I will shed some light on the process of securing the waiver, explain the new permissions, and highlight some of the ways the waiver will improve drone operations in Chula Vista and potentially your community. Missions requiring tactical drone operations close-to-the-ground often run the risk of losing sight of the drone. Even the ability to utilize another person to act as Visual Observer VO to watch the drone for the pilot in command is sometimes difficult or even impossible.
Based upon the flight path of the mission, it may be impossible and impractical to put another person in a position where they can remain safe and still see the drone at all times. As cops are often told, if you can see the suspect, the suspect can see you.
CFR 14 Part In the past, these missions have been hard to fly. The drone sees the world around it and does the work for the pilot to avoid hitting things. I understood the value of this immediately. I am confident that every cop or firefighter who flies a Skydio will feel the same way. With a safety case in hand, it was time to get to work securing the required permissions. Equipped with the Skydio Autonomy system, however, we were excited to push the envelope further.
We crafted a detailed safety case that factored in the high value and low risk presented by operations in close proximity to the ground and nearby structures. It took dozens of hours of meetings and documentation, and as of the waiver grant date on June 25, the rest is history.
Every agency will have to develop their own protocols for their safety cases, but here is what Chula Vista proposed in their waiver application:. All operations were to remain below the altitude of feet above ground level AGL at all times;. These conditions were designed to mitigate ground and air risk, and allow pilots to secure critical aerial views of evolving emergencies, without adding safety risks from the drone itself.
