A job with a future: Drone pilot

Today, 14 specialists are already employed at ROBUR as drone pilots to inspect all kinds of industrial plants and wind turbines in particular. In terms of outlook, demand may increase significantly over the next two years – and that’s only for inspections!

But what exactly does a drone pilot do and what is so difficult about it that some missions require extensive training and years of experience?

A drone pilot flies a drone, usually via joysticks from the ground, just as you might drive a remote-controlled model car for children. And, as everyone who has ever tried it knows, that in itself is not so easy, and it is infinitely more difficult in three-dimensional space in the air. Especially if a really expensive drone needs to fly 140 meters up in the air only a few meters away from a wind turbine with which a collision would be really expensive and particularly dangerous.

Therefore, drone pilots would ideally be able to actually fly – at least that makes their training considerably easier. However, that is only half the battle. Flying a drone is much harder. This is because, unlike in an airplane or helicopter, you are not sitting in the flying object itself and flying it from the perspective of its current trajectory; on the contrary, you have to imagine yourself in the drone. Lever forward on the joystick, the drone flies straight away from you. OK. After 20 meters, you make a 180-degree turn. Lever forward again and, oh no! Now the drone is flying back toward you. Until it sticks, you have to practice much, much more. Now let’s imagine the same scenario in windy conditions and 100 meters away from the drone.

Compared to the actual training requirement, the basic drone pilot license, which is required for using a drone weighing 250 g or more, is quite simple. Especially since the practical part of the test requires mastering only very rudimentary flight maneuvers, which would by no means be sufficient for professional use.

According to Detlef Wormstall, who is responsible for training and deploying drone pilots within ROBUR, the pilots must be sufficiently skilled that they can fly their drone intuitively and thus perform the right maneuvers even in an emergency without having to think about it much. This requirement is what makes the task difficult and only possible to master with a lot of training and practice.

Drones are already frequently used for inspecting wind turbines. In addition to the pilot license and a lot of flight experience, working as a pilot in this sector requires a complete “wind safety training” and safety training. And as if that weren’t enough, these approvals apply only to specific turbine types.

The requirements for use in the offshore sector are even stricter. If you want to safely fly a drone offshore, you must also have many years of flight experience.

Anyone who thinks that is the end of it is hugely mistaken. In Germany, each commercial use requires a flight permit from the relevant competent aviation authority. For this purpose, further documents, such as a declaration of consent from the landowner, a declaration of safety from the administrative office (in case of urban ascent) and approval from German air traffic control (if the flight is to take place in controlled airspace). In addition to these, the exact altitude, date of ascent, map or satellite image of the ascent location with marked flight sector as well as the take-off and landing area must also be notified. Therefore, it is recommended to start planning in good time and allow sufficient time to get the necessary approvals.

If the mission is planned in “controlled airspace” – generally areas around and near airports – constant contact with air traffic control must also be ensured so that appropriate instructions can be received or, conversely, relevant information provided to air traffic control. This also requires familiarity with how air traffic control works as well as the technical terms.

While this sounds complex in Germany, an additional challenge is that the requirements, rules and approval procedures are slightly different in every country. Therefore, country-specific regulations are also usually clarified for ROBUR contracts.

A new EU drone regulation that will enter into force on 01/01/2021 should make this task easier (at least within European Union). Unfortunately, no one knows exactly how this will be converted into national law. We will just have to wait and see!

AR (augmented reality) and VR (virtual reality) glasses are already being increasingly used for flying drones. However, it would be wrong to think that this makes flying easier. Spatial experience requires much more practice and experience – comparable perhaps to night or instrument flight. Unfortunately, control is made more complicated by the fact that the visual spatial representation by means of AR or VR glasses lacks effects such as gravity, acceleration and centrifugal forces, so an extremely high amount of practice and training is required – just to master the regularly occurring nausea.

The use of AI (artificial intelligence) and techniques for autonomous flying will also fundamentally change the use and flying of drones. However, a pilot will be required for the foreseeable future, even if he or she is only there as a safeguard in the event of an emergency.

It should be clear by now that the profession of drone pilot is exciting, diverse and future proof, but also demanding as it requires a solid foundation with extensive training. It hardly resembles the requirements for being a “recreational pilot”!

At ROBUR, there is another challenge: it is not enough to be able to fly one specific drone; no, due to the wide variety of sites and applications, ROBUR flies with nearly every system. In turn, this makes ROBUR a sought-after contact for all drone system manufacturers – where else can such concentrated experience with various systems be found?

If after reading this you would like to become a drone pilot, please consider applying. Despite Corona, we have been flying continuously in Scandinavia, Serbia, Greece and other countries. Furthermore, we can draw on the experience of more than 2,000 onshore and offshore wind turbines (approx. 4,000 lift-offs) and a variety of indoor inspections. If you think you’re up for it, click here to find out more:

www.robur-industry-service.com/karriere/

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A job with a future: Drone pilot

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