Run On-Site Planning and the briefing

On-Site Planning is what you fill in standing on the site: the CAP2606 Annex 2 survey, four checklists that run from arrival to landing, and the SEEDS crew briefing. It is a PDRA01 document — on a job set to another operating authorisation the rail shows it greyed, with the reason Not required under OPEN.

Before you start

Complete the Pre-Flight Survey first. The Annex 2 survey is generated from the job and the pre-flight records, so filling those in saves you retyping the aircraft serial and crew details on a windy field.

Know your organisation’s release gate setting. In Advisory mode nothing on the take-off checklist is blocked. In Enforced mode two items are, and you need a current flight clearance before you can tick them.

Steps

1. Open On-Site Planning

   Open the job, select Forms, and in Ops pack choose On-Site Planning. It expands into six rows: Survey, the four checklists, and Pre-Flight Briefing.

2. Generate the Annex 2 data

   On the Survey row, select Generate CAP2606 data. A toast confirms CAP2606 data generated from job and pre-flight records, and the identity fields — UA serial number, Remote Pilot name, Flyer ID and the rest — fill in from the job.

3. Work through the survey sections

   Site plan, then CAP2606 Annex 2 — operational identity, CAP2606 Annex 2 — GO / NO-GO checks, CAP2606 Annex 2 — final Remote Pilot decision, Meteorological data (on the day) and Site safety.

4. Record each GO / NO-GO decision

   The compliance section asks for six separate decisions — permissions and landowner, airspace, hazard controls, TOLP, operational volume and emergency area. Each is a Choose GO or NO-GO select. Choose NO-GO and a box appears asking you to Explain why this is NO-GO. Finish with Final decision (GO / NO-GO).

5. Fill in the weather on the day

   Select Get forecast to pull figures into the met section — the toast reads Forecast filled in — check against your instruments. Do check them; the forecast is a starting point, not a reading.

6. Work the checklists in order

   Initial on-site checklist (9 items), Pre-flight checklist (19 items), Take-off checklist (6 items) and Landing checklist (5 items). Each header counts your ticks against its total, and every item counts toward the document’s filled figure.

7. Brief the crew

   Open Pre-Flight Briefing. It runs the SEEDS prompts — five groups of five: Safety, Exercise, Equipment, Discipline and Signals. Talk each prompt through with the crew, add notes, and tick Briefed. Then record attendance under Crew briefed.

8. Sign off each section

   Press Sign off in each section header. That is your assertion the section is right, separate from how many boxes have text in them.

Options

Reverse a NO-GO

Change a decision from NO-GO back to GO and echoMike asks you to Describe the change or mitigation that makes this GO. The original NO-GO and your mitigation both stay on the record.

Refresh the briefing

Refresh from crew & on-site repopulates the briefing prompts from the current job crew and on-site survey. Prompts carry a badge showing where their content came from — from pre-flight, from on-site, from job crew or suggested.

Export

Export PDF on either the survey or the briefing renders it as a standalone document. Both are also folded into the job’s Ops Pack archive.

What happens next

The take-off gate is the part to understand before you are on site.

Screenshot pending

On-Site Planning, Take-off checklist, on a job in Enforced mode with no current clearance: the release banner with its Release required pill, and the Commence take-off and Start mission if safe to proceed items disabled with a red reason line beneath. Needs enforcementMode enforced and no recorded flight release.

A banner sits above the take-off checklist: Commencing take-off and starting the mission are checked against the current flight release. Beside it a pill reads Evaluating release while it loads, then one of:

• Advisory gate — the organisation is in advisory mode. Nothing is blocked.
• Release current — enforced mode, and a valid clearance exists. Nothing is blocked.
• Release required — enforced mode, and there is no valid clearance. Commence take-off and Start mission if safe to proceed are disabled.

Only those two items are ever gated. The other four take-off items, and all three other checklists, stay tickable throughout.

A blocked item carries the specific reason in red beneath it — most often No current flight-release decision has been recorded., but also Compliance evidence changed after this flight-release decision was recorded. or The exceptional flight-release override has expired. Record or renew the clearance from the job header and the items unlock. When you do tick one, a toast confirms Operation-start check recorded.

Completing the survey satisfies PDRA01_SURVEY_COMPLETE; completing the briefing satisfies PDRA01_BRIEFING_COMPLETE.

Troubleshooting

“This Annex 2 no longer matches the job’s crew and aircraft.” A banner appears on the survey when the generated Annex 2 disagrees with the job’s current pilot or aircraft links, listing each mismatch as UA serial number: declared G-ABCD — job has G-WXYZ. It warns that The CAA audit pack will reject this flight until they agree. A survey that has already been signed needs a fresh final review after regenerating. Select Regenerate and, if the survey was already signed, redo the final review.

“A current flight release is required before take-off.” You ticked a gated item and the server refused. Record the clearance from the job header first — see Record a flight clearance.

A pilot is missing from the Annex 2 pilot list. The select excludes pilots with an expired/revoked Flyer ID or ambiguous Flyer IDs. Fix the certificate record and reopen the survey.

“No forecast available — enter readings manually.” The forecast provider returned nothing for the site. Type your instrument readings into the met section — they are the authoritative figures anyway.