An update on our CAA authorisation timeline

I'll be straight with you, because that is how we have always done things here. I am gutted to be writing this.

We started this back in January with a clear plan and a date circled on the wall: approved, authorised and flying commercially by September. Every single thing we have done since has been pointed at that date. So having to move it, on our own website, in black and white, is not a nice job.

But I would far rather tell you exactly what has happened than quietly change a number and hope nobody notices.

What has actually happened

To fly an aircraft the size of our DJI Agras T70P commercially, we need an Operational Authorisation from the Civil Aviation Authority. That comes through a process called the Specific Operations Risk Assessment, or SORA: a detailed safety case covering the aircraft, the operation, the procedures, and the people flying it. It is thorough, and rightly so. Nobody should be putting a 70 litre aircraft over British farmland without proving properly that they can do it safely.

We began that process with the support of an external consultancy. For reasons outside our control, that arrangement was not going to get us where we needed to be, and we took the decision to step away from it.

We will not be naming anyone or airing any of it publicly. That is not how we do things, and frankly it would not change a single thing for the farmers reading this.

What it did leave us with was a straightforward choice. We could push on with a part-finished application under the current system, handing the CAA a far more complicated piece of work than it ever needed to be. Or we could stop, bring in the right people, and build the thing properly from the ground up.

We chose to build it properly.

What is different this time

It is a fair question, and one I would ask if I were reading this. If it went wrong once, why would it not go wrong again?

We are now working on the SORA alongside a specialist partner we already know well and have a strong working relationship with. They know this process inside out, and we trust them, which is not something you can say after a single introductory meeting.

The bigger change is where the responsibility sits. Every procedure, every risk assessment and every line of our operations manual is verified in house, by me, before it goes anywhere near the CAA. We are not handing our safety case to somebody else and hoping for the best this time. It is our name on that authorisation and our aircraft flying over your fields, so it is my job to understand every word of it. That is the lesson I have taken from all this, and it is the one worth having.

Why October, and what I can honestly promise

The timing, as it happens, falls in our favour. In October the CAA introduces an updated regulatory framework for how these applications are made and assessed. Rather than force a rebuilt application through a system that is weeks away from being replaced, ours goes in at the start of October, under the framework it will actually be assessed against. It is a clearer process, and it maps far more cleanly onto agricultural operations like ours.

That does not mean we are sitting on our hands until then. Every day between now and October is going into this: the operations manual, the procedures, the risk assessments, the evidence. Built with our specialist partner, checked line by line at our end, so that what lands on the CAA's desk on day one is complete, coherent and ready to assess.

Late October is what we are working towards, and it is the date we are planning around. But I am not going to hand you a promise that was never mine to make. The CAA will take the time it needs to assess this properly, and so they should: that scrutiny is the whole point of it. If they need longer, you will hear that from me on this page, with the same detail and as soon as we know.

What this does not change

Here is the part that actually matters.

HarvestHawk is a small, family run business. This is not a line on somebody's spreadsheet for us. We genuinely believe this technology is going to change how British farms work, and change it for the better: less waste, no compaction, better data, better margins, and a job done on time when the weather gives you a four day window and the ground is too wet for a tractor. That belief has not shifted an inch. If anything, the last few weeks have hardened it.

So, plainly:

• Crop mapping is flying today. NDVI surveys, multispectral imaging and variable rate prescription maps for your own sprayer are completely unaffected and available right now.
• We will still be at the shows. Come and find us, have a proper look at the drones, and ask us the awkward questions. We would far rather have that conversation face to face.
• We are still taking bookings. Enquiries for spraying, spreading and seeding are open now, and everyone who gets in touch before we go live is first in the queue.
• Autumn work can still be planned. Cover crop seeding and post-harvest applications can be scheduled with us now, around the late October date.

This is a setback, and I am not going to dress it up as anything else. But it is a few weeks, not a change of direction, and it is not the thing that defines us. What defines us is being straight with you at the moment it would be far easier not to be.

If you have any questions about what this means for your farm, get in touch, come and find us at one of our upcoming shows, or read exactly where the rules stand on our Compliance page. Straight answers, as always.

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