I passed my written flight exam top of the class!

For the last three days I have been cramming my head with the kind of general knowledge pilots must learn before they can take to the skies, because getting a license to fly drones commercially is a serious business these days.

Yesterday I was in Oxford city centre to take a written exam, with a small concern that after all these years I had lost my knack for exams. Thankfully I walked out of there with my head held high. I feel very happy with a result of 90% (needing above 75% for a pass) and especially happy with the pat on the back for being top of the class.

Not gonna lie, this was my second attempt. But my excuse is solid. I wasn't sent the 200 page course manual before the course and without a few days to digest it all, passing was impossible the first time around.

Yesterday however I had no excuses and failure was not an option. The film job for which I need this drone license starts at the end of May and there would not be enough time to complete this license application process before the start of the job had I failed to pass a second time.

Multiple choice

To give you an example of the kind of questions I had to answer during my exam.

Most correct answer: Uncontrolled airspace is likely to contain more low flying aircraft.

Correct answer: Can be found up to 200km behind and ahead of it.

Correct answer: To allow air from underneath the wing to flow over the upper surface of the wing to re-energise the flow.

Moving forward

On the 10th May I must still pass my practical assessment, performing various manoeuvres before an examiner. After that I will create an operations manual which outlines every aspect of my operating procedure accounting for all eventualities & safety procedures.

From now on I must keep written logs of all flights and ultimately behave like a real pilot! The CAA can demand to see this paperwork at any time.

Once I have passed all exams and prepared all my paperwork I will make my application to the CAA for the commercial drone operator license.

Until then I will be practicing manoeuvres with my DJI Mavic 2 pro for the next exam. Notice in the background of this shot my uncle setting up his DJI Matrice, designed for holding larger cameras.

A second operator is needed to control the camera, which is great, but doesn't work for what I will be doing.

All in all things seem to be moving much more fluidly now and I look forward to checking in with my mother tomorrow in Norwich where I will try and put this computer down for an entire week!

Should be interesting ;)

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