UAS range gets line-of-sight waiver
By Terry Murry on Monday, July 18th, 2022 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
PENDLETON – The Pendleton UAS Test Range recently received permission from the Federal Aviation Administration to spread its wings even wider. The range went from 2,300 operations in May to 4,508 in June.
“The range actually just received a waiver from the FAA to do true beyond-visual line of sight in a 10-mile corridor to the north of the airfield,” Range Manager Darryl Abling said.
As commercial applications for drones are explored, it is essential that they once they are out of sight, they still function smoothly.
“You’re ultimately going to have to be able to fly aircraft outside the range of a visual observer to be commercially viable,” he said. “Achieving that is the first step in a crawl-walk-run approach.”
Abling said he is constantly being approached by new customers. For example, tomorrow the U.S. Army will be checking out the range with an interest in doing testing and training on a 1,600-pound drone.
