Congrats to Event 38, whose Pixhawk/APM-powered aircraft was granted a FAA Section 333 approval!
From Droneyard:
Pravia, llc www.praviallc.com announced today that they received approval to use our E384 fixed wing UAV for commercial use in agricultural applications. - http://www.auvsi.org/blogs/auvsi-news/2015/02/09/praviaWe congratulate them on receiving FAA approval and look forward to working with them in the future.The E384 UAV is an excellent choice for agricultural applications.It can fly a 1,000 acres in a single 100 minute flight with a full sensor payload of 1 kg. Event 38 optical sensors can capture data at the 2cm level and our specialized filters are perfectly suited for agricultural applications.
Comments
Well played Jeff and company! You guys are such dark horses!
@Matthew please PM me the tail numbers and I will gladly add them. There are going to be issues with radios here in South Africa with anyone applying for the new licences that will start rolling out. The SACAA were very impressed with ADSB on the GCS though. When I say radios I also mean things like Taranis TX they will not get a ticket unless somebody actually gets them ICASA (our FCC) approved here. Radios from the major brands will as they have been through the process.
Matt, since the data radios are Part 15 (915-928Mhz under 1W) they are completely legal.If you are using the 433Mhz then you just need an HAM licence. Not sure why the FAA is concerned with that for? That's an issue for the FCC.
The problem the FAA had with 3DR autopilots was that the telemetry radio did not have (still doesn't have?) an FCC radio ID. The issue I foresee with open source is all the updates; of course this is not a bad thing, but the FAA views these as changes to the system. And in the case of major changes, they must be assessed by the FAA.
Congratulations Jeff!!
@ Sgt Ric, That correct. that is exactly the point that the FAA brought up.
@ Andreas Gazis, I believe the issue that UAS_Pilot referrs to is that with open source hardware, firmware, and software you have a constantly evolving setup, and once a specific configuration is certified, its hard to say that tomorrow's version is similar enough to be covered by the original certification.
How exactly is open source a cause for concern?
Congrats on the exemption as well. To add to the 'drone spotters page,' our Lynx aircraft has received 3 N numbers for different COAs using APM/Pixhawk.
The biggest issue we faced while completing our airworthy assessment of the 3DR systems is that the firmware and hardware is open source. They had concerns with the configuration control.
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