Science Aviation

Flying Operations Unit (FOU)

Four students standing in front of an airport

The Flying Operations Unit is based at Bankstown Airport and is responsible for the delivery of flying training, the theory directly associated with flying training and support for airborne research.


All aspects of training and operations are approved by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority under Parts 141 and 142 of the Civil Aviation Safety Regulations.

The FOU is managed by Director of Flight Operations Mr Malcolm Good, and Head of Operations Mr Rodney Hyde, and staff include flight and ground instructors.

The FOU is housed in two main buildings at Bankstown Airport, located at Building 570, 32 Airport Avenue and Hangar 135, Aviation Place.

Facilities include office space for FOU staff, 3 classrooms, a research laboratory and hangar space for housing aeroplanes when not in use.

The fleet comprises Diamond DA40 and Piper PA44 aeroplanes fitted with Garman G1000 flight navigation and display systems. A FRASCA flight training device (FTD), also fitted with the G1000 systems, is used for procedural and instrument training.

In addition to the FRASCA, the FOU also operates a Pacific Simulators 4.5 FTD, and an Aerosim DASH 8 Q400 systems trainer. These latter devices are used for advanced training.

An older arborne research platform, a Piper PA44, is outfitted with a scientific Novatel GPS-IMU system, a RIEGL VQ480i scanning Lidar and a Brandywine Compact Hyperspectral Airborne Imager.

Training is delivered at the FOU for:

  • The Professional Pilot Program of the Bachelor of Aviation (Flying).
  • The Graduate Diploma in Flying.
  • The Graduate Diploma in Advanced Flying.
  • Air Transport Pilot Licence Theory.

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Airborne Remote Sensing at UNSW

The Remote Sensing Facility is run by the School of Aviation at the University of New South Wales, Australia. This facility is a component of the Network Laboratory capability of UNSW Research Infrastructure.

  • We own and operate a Piper Seminole aircraft, modified for LiDAR, Hyperspectral camera and position and attitude sensors. The facility operates out of Bankstown Airport Sydney.

    The Piper Seminole is a 4 seat, twin engine aircraft with a cruise speed of around 250 km/h and a range of 1200km.
  • Riegl VQ480i, airborne scanning laser

    Multi-return, scan rate 50 - 550KHz, effective max range approximately 700m with 60 degree field of view
    Brandywine CHAI 2048 Hyperspectral Camera

    256 spectral bands from 380 to 1020nm (visual and near infra-red), 2048 across-track pixels with 40 degree field of view

    GPS: Novatel OEMV precision dual-frequency carrier-phase receiver

    IMU: Novatel SPAN HG1700/H62 tactical grade inertial sensor

    Novatel Waypoint GPS/IMU post-process software Riegl RiProcess software

    Airborne Lidar Images of Caves Beach (5th July 2016) and Catherine Hill Bay Beach (7th June) on the NSW central coast. These images are colour contoured, with a full scale range of 35m, from sea level (dark blue) to 34m height above sea level (red).

    Find Technical details of the LiDAR Facility.

    Conference papers

    The UNSW Airborne LiDAR: Capabilities and Recent Beach Observations