This week, UPS Flight Forward (UPS FF) became the first UAS
company to be awarded a Part 135 standard operating certificate by the FAA.
This means UPS FF can now operate revenue-generating cargo flights via UAS
anywhere in the county at any time, including at night and beyond visual line
of sight (BVLOS).
Prior to the approval of this certificate, UPS FF was already
conducting operations 5 days a week under North Carolina’s UAS Integrated Pilot
Program (IPP) delivering blood samples from WakeMed Hospital in Raleigh, NC to
a laboratory on the WakeMed campus. UPS FF says it plans to expand its
operations first to other hospital campuses and then to other industries.
NAAA commented
on UPS FF’s exemption request that precipitated the approval of the Part 135
standard operating certificate. UPS FF says it plans to rapidly build-out
ground-based, detect-and-avoid technologies to avoid manned aircraft. NAAA
explained it is critical UAVs be equipped with both a FAA-approved sense and
avoid system to automatically ground the UAV when a manned aircraft is in the
vicinity and with ADS-B Out-like technology. ADS-B Out-like technology would
allow a manned aircraft to track the vicinity of a UAV. That technology is not
enough, however, due to the difficulty of manned aircraft seeing small UAVs. An
automatic grounding mechanism would act as a failsafe against collisions.
UPS FF uses the Matternet M2 sUAS for package delivery. The
M2 is approximately 50 x 50 x 10 inches in size, with a maximum gross takeoff
weight of 29.1 pounds. The maximum payload capacity is 4.4 pounds.
If UAS operations,
such as UPS drone operation, are planned in your area, NAAA members can order free UAS Safety Stuffers.
These UAS Safety Stuffers can be sent to the UAS operator to educate them about
the safety concerns agricultural pilots have regarding hard-to-see UAVs, liability
of UAS operations if safe drone operations are not followed and to share NAAA’s
recommendations for safe and responsible UAS operations in rural areas. To
order your UAS Safety Stuffers, contact NAAA at (202) 546-5722 or email information@agaviation.org with
your mailing address and the number of stuffers your would like to receive.
Additionally, be sure to keep NAAA’s checklist handy for what to do after a
UAS encounter with an Ag Aircraft. This checklist has eight steps on who to
contact to ensure the encounter is properly documented and reduce that chances
of it happening again. The full UAS encounter checklist available to
print and display at your operation.
 became the first UAS
company to be awarded a Part 135 standard operating certificate by the FAA.
This means UPS FF can now operate revenue-generating cargo flights via UAS
anywhere in the county at any time, including at night and beyond visual line
of sight (BVLOS).){kind=small}
