NATCA Bookshelf

UNMANNED AIRCRAFT SYSTEMS U A S 20 NextGen Now | Summer 2015 The latest development in Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) is the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) announcement, on May 6, of the "Pathfinder Program." The Pathfinder Program is an FAA-industry partnership to explore the next steps in unmanned aircraft operations, beyond the type of operations the FAA proposed in the draft small UAS rule it published in February. In response to the small UAS proposed rule, the FAA received nearly 4,500 public comments by the end of the comment period on April 24. The FAA must address all the comments submitted before finalizing the rule. In an effort to continue to safely expand UAS access to the NAS, the FAA is working with industry partners on three focus areas, including: • Visual line-of-sight operations in urban areas. The FAA has partnered with CNN to explore how UAS might be safely used for newsgathering in populated areas. • Extended visual line-of-sight operations in rural areas. This concept involves UAS flights where the UAS pilot may not always be able to see the UAV, but can continuously maintain visual contact with the area in which the UAV is operating. UAS manufacturer PrecisionHawk is the FAA's partner in this effort. This partnership will allow the agency to explore how this might allow greater UAS use for crop monitoring in precision agriculture operations. • Beyond visual line-of-sight in rural/isolated areas. This partnership will explore operations where both the UAV and the area in which the UAV is operating are not within sight of the UAS pilot. BNSF Railroad has partnered with the FAA to explore command-and-control challenges of using UAS to inspect rail system infrastructure in rural areas. NATCA continues to work with the FAA to ensure that UAS integration into the NAS is done safely and without compromising the current operation. Safety integration is NATCA's top priority.

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