Position Partners has formed an alliance with the Australian Unmanned Systems Academy (AUSA), the training division of the V-TOL Group, to provide training for Position Partners’ UAS customers.
To operate an UAS in Australia for commercial purposes, users must obtain an Operator’s Certificate issued by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA). AUSA is a CASA-approved training organisation for Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) training, and one of the first regulator-approved training organisations in the world.
Under the agreement with Position Partners, AUSA will provide tailored training courses to Position Partners’ customers, enabling them to complete an Unrestricted RPAS training course and become CASA-certified in as little as one week.
Unlike Restricted RPAS courses that do not certify the user for manual operation of the UAS, and that limit the user to the exact model of aircraft they are trained on, the ‘Unrestricted’ courses offered by AUSA deliver greater flexibility for the pilot.
“Upon completing our course, students are licensed to operate in fully manual or manual-assist modes as well as automatic mode,” explained Frank Martin, AUSA CEO. “They are also not limited to a single model of UAV – as long as it weighs less than seven kilograms a student can operate any UAV to a height of 400 feet within Visual Line of Sight (VLOS) under their licence.”
Unrestricted RPAS courses also provide a foundation for users to progress to more advanced UAS operation, including Extended Visual Line of Sight (Ex-VLOS) and Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS). Those who had only completed the Restricted course would need to complete an Unrestricted course first before progressing to these higher licence levels.
“We are thrilled to offer our customers the highest industry standard of training for their UAS products through our partnership with AUSA,” said Gavin Docherty, Position Partners National UAS Product Manager. “Adopting a new technology such as unmanned aerial mapping can be daunting, but this alliance will make choosing the right system and getting CASA-certified easy and seamless for our customers.”
Position Partners and AUSA will offer three options of RPAS training to suit individual requirements, including a two week course for up to two people from the same company – with the option to have a break between week one and week two – or a one week, fast track, group course for six students or more.
For more information about Position Partners RPAS courses, visit the Position Partners website or call 1300 867 266.
