Prior to my PhD interview with the Vet School I didn’t know much about drones, apart from finding them quite intrusive and perhaps unnecessary. However, the prospect of a research project using drone technology sounded really interesting, and I was intrigued by the potential applications to farming. My career path has taken many twists and turns over the years (I have been an environmental scientist, kayaking and rafting guide, adventure travel business owner, veterinarian and veterinary epidemiologist), so I was excited to embrace this novel approach to veterinary epidemiology and see where this PhD could take me.

During my first week I poured over the existing pilot work, which investigated correlating thermal imaging of cows with their core body temperatures, in preparation for a meeting with my seven (yes, seven!) supervisors. The aim of this meeting was to get me up to speed on the project, and how we could best utilise drones in this context. It sounded very ambitious and a little wacky, which definitely got my attention! Along with the many new skills I needed to acquire in the coming weeks and months, I was to attain a commercial drone pilot’s licence. Currently this is not strictly necessary in research settings, but I’ve found that it’s best to be overprepared and suspect we may see tighter regulations in this area in the future. As I drove home with the large multirotor drone the team had presented me with, my head was buzzing with so much new information and I found myself questioning if I was up to this challenge.

I booked myself onto a drone ground school course (for about 40% off, satisfying the bargain hunter in me!) and they sent me a massive pre-course pack of reading. I was also told that I needed to practice flying for at least 20 hours prior to my flight test on the final day. Now, I don’t know about you, but I definitely thought there would be hours of  flying involved in drone school! I had pictured myself doing assault courses with drones by the end of the week. Alas, this was not the case. The course was 100% theory-based and covered a variety of key topics, including air law and responsibilities, airmanship and aviation safety, navigation and chart reading and operating procedures. It was intense! Myself and Steve (a roofer from Glasgow looking at using drones to inspect roofs) paid close attention to the course, but still managed to find time to eat crisps, make jokes and enjoy our experience. On the third day, we both passed the theory exam with flying colours and set off home to begin preparations for our flight tests the next day. Steve hadn’t yet taken his drone out of the box and I was still pretty unsteady at using mine, despite the practice I’d put in.

Test day arrived and unfortunately, both Steve and I failed. There was nothing major, we just didn’t have the required confidence in handling our aircrafts. Cue flashbacks to my first driving test where I stalled coming out of the test centre! It was gutting but we both felt it was the right decision and we made a promise to keep in touch with our respective plans and progress. Over the next few months I put in the hours and made sure to practice flying in many different weather conditions. On one particularly windy day, I accidently crashed my drone into a tree! I frantically looked around to check if anyone had seen, packed everything back in my car and raced home to see if my engineer flatmate and I could fix it. Thankfully, I only damaged one of the propellers and was able to repair it quite easily, turning what could have been a disaster into a positive experience (which gave me more technical knowledge than I had ever anticipated).

Before long, my second flight test day arrived, and I was so nervous. What if I failed again? Should I just give up my PhD now? What did I think I was doing? Surely this should just be left to the professionals. My assessor laughed encouragingly and told me I had nothing to worry about. The test went perfectly, despite the fact that there were 15mph winds and it started snowing part way through. Passing gave me a real confidence boost and I felt I could relax for a little while (or as much as anyone manages to relax during their PhD!). A few weeks later, Steve got in touch to let me know that he had also passed and was looking forward to incorporating drone surveys into his business with his new qualification. After preparing a 50-page operations manual, I applied to the Civil Aviation Authority for a commercial pilot’s licence and waited anxiously for the result. At the end of September 2020, I finally got an email to say the application had been approved! I am now proud to say I am a commercial drone pilot and am looking forward to putting all the skills I’ve learned into practice. My PhD has definitely stretched the limits of what I thought would be possible for my veterinary career and I’m looking forward to what the future brings. I’d encourage any PhD students to get comfortable in pushing themselves outside the limits of what they ‘think’ they can do. You never know where it might take you.

Hurdles and obstacles are all totally normal parts of a PhD and learning to embrace them is always a challenge. Do you have any twists and turns in your PhD or career story? Share them with us in the comments on Tweet us at @UofGPGRs!