6 answers

Yes, but not by default. Swarm operations — multiple aircraft flown concurrently by a single remote pilot — require specific approvals from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA). That means a remote pilot licence (RePL), a remotely piloted aircraft operator's certificate (ReOC), and a separate approval to operate multiple aircraft simultaneously. Changes to your operations manual and a flight test are also needed.

For more information see: Swarm Operations Approvals

On a pre-mapped flight the aircraft flies the planned route itself, and it will return home on its own when it runs out of chemical or the battery gets low. Manual flight and manual spraying are also available.

Automation is not a substitute for supervision. The pilot in command should keep watching the aircraft for the whole flight, so that people or animals entering the spray area, or an obstacle the sensors have not resolved, can be dealt with before it becomes a collision.

Keep everyone at least 10 metres clear of the aircraft while it is taking off or landing. Loading, mixing and battery swaps should happen outside that circle, and the pilot should confirm the pad is clear before every launch.

Two kinds of log matter. The flight log records what the aircraft did while it was airborne — route flown, volume applied, duration — and is what a warranty or incident claim is assessed on. The app log records what the flight-planning app itself did, and is only used for software diagnostics.

Both are uploaded from the controller once it has an internet connection, through the manufacturer's flight-planning app; the cloud account then holds the record. Upload the logs for the dates in question as soon as possible after the event — controllers rotate their local storage, and a log that has aged out cannot be recovered.

For your own compliance records, keep the per-job record (block, area, product, rate, conditions, pilot) separately from the manufacturer's cloud — it must survive a change of aircraft or supplier.

Stop using that battery. Any of those three symptoms points to a fault inside the pack rather than a usage problem, and a suspect high-capacity lithium pack should not be charged or flown while you diagnose it.

Isolate it, store it away from the shed and other packs, and contact your distributor to raise an after-sales enquiry so it can be returned for diagnosis.

There are three things it can be — the power source, the battery, or the charger. Work through them in order:

1. Check the power source. Confirm the outlet or generator delivers the stable power the charger's manual asks for; these chargers draw heavily and a marginal generator will fault them. Try a different outlet or generator to rule out supply fluctuations.

2. Test the batteries. Try the same batteries on a different charger. If the second charger also fails to charge them, the batteries are the likely fault; if it charges them normally, the original charger is.

3. Next steps. Once you know which unit is at fault, contact your distributor to raise an after-sales service request and arrange its return for inspection.