Drone Safety

In a landmark decision, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has given the green light to the first Category 2 DJI drone (weighing more than .55 pounds) to fly over people without waivers.

US lawmakers are calling upon the Commerce Department to include Chinese drones in the evolving regulations for connected vehicles. Members of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, in particular, have outlined concerns regarding the espionage capabilities of Chinese-made drones including DJI.

Canadian aerospace company Aerial Vehicle Safety Solutions (AVSS) has announced the launch of the PRS-M3E, a new parachute system for the DJI Mavic 3 Enterprise and Mavic 3 Thermal drones.

Drone manufacturer Draganfly is enhancing the safety of its Commander 3XL aircraft line with the integration of parachute systems by ParaZero Technologies. The drone is used extensively in medical and emergency response operations, and having robust safety systems in place mitigates the risk of accidents significantly.

As the farming season starts in the US, the National Agricultural Aviation Association (NAAA) is urging drone operators to be extra careful near low-flying crewed agricultural aircraft. The safety of ag aviators is crucial because they help farmers on over 127 million acres of land to increase productivity and protect crops.

Dronavia, a French company that manufactures drone accessories, has released a new range of safety solutions for DJI’s industrial drones such as the Inspire 3, Matrice 350, Matrice 300, and Mavic 3.

Canadian aerospace company Aerial Vehicle Safety Solutions (AVSS) says the Government of Canada has awarded it a significant new contract. The company’s innovative drone safety tech stack, Guided Parachute Recovery System (GPRS) and Real-Time Intelligence Landing Software (RILS), is set to be tested against conventional drone parachute systems following integration with aerial logistics platforms DroneUp and Blueflite.

Aerial Vehicle Safety Solutions (AVSS) has announced the public release of PRS-M350, an ASTM F3322-compliant parachute recovery system for the DJI M350 RTK drone. Priced at $3,600, the product complies with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency’s (EASA) M2 Mitigation Means of Compliance requirements and will enable complex flight operations for commercial drone operators.

ParaZero has announced the addition of a unique safety functionality for its drone safety parachutes to support geocaging capabilities.

ParaZero has announced the official release of SafeAir M30 Pro, a parachute safety system designed especially for the DJI Matrice 30 (M30) commercial drone.

ParaZero, an Israel-based company that builds drone safety systems for commercial aircraft and urban air mobility vehicles, has released a new parachute system. ParaZero’s SafeAir M350 Pro, which is designed for DJI’s latest enterprise drone M350 RTK, is now available to buy for advanced operations.

Drone Safety Day is the FAA’s annual campaign dedicated to educating the drone community about the importance of flying safely. Previously known as National Drone Safety Awareness Week, the event is returning for its fifth consecutive year on Saturday, April 29, 2023.

Drone navigation and awareness tech specialist Airspace Link is taking another step in its efforts to permit operators of all kinds to remain as fully informed on activity around their craft as possible with the launch of its AirHub Portal solution.

The European Union’s air transport regulator, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), has issued its latest annual safety review, which in terms of drones shows a drop in incidents and accidents across the board.

Flight navigation tech specialists Iris Automation and Sagetech Avionics are teaming up to provide a one-stop shopping solution to ensure cooperative and noncooperative detection and air risk mitigation for both drones and crewed aircraft.

Airspace Link is now one step closer to its mission of building a Waze for drone pilots and supporting safe integration of drones into the national airspace.

We enjoy Ken Heron’s YouTube work. He infuses his reviews with a great sense of humor. And, trust us, his latest drone crash compilation video is a blast.

Iris Automation has been in our peripheral vision for a few years now. So we thought it would make sense to take a look at what the company does, as its products offer the ability for a drone to detect (and avoid) other crewed aircraft.

So you’re set for a recreational flight. Something goes wrong, and a bystander gets clipped with a prop. Before you know it, there’s a lawsuit and they’re seeking damages of $750,000. This could, unless you’ve literally got money to burn, wipe you out. But there’s a better way: insurance.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has had profound effects on Switzerland’s aviation sector and the supervisory activities of its civil aviation regulator, the Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA). One outcome of the same has been a steep reduction in the number of safety risk incident reports and occurrences involving drones in the country.

Let’s say you had an issue while on a recent drone flight. Maybe you were a mission and a manned aircraft dipped below 400 feet. Maybe the drone had a flyaway. What to do? Well, the FAA is encouraging you to report it, using an anonymous and largely non-punitive system.