New member spotlight
David Guerin MRAeS, 56
Location: Winchester, Hampshire
Job Title: I first retired in 2016 after 34 years in air traffic control and air traffic and safety risk management. I trained in Melbourne in 1982, working at airports in Perth, Derby, Sydney, Bankstown, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Cairns, Brisbane again, then Dublin in Ireland and Brisbane again, with a sabbatical in Germany. More recently, I volunteer by representing air traffic controllers through the UK guild (GATCO) and the International Federati on (IFATCA) on all matters associated with unmanned aircraft (UA, drones, remotely piloted aircraft systems, UA Traffic Management-UTM). I fund and am the main editor for the Global Drone Regulations Database, used by humanitarian aid drone operators. I am also a consultant with the World Bank as operations manager, and safety, regulations, and airspace integration advisor for unmanned aircraft flying operations (the Lake Victoria Challenge, and the African Drone Forum – Lake Kivu Challenge). I ‘retired’ a second time in February after the Rwanda competitions were successful. This lasted until I was enticed to join new projects that I see as essential in harmonising drone regulations across Africa.
What inspired you into aerospace? My father, who is 87 and retains his superb memory, told me many stories when I was young about WW2 aircraft operating near to the farm in which he grew up north of Adelaide, South Australia. My first flight was in a Queensland Airlines Fokker F27 (F.27-2013 VH-FN?) from Brisbane to Maryborough airport to visit family friends in Hervey Bay. I was 16 and had already travelled by train for nearly three days from Adelaide to Brisbane, so the comparison between modes of transport was obvious once I’d taken to the air. I wanted to become a pilot, yet my eyesight was shot (literally; at school I was struck in the left eye by a pencil from a cross-bow by an energetic and classmate, and there was no apple on my head!) and as my father had already explained how the Australian airspace was managed by air traffic controllers and flight service officers, I decided to take this road instead and never looked back.
What is the best thing about your current role? As a volunteer, I can remain independent from the goals and imperatives that those in industry who sometimes have to vote against their personal views; I have no hidden agenda! In my efforts in Africa, I am able to bring a range of stakeholders together into discussions on use-cases for drones in the lower skies in less fortunate countries, so that improvements come to many needy individuals. Drones used for good can impact so many people. We are so lucky in Australia where I am from, in Ireland where I worked as an ATC for three years, in Germany where I was on a sabbatical in the Unmanned Aircraft institutes of the German Aerospace Centre (DLR-Braunschweig) for one year, and the UK where we have lived since 2017. I have had an astonishing career and a fortunate life, so it is great to be able to pay it forward.
What made you join the Royal Aeronautical Society? In 2016, while in Germany, I facilitated a regulations track on unmanned aircraft operations at the Experts Meeting: Cargo UAVs in Humanitarian Action in Sheffield. Here, I met Edward Anderson from the World Bank in Dar es Salaam, a senior technology and innovation specialist, transport & ICT with an understanding of drone use cases and a career focus on air and space technologies for sustainable development. Edward has been team leader for most of the Drones for Good projects that I have worked on and he mentioned that he was a member of the Royal Aeronautical Society. When I retired and moved to Winchester, I decided to look more closely at the RAeS and joined as an Affiliate Member. As I was representing GATCO on various unmanned aircraft forum, the President Dr Luis Barbero suggested I approach the RAeS UAS Specialist Group to join and I was honoured to be accepted as a member at the national committee meeting in June 2019. I was also recently nominated to become a full Member (MRAeS) and in June was advised that my application was successful.
What do you hope to get out of your membership? I am encouraged by the interaction between people of the same ilk (aviation) yet vastly different experiences, career paths and knowledge. I have always sought to gather different stakeholders into joint conversations as divides can otherwise form between new and to some extent disruptive industries such as those around unmanned aircraft use cases and traditional and often seemingly conservative conventional or ‘manned’ aviators. I hope to initiate and encourage such positive discussions with the RAeS. Additionally, I would like to promote a broader membership in these older and newer fields of aviation. Gender equality is positive in every way. Lastly, I want to promote the personal satisfaction that can be gotten from humanitarian efforts, either paid or voluntary, and that anyone with experience preferably in both the disciplines of unmanned and conventional aviation can help out.