Membership has its privileges. And if you’re a member of the Academy of Model Aeronautics and fly a drone, there’s something new — and free — for you.
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No place is more dangerous for a drone to fly than near airports. Not only are the skies crowded, but aircraft may take off or land at low altitudes within the 400-foot ceiling drones are supposed to fly under.
As of today, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) expands LAANC to include recreational or hobbyist drone pilots. DroneDJ first reported on this in March 2019 and again on July 1, so for avid readers of our website, today’s announcement should come as no surprise. The FAA has selected three different technology providers that you can work with to request access to controlled airspace for your recreational drone flights. They are KittyHawk, UASideKick, and Airmap, and they all provide apps for your smartphone.
We knew it was coming and now we know when. The FAA announced that Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC) would arrive sometime later this summer. However last week, during one of the FAA webinars it was made public that LAANC would be available to hobbyist drone pilots as of July 23rd.
In the past, hobbyist drone pilots who wanted to fly for fun had it really easy. With a simple notification, they were off and flying in controlled airspace willy nilly. If a drone pilot was within 5 miles of an airport, the aircraft would take off and operate normally. It wasn’t until the pilot was within 1.6 miles of the center of an airport, that the drone would not’ physically take off if you were flying a DJI drone. Now, hobbyist drone pilots will soon be required to use LAANC to fly their drones in controlled airspace.
Knowing when and where you can fly your drone is not always easy to determine. This is the case for hobbyists, but you can imagine that for enterprise drone operators with teams of drone pilots and fleets of drones this process becomes even more challenging. There are so many different aspects to take into consideration before you launch a number drones into the air. How close are you to airports, heliports, federal prisons, or other sensitive areas? Are there any TFRs in place that might prevent you from flying that day? What is the status of your LAANC authorizations? Especially for large commercial or enterprise drone operators it can be a challenge to stay on top of this and to manage the operations effectively. Well, this is where Kittyhawk’s new solution, Kittyhawk Dynamic Airspace comes in. Their operating system connects all the different data points and planned drone operations into a single system that provides a higher level of control and compliance for commercial drone operations. It also allows you to look at your locations, your annotations and any points of interest. You can read the company’s press release below.
DJI, the world’s leader in civilian drones and aerial imaging technology, has been approved to offer Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC) services for professional drone pilots. After a rigorous test and validation of DJI’s technology capabilities, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Monday announced its approval of DJI as a UAS Service Supplier, allowing the company to offer its customers near-real-time authorization to fly in controlled airspace near airports.
Last week during InterDrone, Dan Elwell, the Acting Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had stated that the Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability or LAANC roll-out would be completed before the end of the month. Well, it seems that the FAA is ahead of schedule. As of today the Central North States have been activated. This is the last region to come on board. LAANC is now available for commercial drone operators nationwide. Allowing pilots to get near real-time approval for their flight plans. In the past, the approval or waiver process used to take weeks if not months. The availability of LAANC throughout the country represents a huge milestone in the development of commercial drone applications.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had already announced it early in March, but yesterday marked the official start of the expansion of the Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC). The system will be deployed at nearly 300 air traffic facilities covering approximately 500 airports and is expected to be finished in September.
The FAA’s Acting Administrator, Dan Elwell, announced during the FAA Symposium last week that the tests of the automated Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC) system will be expanded. This is an important step towards an Unmanned Aircraft Systems Traffic Management System (UTM).
Starting today, Part 107 drone operators, or commercial drone pilots, can use the Skyward Low Altitude Airspace Notification Capability (LAANC) cloud solution to request automated FAA approval to fly their drones in controlled airspace.
About two weeks ago we reported on Skyward (owned by Verizon) being the first FAA-approved vendor to begin administering the automated Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC) approval process. Now, the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) has approved to be the first company to actually use the Low Altitude Authorization Capability (LAANC) for automatic access to operate a drone in regulated airspace over controlled airports.
Skyward has been approved as a LAANC provider, an automated, fast-track approval process to allow commercial drone pilots to gain instant access to controlled airspace. This is a huge step forward as it reduces wait times for commercial drone operators to mere seconds whereas the traditional approval process could take months.
Skyward, which is owned by Verizon, is the first FAA-approved vendor to begin administering the automated Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC) approval process. They have announced that the system will go live this fall at the following four airports: Cincinnati International Airport (CVG), Reno (RNO), San Jose (SJC), and Lincoln (LNK). The FAA plans to include 49 airports in the program by the end of next year.