The Accredited Operator With One Licensed Pilot
Delta Surveys is a two-person company. Ana is the accredited operator and holds a remote pilot licence; her business partner Ben has no licence but does the client meetings and admin. They win a contract to map 40 hectares of farmland over three days. Ana plans to fly all missions herself, but on day two she falls ill. Ben offers to fly the remaining 12 hectares using the same aircraft, arguing he has watched Ana fly many times and the farmland is empty. The aircraft is registered to Delta Surveys. Ana's licence and the company's accreditation are current, but their insurance renewal lapsed four days ago and nobody has noticed.
1. Assess whether Ben can legally complete the remaining flights, and identify the compliance failures in this scenario.
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Ben cannot legally fly the remaining missions. Watching someone fly does not confer a remote pilot licence, and the operator's accreditation does not transfer piloting privileges to unlicensed staff. The accredited operator must ensure flights are conducted by a licensed remote pilot. Ben's argument that the field is empty addresses only one risk factor and does not cure the licensing gap.
Compliance failures:
- Unlicensed pilot. Ben has no licence, so any flight by him breaches the pilot licensing requirement.
- Lapsed insurance. The renewal lapsed four days ago. Commercial operations without current cover expose the company and the client, and may breach the conditions of accreditation.
- Supervision assumptions. Ana's illness means no licensed pilot is available; the company has no contingency for a single-pilot operation.
Correct action: pause the contract, notify the client, restore insurance, and reschedule with Ana or another licensed pilot. Ben may continue admin and client liaison only. The deeper lesson is that a one-pilot operator needs a documented contingency plan, because accreditation is a company-level status that depends on licensed people actually flying.
2. What records should Delta Surveys be able to produce for this contract, and which ones are currently deficient?
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Records the operator should hold:
- Current operator accreditation certificate and its conditions.
- Remote pilot licence for every person who flies, with currency and medical status where required.
- Aircraft registration for each airframe used.
- Current insurance certificate of currency.
- Flight logs per mission: date, time, location, pilot name, aircraft registration, purpose, and duration.
- Pre-flight checklists and risk assessments for each site, including the farmland survey.
- Client contract and job scope, plus any authorisations for the airspace used.
- Incident and maintenance records.
Deficiencies right now:
- Insurance is lapsed, so there is no valid certificate of currency.
- There is no licensed pilot available for day two, so the flight log would either be blank or, worse, name an unlicensed pilot.
- No contingency plan is documented for pilot unavailability.
Audit test: for each flight, the operator should be able to match a registered aircraft, a licensed pilot, valid insurance, and a documented risk assessment. On day two that chain breaks at two links.