senseFly Becomes First Company to be Granted BVLOS UAS Operations in Switzerland
Switzerland’s Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA) has granted senseFly permission to conduct anytime beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) flights in the country, allowing the company to fly any of its eBee-branded mapping UAS beyond the visual line of sight of an operator, using observers, without the need to establish a flight operation ‘Danger Area’ before a flight.
senseFly is the first UAS operator to be granted such permission in Switzerland.
“This country-wide, anytime BVLOS authorization is a first for Switzerland and we are delighted to be working closely with FOCA to pioneer this kind of flexible, extended use,” says senseFly’s CEO Jean-Christophe Zufferey through press release.
Through this authorization, senseFly will have to follow some strict guidelines when conducting BVLOS flights. Aircraft cannot be flown higher than 500 feet above ground level (or 1,000 feet over urban areas), and visual observers must be present during flights, so that they can each monitor a section of the airspace —with a radius of 2 kilometers—for other aircraft.
The observers must also be able to communicate instantly with a UAS operator, in the event that issues arise.
Even with the guidelines though, this authorization is a major step forward for senseFly, and UAS operations in Switzerland as a whole, according to Zufferey.
“While this permission is valid only for senseFly, it opens the door for our Swiss eBee customers to apply for, and enjoy, similarly flexible flight conditions,” he says. “This will, in turn, allow them to grow their businesses by taking on larger, more complex projects.”
