Does anyone complete preflight reports?

Is this part of your SOP?

The Pre Flight Report can often be filled out prior to arrival at the site as a part of mission planning and then signed off by the RPIC once on site and the RPIC has confirmed that the operation can be conducted safely at the site. Furthermore, it is recommended that such a report be completed for each mission regardless of whether it is completed prior to or after the flight as the report serves as an essential piece of documentation associated with the UAS operation.

An example of what the report should contain is:

  • Altitudes to be flown
  • Mission overview
  • Frequencies to be used
  • Planned flight time, including reserve fuel requirements
  • Contingency procedures
  • Pilot Name
  • Observer(s) name(s)
  • Date & Time
  • Land Owner Permission (especially this one)

We use a document in Plangrid that can be filled out on a mobile device, but you could do the same thing with a simple PDF form. We do all the preflight check in the office using the slew of FAA website information, Google Earth and Google Streetview whenever possible. If we feel there is a site visit before the flight necessary then we will do that before pre-filling the log. The pilot then fills out any site observances that differ. Weather, time and location are automatically populated.

The differences in our recording is that we don’t document the frequencies and the flight time and is live clock in/out. We only fly in VLOS so we haven’t had to use any Observers to date.Landowner permission is a disclaimer documented as a separate document in the office as part of the construction contract.

One more thing that we document is if unlocking was required.