Here are a number of very interesting studies that I’ve received from others regarding the ability of RPICs or low flying manned aircraft pilots ability to see and avoid a UAS. I also had a firefighting pilot send me an email and wanted me to share this message: “Steve, please understand and share that the … Read more
Since I’m part of the FAA Drone Pro team I thought it would be a good idea to show you the slides that team members see. This is a little behind curtain stuff. I’m sure I’ll have to ask for forgiveness for sharing but I want you to hear it straight from the FAA and … Read more
The purpose of this article is to highlight the actual limits of flying small unmanned aerial vehicles (sUAVs), specifically multi-rotors, under the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Visual Line of Sight (VLOS) regulations. This time-consuming research began with a simple question: how far you can see and fly while still meeting the regulations under 14 CFR … Read more
Here is a question I get on a regular basis. Question: How far can we fly our drone at the incident scenes and how far beyond the line of sight can we go? Answer: You would think there would be a simple answer to this question. There actually is but the facts get clouded with … Read more
BVLOS has been touted as the “holy grail” of the UAV / drone industry. Those that possess it feel they are thus a cut above the rest. With over 99% of BVLOS waiver applications rejected by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) (only 16% of the 11,345 applications reviewed in 2018 had been approved) and as … Read more
This article on the AOPA website is an excellent summary of the issues facing primarily DJI pilots. But the peripheral issues apply to all UAS pilots. More information is supplied in the piece regarding two topics I’ve written about before. The most recent was the caution message out from the UK Civil Aviation Authority on … Read more
There have been recent marketing efforts and press releases from vendors praising the Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) flight operations that will allow public safety pilots to fly further. Before anyone gets excited about purchasing such technology, I invite you to ask more questions and get more facts. At present such highly regulated flight … Read more
Here is an interesting issue that will slow the use of UAS Traffic Management (UTM) to allow us to fly beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS). Politico says, “About 90 percent of registered drones are for recreational purposes, putting them outside the reach of FAA rules, so any remote identification rule the agency passed would … Read more
Today, PrecisionHawk announced the first Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS)-enabled drone platform. It includes the latest in aircraft detection technology, delivering to the drone operator the situational awareness necessary to deconflict airspace and avoid a potential confrontation. Key to this capability is cutting-edge acoustic detection technology, which can identify aircraft within a 10 km … Read more