Drone fleet management: aircraft, pilots, maintenance and documents in one place

Every drone in the fleet has its record: manufacturer and model, serial number, registration number, EU class, category, official status on the DGAC register and internal status (operational, in maintenance or out of service). The fleet syncs from AlphaTango, which brings in your aircraft; your flights sync from the mission list, and an aircraft can also be added by hand.

The EU class decides what an aircraft may do in the Open category. Dronops reads it on the record and derives the subcategories and scenarios open to the aircraft:

A1 tolerates flying over isolated people with a class C0 drone; A2 allows flying up to 30 m from uninvolved people with a class C2 drone, 5 m in low-speed mode; A3 is flown far from people, at least 150 m from residential, commercial, industrial or recreational areas. Each subcategory also requires its remote-pilot credential: see which certificate for which flight.

The liability contract is entered once, with its insurer, its policy, its validity dates and the policy PDF. Each aircraft then gets its cover: the Insurance screen counts the insured drones, those that are not, and the days left before the contract expires. The CERFA Dronops sends to the prefecture only leaves if the contract covers the whole declared period.

Why cover aircraft one by one, and how to avoid paying twice: insuring a drone fleet.

Each aircraft's logbook lists its missions, with the place, the remote pilot in command, the time and position of take-off and landing, and the total hours flown and cycles. It fills as flights happen: the remote pilot timestamps take-off and landing from their own space, and the logbook hours are derived from them with nothing typed twice. When nothing was timestamped, the pilot states the times at closure, once the mission is over.

On the pilot's side, the flight log adds up the hours established when flights are closed, by category, over the last 12 months, 24 months or 5 years, and generates an experience certificate as a PDF. These records are among the first documents asked for during a DSAC inspection.

Each aircraft's maintenance register keeps every operation: its date, its reason (defect rectification, modification or scheduled maintenance), who performed it, the parts replaced and the release to service. A line is never erased: an entry made by mistake is cancelled by a new line naming the one it cancels, which stays visible, struck through, as a register shown at an inspection must be.

The maintenance programme sets, for each aircraft, the operations due every so many months, flight hours or cycles. The due date restarts with each recorded execution; when it falls on a date it joins the email reminders, and a due counted in hours or cycles shows on the dashboard once reached.

Batteries, payloads, parachutes, extinguishers: each piece of equipment has its identifier, its status, its maintenance dates and its expiry date, and its cycles or hours of use depending on its type, and is linked to one or several aircraft. When a flight is closed, the remote pilot confirms the batteries used: each one counts one more cycle, and they appear on the mission report.

Each remote pilot has a record and their certificates (A1/A3 proof of training, A2 certificate of competency and the French STS theory certificate, with their expiry date, and practical training attestations). Before a mission, Dronops checks that the declared remote pilot holds the credentials the flight requires.

A deadline summary is emailed at D−180, D−90, D−30 and D−7, then on the day itself, once per step. It gathers the pilots' certificates, insurance, documents, equipment and dated maintenance. What to renew, and when: renewing a remote-pilot credential.

• No maintenance done for you: Dronops keeps the register, the programme and the deadlines; the work itself stays with your workshop or the manufacturer.
• No sale or rental: Dronops tracks your aircraft, your equipment and your insurance contract, it does not supply them.