A long drone Flight...how we do it and remain Safe and within the law

One of our regular clients asks us to complete a drone flight every month at the same location of approximately 5 kilometres in length. The problem with this is that under the current drone rules and regulations all flights must remain in visual line of sight (VLOS) of the drone operator. So how do we do this five kilometre flight?

Using Binoculars isn’t allowed for maintaining visual line of sight with the drone so we have to come up with something else…keep reading to find out what

Well one option would be to apply with an operating safety case for an exemption to make a Beyond VLOS (BVLOS) flight. Another option could be to apply for an Extended VLOS (EVLOS) flight. However both of these attract large costs which would not be within the clients budget. Therefore my answer is a bit of clever video editing and several individual flights. I have strategically located several take-off points and flight locations to manage the flights. The flight route itself is not straight and involves large turns which if I locate myself in the centre of the orbital turn, I can a large portion of one of these flights from a single location whilst maintaining VLOS. In the future with newer drones and sense and avoid technology I hope to be able to conduct flights like this from a single location. However the rules, regulations and technology is not quite there yet to allow us to do this, so for the time being we will have to continue with several individual flights.