KEY TO IMPROVED UAV OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY

Plowman Craven, one of the largest surveying companies in the UK, has transformed the safety, risk and compliance processes of its unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) thanks to Centrik, the powerful operational management system.

The company, which uses its fleet of UAVs to compile detailed 3D topographic surveys in hazardous and restricted locations, needed a comprehensive and concise way to monitor and track its increasing flight procedures.

Tom Wren, UAV Manager at Plowman Craven, says: “When we saw what Centrik was capable of, it was clear that it was the complete solution we’d been looking for. It has significantly improved the efficiency of our operation – specifically when it comes to flight logs, risk management and safety and compliance reporting.”

Unmatched in the market as the only ICAO-compliant management system for both manned and unmanned aviation, Centrik has enabled Plowman Craven to integrate all its flight information, with live reporting that can instantly evidence the effectiveness of the company’s processes and procedures – eliminating inefficient paper trails or email chains.

“The number of flights our UAVs are completing has been consistently growing, meaning we’ve needed to invest in more platforms and more pilots. Of course, this has meant the complexity of our operation has dramatically increased, so we needed a way to manage that change,” continues Wren.

Plowman Craven’s UAV fleet – including its unique high-accuracy Vogel R3D solution – primarily operates on building projects in central London, as well as across the rail network. These are often hazardous locations that require complex and protracted permit application processes in order to fly. With Centrik, Plowman Craven can quickly and effectively evidence its operational compliance to the CAA or other authorities in London, significantly streamlining the administrative process.

“Centrik provides a visual overview of everything we do, which means we can prove to the CAA that we’re running current, safe, compliant equipment, operated by pilots with the highest training currency. This level of transparency has made our entire operation run like clockwork,” adds Wren.

With Centrik being used to constantly update all flight data, Plowman Craven can also use that information to perform comprehensive analysis on each of its aircraft, documenting flight hours, part replacement requirements and operational tolerances, as well as having a single point of reference to track all pilot training levels.