something CASA supports wholeheartedly.
Although these are exciting projects, we’re seeing AAM deployment in Australia and around the world happening later than initially expected.
That’s not a reason to slow down though. We’ve started building our workforce capability and capacity to support the development of regulation for AAM operations.
I’m sure one of the themes we’ll hear over the next two days is how we need to cooperate on defining what skills we need and how we’re going to supply them.
Collaboration between the industry, government, universities and training organisations is vital to make sure emerging industries have the support they need in areas such as electrical engineering and programming.
I’ve indicated previously that you can expect AAM to initially operate under similar rules to helicopters and we’ve started researching competency and training requirements for critical people involved in operations.
We expect this research will help us identify where we need to make future regulatory change.
There are still a lot of issues to be resolved in this sector and we are watching overseas developments closely.
We are working closely with other national aviation authorities to make sure we understand the approach that they are taking to AAM certification.
Once international airworthiness policy is settled, you can expect us to publish guidance on local expectations.
A positive development was ICAO’s first Advanced Air Mobility Symposium in September which looked at the challenges and opportunities of AAM global harmonisation and interoperability.
The other key ICAO priority for us is addressing the current limitations around the international operation of RPAS, particularly offshore operations over the high seas. We know that this is of particular significance to operators in Australia, and we are committed to supporting as timely a resolution as is possible.
Everything we’ve discussed today shows the strength of RPAS industry and the growing strength of AAM and the firm hold these emerging technologies will have on the future of aviation.
Let me reiterate that CASA continues to support and promote the growth of the industry and we aim to keep pace with changes in technology.
We want to make sure we explain as clearly as we can the regulatory system in which you work.
We’ve published a plain English guide to Part to Part 101 micro and excluded RPA operations and a similar guide for RePL and ReOC holders is due out later this year.
I know that there are things that you need us to focus on – particularly consistency in the provision of regulatory services and transparency around wait times.
As we work through these issues our big ask to you is talk to us early and give us adequate warning about new developments.
We will always try to accommodate you as best we can.
Thank you.
