Recent content by SimonMW

Sold, finally!

I was lucky. We did our ground school with EuroUSC but did our flight test and OM approval with ICARUS (Aerial Motion Pictures), who were absolutely superb. But due to a combination of other commitments and the total lack of aerial work, the new price hikes have confirmed my decision not to...

Allow at least 90 days! And make sure your insurance has three months left on it when you renew (they refused mine unless I renewed my insurance a month earlier than I needed to). Make sure you are ready for the huge renewal price hike next year as well to fund things such as NQE inspections (I...

All I can say is that selling my Inspire has been about as easy as selling sirloin steaks at a gathering of Vegans. I have had literally no responses at all apart from one time waster. If you want something that will retain some value, don't bother with the Inspire.

After consideration, price now dropped to £900.

Apologies, I missed that rule. I won't lower the price specifically, but I am open to sensible offers.

For sale: DJI Inspire 1 v1. Owned since new, bought in 2015. 13hrs flight time. X3 camera, 3 x TB47 batteries, 2x spare props, latest QR system for props, 1x transmitter, iPad Mini hood, USB/lightning cable, 2x battery heaters, 1x standard charger, 1x DJI fast charger, ND filter set, 1x landing...

£600 sounds reasonable to me. Don't complicate things. Make things simple for the client. £600 is a pretty good rate, and gives you the freedom for time to do the the site survey, risk assesssment etc. It is time that you are charging for, not the gear you use. It's a good start point. When it...

Just read through the official docs. £173 per hour for procedural changes etc (which I assume includes operational procedures for any new type of aircraft you add) is overly steep. I wouldn't mind, but, frankly, actual work has been ridiculously thin on the ground, mainly due to ultra cheap...

Maybe. But I really don't think the NQE's would have either the manpower or the inclination to want to do it unless they could make a good business profit from it. I know from my own perspective I'd rather stick lit matches in my eyes than read through peoples OM's. You'd have to pay me a lot of...

Nope, they read through it all. They've said as much. They can't cope with the workload, hence the reason they are considering upping the costs. Why do you think it's such an issue for them if they weren't doing this? There's no random spot checks. You submit your manual, and they read through...

I would not want to see the NQE's do the renewals. The costs would go up significantly! I really do not know why we need to submit Ops manuals in the first place after initial submission. We have already been assessed by officially recognised assessors as safe to carry out operations, and the...

Perhaps the CAA should consider stopping the silly practice of asking us to renew every single bleedin' year! If it really is taking up so much of their time, it would seem like the brainy thing to do to ask for renewals every other year or more!

It appears now that the CAA are asking for people to apply for PFCO renewal three months (90 days) before the due date to ensure continuity. Many people are waiting 10 weeks in some cases, with the CAA computer system unable to cope with file sizes being sent. So now I need to cram in 2hrs of...

If you read what I said, I wasn't really talking about the Phantom 4. No need to get grumpy.