It’s always a pleasure to speak with Sharon Cooke and learn about new innovations coming from her team. The topic of our conversation this time focused on the Flight Advisor developed by the Aeronautical Information Management (AIM) team at Aeropath. Yet another example of the priority drone traffic management is becoming in the ANSP sphere of focus.
The story begins as a personal conversation between two employees who had an idea and began working in a co-development lab to make it a reality - a new way to share AIP data in a digitised way. The tool gathers information including weather, NOTAMs and ADS-B to provide a complete picture of uncontrolled airspace that can be shared via 3D maps in a web-based tool. Users can draw virtual flight paths to see what might be in their way. This allows for drone pilots to have a more complete situational awareness view of their route. Additionally, if users spot an obstacle that isn’t noted in the tool they can report it and the Aeropath team will do an inspection and add it accordingly to the information being mapped.
This was put to the test during the recent cyclone in New Zealand and is a great example of uncertified systems adding value. Any registered pilot can use the tool, but during this natural disaster it was open to anyone who wanted to access information.
And it seems that this concept has caught the eye of CANSO as the winner of the Global Safety Award announced during the show. “Innovation comes from passion” and this is an example of how far passion can take you
