Congratulations to 7 seven of our team, who passed their RPAS (Drone) General Visual Line of Sight Certificate (GVC) last weekend.

Although 4 of our team were already qualified pilots operating under the A2 CofC certificate, 3 new pilots were trained alongside them to A2 CofC and GVC qualification. This involved many hours of theory covering; air safety, legal restrictions, weather and airmanship, as well as many hours of practical flight training over the last few months. We are pleased to say that last Sunday the asessor was confident that they all met the higher GVC standard and thus passed them all.

The GVC level is a crucial step to allow them to operate drones up to 25kg in weight, in built up areas safely & legally. We utilise RPAS for many of our missing person searches on behalf of Thames Valley Police & in support operations for Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service.

Our drones allow us to cover large and inacessible areas quickly, whilst their thermal imaging capabilities mean that we can locate individuals from their heat signature even in total darkness. In the last few months, our drone pilots assisted RBFRS to assess the spread of a major fire, as the thermal camera was used to measure the temperature of adjoining rooftops.