North Weald Enhances Airfield Visibility and Safety with GuardianUTM

Emergency services helicopter in operation

The challenge

North Weald Airfield, one of the UK’s most diverse general aviation sites, was experiencing frequent drone activity in its vicinity, creating operational and safety concerns. Despite a high volume of varied aircraft movements – including vintage jets, Helimed operations, NPAS activity, and multiple flight schools – the airfield is unlicensed and does not have protective airspace designations. This had left it virtually invisible to drone operators unfamiliar with the local area. And adding drone flights on top of that was starting to cause problems.

“Drones are becoming a norm and use is increasing. We need to make it easier for drone operators to understand the airspace and increase the safety of our air traffic.”
Jaden Barber, former Operations Officer at North Weald Airfield, now RPAS Lead for the Central & East Region, Royal Air Force Air Cadets

The solution

To address the issue, North Weald integrated Altitude Angel’s GuardianUTM Approval Services. The benefit of being on the platform allowed the airfield to become visible to drone operators on leading drone flight planning tools, making it easier not only to manage land access authorisations for take off and landing but, crucially, to raise awareness of airspace activity for those planning drone operations.

The drone lead at the time of implementation, Jaden Barber, had already heard of Altitude Angel, having used dronesafetymap both personally and while training cadets. His familiarity with the platform made him a natural fit to drive the initiative forward.

With a desire to also improve the situational awareness picture in the immediate area, the team at North Weald also installed one of Altitude Angel’s Prism sensor systems to give an improved air traffic picture through ADS-B and other data feeds. The Prism sensor gave improved latency and a richer airspace picture when used alongside their other air traffic feeds.

"The Altitude Angel Prism sensor system has given us improved latency of data, giving a better situational awareness picture of air traffic in the area around the airfield."
Jaden Barber, former Operations Officer at North Weald Airfield, now RPAS Lead for the Central & East Region, Royal Air Force Air Cadets

Drone Safety Map view of North Weald Airfield and approval
service level requirements on Drone Assist

Operations Manager home screen for airspace and land manager to manage drone flight approvals Operator Manager home screen with drone mission summary
and approval decision options

The results

Before implementing GuardianUTM, the only way to alert drone operators to increased air traffic in the area was through signage placed around the airfield and direct outreach with local organisations and communities. While this outreach remains important to North Weald, the addition of the airfield to Drone Assist, Operator Portal, dronesafetymap, and other solutions integrated with the GuardianUTM platform, has significantly improved visibility. Those planning drone flights or checking airspace in the area can now clearly identify the airfield and better understand the associated level of activity.

Previously, drone operators seeking land access permission to fly from the airfield had to call the tower - an approach that interrupted daily operations. With the introduction of digital approvals, these requests can now be processed seamlessly by the wider team, without disruption. In addition the digital log of requests and land access approvals is readily available to the whole team at any time, without the need of paperwork.

Since implementation, the airfield has seen several key benefits:

Increased visibility of the airfield location for drone operators through digital drone planning tools
Enhanced situational awareness through improved data feeds
The system has also enabled Helimed and NPAS crews to build drone risk assessment into their operational planning

“GuardianUTM has definitely improved the process of collecting, authorising and distributing the information amongst stakeholders”

Michael Witham, North Weald Airfield Lead Operations Officer

Looking ahead

With greater visibility and tools to manage land access approvals, North Weald is now better positioned to protect its complex aviation environment. The team is considering further engagement with the CAA to establish additional airspace protections, supported by the groundwork laid through GuardianUTM.

“Being on the Altitude Angel platform has helped the airfield’s safety needs a lot and is a step forward for the airfield to engage with the CAA and explore what more we can do to enhance safety for air users.”

Jaden Barber, former Operations Officer North Weald Airfield, now RPAS Lead for the Central & East Region, Royal Air Force Air Cadets

Operations manager view of drone flight requests List of drone operation requests in Operations Manager