The challenges inherent in Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management (UTM) are many and complex. Attendees of WING’s part one of a two-part seminar entitled, “How Do We Share the Sky?” were treated to a very informative hour of getting to better understand these challenges, and how two governments have initially addressed them.
Reinaldo Negron, Head of UTM for WING served as moderator for this first seminar. He opened the conversation with clarifying that, “...at WING we are excited to empower everyone to safely access the sky, and that “everyone” means working with other providers...working beyond just ourselves and our systems.” Negron played short videos which presented both theoretical and actual scenarios that served to illustrate the issues faced by both regulators of and operators in coordinated, multi-user/multi-platform UTM. From this foundation, Negron then brought his two guest speakers into the conversation. Sharon Marshall-Keefe of Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority’s (CASA’s) Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) joined the seminar via a live video connection, and Antoine Martin, Direction des Services de la Navigation Aérienne (DSNA), the ATM agency within France’s Civil Aviation Authority, joined Negron on the stage.
Both guests provided frank and informative backgrounds in how their governmental agencies had initially addressed the UTM issue. “I’d like to say that we had the foresight to move straight into an industry model...we didn’t,” admitted CASA’s Sharon Marshall-Keefe. Initially, CASA had developed and provided its own drone app. “The truth is we are a regulator, not an app developer.” CASA quickly recognized the need to focus on verifying third-party drone safety apps instead of using their own.
“In 2012 it was possible to fly a drone almost anywhere in France,” stated Antoine Martin, “But the rules were very complex. At some point, we ended up with a couple of solutions...legacy/proprietary solutions. We asked ourselves, ‘do we continue building UTM solutions at the scale of France?’ The answer was both ‘yes’ and ‘no’.” To the affirmative, Martin confirmed the need for the France’s involvement to ensure safe operations which allow operators to access the efficient ways to interact with each other. “But is it our job?” asked Martin, “No. We are not a service provider.” Like their Australian counterpart, the French government understood that the best way forward was for them to work with third-party UTM service providers.
After describing their initial experiences, Negron then asked his guests to share what they had learned. Both speakers adamantly agreed that identifying the right tech was the easy part, the harder issue was more one of trust. “Trust of tech, and to learn how to all use it together,” Martin agreed. Getting all involved parties – defence, police and other related agencies – to nteract is a key need. Marshall-Keefe admitted her surprise in finding UTM service providers so open to collaboration and provide solutions with fellow providers.
Having laid the foundation through this illuminating discussion of the past and current UTM experiences, and Part 2 of “How Do We Share the Sky?” will be held today at 16.45 in the Wing ATM Theater, and will review both current regulatory needs and upcoming safety benefits delivered by UTM services.