Administrative Questions
I'm looking for some wisdom from other program managers.
First. Do you all keep your pilots' licenses / certs on file? Or do you leave it up to them to track their currency?
Second. I've run into an interesting situation where one of my pilots purchased his own DJI Mini 3 Pro and has been using it on the job. I realize all of us use personally-owned equipment (guns, cell phones, etc) on a regular basis, but I also have this nagging suspicion that personally-owned drones present a unique challenge from a liability and community trust standpoint. Is this allowed in any of your programs?
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Hello Jordan, I am a bit late in my answer but I figured I would add to this too. We are a newer program so we started off with a lot of our own equipment and are kind of part way there. Everyone else also mentioned the tracking of pilot licenses through Excel or software like DroneSense or AirData, so that seems covered. As far personal equipment, I discourage it, but I have several super dedicated pilots who keep wanting to use their own stuff at times. I now caution them that they will not be covered if the drone breaks during a mission. We can request the department repair it, but they likley will not. I also require that we test the aircraft, deem it airworthy then they are required to submit regular maintenance forms for each one (monthly). In adition, I require no modifications from manufacturer specs. My hope is to protect us legally by showing maintenance, testing and then have the ability to fall back on the manufacturing data. Another thing is that only pilots who have been through the department training and have their part 107 are allowed to fly any drones department owned or otherwise. This keeps people who have not been vetted from simply bringing in a drone they recently bought and flying it. Overall, I do not want any personal drones in the fleet, but honestly, their drones and mine are what has been bridging the program and convincing my department to start paying for more equipment, although slowly. For a portion of the previous year 80% of the drones we used were personal. Now, we are down to about 15% because they bought new equipment with a grant. (Thanks to our personal drones showing the uses) Our way is not ideal at all, but it is where we are stuck. Once we have sufficent equipment, we will not allow any personal equipment. My opinion is that if your department will cover all the droens, avoid using personal equipment but if you must to bridge the gap, be careful and document the heck out of the equipment being safe.