Drones in Society: Exploring the strange new world of unmanned aircraft

About James CoyneKatherine GrayRon Bartsch

Ron Bartsch has over 30 years experience in the aviation industry in a variety of senior operational safety and regulatory roles. Ron is President of the Asia Pacific RPAS Consortium and is a former Director of the Australian Association of Unmanned Systems (AAUS) and recently completed his thesis on the legal aspects of RPAS operations with the University of Sydney. As former Head of Safety and Regulatory Compliance at Qantas Airways Limited and a senior manager with the Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority Ron has operational safety and regulatory experience across all sectors of the aviation industry. Ron is also a presiding member of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal as an aviation specialist. James Coyne is a former Civil Aviation Safety Authority senior manager and the former Co-chair of the International Civil Aviation Organisation Unmanned Aircraft Systems Study Group. He is currently the Technical Director of UAS International. Jim holds a BEng with Honours and an MSc in Aero-systems Engineering. He also serves on the Board of the Australian Association of Unmanned Systems. Katherine Gray has over 20 years experience as a regulator lead auditor and project manager. She has a strong aviation background and a keen interest in human factors. Katherine is the Senior Associate of UAS International the primary independent unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) accreditor in the Asia Pacific region. She holds a BEng in Aerospace Engineering and an MBA.