
First FAA waiver issued to fly a large drone beyond line of sight - mleonhard
https://www.aviationtoday.com/2018/10/19/ge-owned-avitas-granted-first-large-commercial-bvlos-waiver/
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dingaling
It might be the first waiver under thay law, but certainly isn't thw first
civilian beyond-LOS Flight.

General Atomics flew a civilian-registered SkyGuardian UAV across the Atlantic
in July 2018 to attend the RIAT airshow, for example.

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djrogers
Pretty sure the FAA doesn’t have any authority to grant or deny clearance over
the middle of the Atlantic.

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notyourwork
The point was that this isn’t indicative of this being a first time this
happened. Ops comment had nothing to do with jurisdiction.

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tekno45
But it was never implied that it's the first in the world.

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shados
Pfft, they are late. My neighborhood is full of obnoxious drones flying around
apartment buildings with no operators in sight and no one will do anything
about it, so they may as well have a waiver!

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myself248
The operators may not be in YOUR line of sight, and still have line of sight
to the craft. Do you have evidence that this is not the case?

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shados
In one instance I watched the craft at low altitude go around several
buildings in a way that it would have been literally impossible to draw a
straight line to ANY point without going through one of the buildings. That's
the only instance I'm 100% sure.

In other instances me and several members of our community literally went
around trying to find who the hell was operating some drones over their
properties (because they were dangerously close to some fragile things), and
no one could find them. So possibly had some line of sight, but were pretty
darn sneaky.

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oh_sigh
Operators aren't necessarily stationary, and there isn't necessarily one
operator either.

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shados
Very true, though they generally cannot easily walk through concrete and
fences.

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oyashirochama
You can't legally be moving and pilot a drone according to part 107 though if
you're hobby flying it technically might be allowed but it's hard and not a
novice thing too do since the RTH needs to be updated as does time left.

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closetohome
A decade late and a few bucks short. The FAA continues to keep the US in the
dark ages of UAS while other countries eclipse us in drone use and
development.

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ahi
Loving County has a population of ~134 and an area of almost 700 square miles.
Suburban Amazon delivery this is not.

