Our mission is to provide quality FAA Part 107 Certified Drone training on Small Unmanned Aircraft System (SUAS) that will prepare pilots on safe and smart operation procedures for commercial drone use in this growing industry.
The future of commercial unmanned aircraft operations will revolve around autonomy. An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without a human pilot aboard. … The flight of UAVs may operate with various degrees of autonomy: either under remote control by a human operator or autonomously by onboard computers.
Every sUAS operator (and program manager) should fully understand the capabilities and limitations of the hardware and software utilized to conduct their flight operations. For example, common visual sensors are very dependent on adequate lighting and image recognition programming. Acoustic sensors may not detect surfaces that absorb or transfer sound waves, such as fluids. Even costly sensors that provide 360 degrees of coverage, such as LiDAR scanners, must be properly configured and programmed with comprehensive parameters for obstacle identification and avoidance, and may also require regular calibrations to maintain high levels of accuracy.
The fact of the matter is that current Federal Aviation Regulations specified in Part 107 are very clear that the Remote Pilot in Command “must have the ability to direct the small unmanned aircraft” as required at any point during commercial flight operations in order to maintain compliance with Federal Aviation Regulations. This means that although we are free to utilize advanced autonomous capabilities to conduct our flights and efficiently collect imagery and data, the operators of all sUAS systems used for purposes regulated by the FAA must be able to assume direct, or manual, control of the aircraft whenever necessary. If the datalink is severed and the remote PIC can no longer direct the path of the sUA, standard Part 107 regulations also require that the flight must be immediately terminated, or the datalink restored, via the use of a failsafe system response.
As a result, it is the responsibility of every professional sUAS operator as an FAA certificated Remote Pilot in Command, to fully understand and be able to safely control their sUAS in any potential operating environment.