Australian Uncrewed Aerial Vehicle Service (Australian UAV Service) has adopted Web Manuals to manage its regulatory and operational documentation, supporting compliance at scale in one of the world’s most tightly regulated aviation environments.
As part of the Surf Life Saving New South Wales (NSW) family, the Australian UAV Service delivers drone capability to support coastal safety and emergency response. It provides aerial monitoring and intelligence along NSW’s coastline, including marine search and rescue, wildlife and shark surveillance, and aerial data collection and mapping.
Australian UAV Service conducts approximately 43,000 drone flights each year, operating a fleet of more than 300 drones through 250 paid staff and 400 volunteers, who support both commercial operations and smaller volunteer-led programs. As the scale and complexity of operations increased, the organization identified the need for a more robust and controlled approach to managing regulatory and operational documentation.
Emil Ahlgren, Director of Operations APAC at Web Manuals says: “Australian UAV Service operates at a scale and level of regulatory complexity that demands absolute control over documentation. As drone operators move into advanced capabilities such as BVLOS and remote operations, having a single, auditable source of truth for compliance is essential.”
Australia’s drone sector is among the most tightly regulated in the world. Any drone weighing more than 2kg falls under the Civil Aviation Safety Regulations (CASR) Part 101 and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority’s (CASA) Manual of Standards (MOS), requiring operators to maintain detailed, current, and auditable documentation. As regulatory oversight increases alongside operational maturity, digital document control has become critical for compliance.
Oliver Heys, Surf Life Saving Services Chief Remote Pilot at Surf Life Saving NSW, explains: “Prior to adopting Web Manuals, we were using Word to manage our documentation. We used CASA templates, but it reached a stage where, especially with pending CASA applications, it became too difficult to jump between all the document revisions and format everything clearly and correctly.”
Australian UAV Service now manages its standard operational procedures (SOPs), operations manual and regulatory documentation through Web Manuals, providing centralised control, version management, and full traceability. All compliance-related paperwork is housed within the platform to ensure pilots that always have access to the latest approved information, regardless of location or role. A digital-first approach to documentation is increasingly common among new entrants to the aviation industry.
Heys continues: “Like most drone organisations, Australian UAV Service is digitally advanced compared to the wider crewed aviation sector. Without the burden of legacy processes, we’re able to innovate quickly and adopt new ways of working. That flexibility, combined with the comprehensive training provided by Web Manuals, made our transition seamless.”
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