Unlocking remote operations: Pasco County's DFR milestone
The Pasco County Sheriff’s Office in Florida received FAA approval for a Part 107 waiver to conduct remote drone operations without the need for visual observers. This is the first time a waiver has been granted for public safety, allowing the department to operate drones remotely up to 200 feet AGL or within 50 feet of structures using only ADS-B technology for airspace awareness.
This significant achievement enhances the safety and efficiency of public safety operations. Pasco County will initially use this capability for training and emergency response within school properties with plans for broader Drone as First Responder (DFR) applications ahead.
Learn more about Skydio DFR.
- Hey everyone, Jakey Stoltz here with Skydio's regulatory
- team.
- I've got an exciting regulatory update to share in the public safety space.
- So earlier this month, Pasco County Sheriff's Office in Florida
- received a Part one oh seven waiver to conduct remote operations without visual
- observers.
- Now, we've been unlocking remote ops without
- VOs for some time now with commercial
- customers, but this approval represents the first
- time for public
- safety, where Pasco County is now able to operate remotely
- without visual observers, without any flight crew on site,
- up to two hundred feet
- AGL or within fifty feet of structures, and importantly, just
- with ADS-B technology. So no other additional airspace awareness
- technology is required.
- So let's talk a little bit about that safety case.
- And when we talk safety case, we always talk about air
- and ground risk and
- usually the multiple layers in each one of those.
- So for air risk, Pasco County is located in a mode C
- veil of Tampa International Airport.
- And in this area, aircraft are required to broadcast ADS-B
- out unless they've received permission from the FAA to fly without it.
- And over a year ago now, Skydio began integrating ADS-B into Remote
- Flight Deck.
- And this integration makes it really easy for pilots and operators to see where
- these aircraft are operating at in real time.
- And then if necessary, they're able to make decisions
- and give right away to those
- aircraft.
- And as I said, there's layers. So in addition to ADS-B technology,
- the operations are also conducted at lower altitudes.
- It's within two hundred feet AGL or within fifty feet of structures.
- And so operating at a bit lower altitudes gives a little more buffer between the
- drone operations and the lowest altitudes where crewed aircraft
- typically operate.
- Now, ground risk, that's managed by operating at Pasco
- County Sheriff's Office
- first facility, as well as Pasco County Schools.
- And so operations initially will be used for things like training and
- responding to events within the school properties.
- But we expect that as our parachute attachment for X10 starts shipping
- later this year, Pasco County will be able to expand this
- waiver into
- a full drones first responder approval or DFR.
- If you wanna learn more about this regulatory strategy, you can watch a
- pre-recorded video now of a June thirteenth webinar,
- where I explained our regulatory approach to unlocking DFR operations at scale.
- But for now,
- we wanna give a congratulations to Pasco County Sheriff's Office in
- reaching this no visual observer milestone.
- We're really excited for the impact this approval will have in Pasco County, but
- also what it represents for public safety more broadly
- as we get closer and closer to unlocking drones first responder without VOs at
- scale.
- So that's all I have for now. We'll see you next time and fly safe.
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