Another Day as a Public Safety Pilot With Unlimited Challenges Yesterday I was flying the airplane as Fire Demon 1. It finally made it out of its required annual inspection by an FAA-certificated mechanic. Being back in the airplane is a beautiful feeling. The joy of watching the ground pass below and seeing the world from a new perspective feeds ... Read More »
The final rules requiring remote identification of drones and allowing some flights over people, over moving vehicles and at night under certain conditions will go into effect on April 21, 2021. Remote identification (Remote ID) requires identification of drones in flight as well as the location of their control stations or takeoff point. It provides crucial information to our national ... Read More »
I’m currently working on a project to help measure what the real visual line of sight distance is for both day and night operations to remain within the envelope for CFR 107.31 and the LAASDON limits. I can really use all the field test results I can get. Your participation helps all public safety pilots. The test should take about ... Read More »
If you are flying under a Certificate of Waiver or Authorization (COA), you should go and look at your COA approval document and see if it has the following statement in it. Most do. “Airworthiness. All aircraft flying in the NAS must be airworthy. Under Part 107.15, the Remote Pilot in Command is responsible for ensuring the UAS is airworthy. ... Read More »
The FAA recently passed rulemaking for the remote identification of Unmanned Aircraft (UA). I’ve seen so much written about the new rules. Some say it is no big deal. Others say not to worry about it since it won’t go into effect right away. But I’m going to do the deep dive for you and go through the 470 pages ... Read More »
Don’t get me wrong, I love to research and write but a recent site visitor asked me about creating an Operational Risk Assessment document for public safety Part 107 waiver UAS operations. Jarrett Larrow put together this amazing presentation in 2019 that does a better job than I could do with an ORA presentation. Jarrett deserves a giant hat tip. ... Read More »
As 2020 winds to a close I thought it would be a good time to share what I see coming for drones in 2021. More specifically, public safety drone operations, since that is my specialty. In working on this piece I had a chance to go back and read what I had written in 2014 and it seems to still be spot ... Read More »
Let me start by saying that on issues like these, I try to provide a point of view that you can consider to do public safety flights with less liability. At first glance, the fact an unlicensed UAS pilot was flying over Philadelphia and live-streaming his flights does not seem like it has any relation to the flying you do ... Read More »
This question from a pilot came in through my ReportDroneAccident.com website. You can ask me questions here or here. The Question Hey Steve, Just came across your website. It is very important to share this knowledge in the way you do. Thank you! I was wondering if you have any info regarding the Matrice 300 RTK recently launched. I own ... Read More »
I received the following question from a drone pilot and I thought I’d take the time to share this great question with everyone. If you have a question you’d like to ask, click here. Drone Battery Question “Hi, I don’t have a new problem to report and am still waiting on DJI for a report/assessment on the stuck Battery percentage ... Read More »
Public Safety Flight Public Safety Drone Info for Police, Fire, and EMS UAS and UAV ops