The North Carolina Division of Aviation (NCDA)—working closely with the FAA, U.S. Department of Defense, and FEMA—has created designated flight routes to separate civilian and military aircraft, as well as establishing temporary control towers to facilitate the smooth flow of traffic and reduce congestion.

• READ MORE: Responders Turn to Drones Amid Hurricane Helene Recovery, Milton Preparations

Prior permission is also required (PPR) to land at certain airports. As of Wednesday, PPRs were in place at Asheville Regional Airport (KAVL) and Rutherford County Airport (KFQD). A PPR line has been established, and pilots are requested to call ahead to schedule landing and unloading time. Space on the ramp for aircraft parking and fuel also need to be coordinated.

Pilots are reminded to check the Notice to Air Missions before each flight.

Over the past week, our NCDOT UAS teams have flown 200+ missions, capturing nearly 6,000 images to get crucial updates on the condition of roads, bridges, and infrastructure after #HelenNC.⁰⁰Thank you to our team for their tireless efforts in this important work. pic.twitter.com/bZbGwbcNux

— Division of Aviation (@NCAviation) October 7, 2024

The FAA may issue an Airspace Coordination Area (ACA), which is an advisory about unusual situations or congestion that can impact a flight. For example, there is an ACA in use over western North Carolina to alert pilots to congestion related to military relief efforts.

Pilots delivering supplies need to make sure there is a community-based organization ready to receive them at the airport. The airports are not being used as distribution points. Additionally, pilots should be aware that fuel is limited as many of the roads that the tanker trucks would use to access the airport may be damaged and unusable.

• READ MORE: ‘Hurricane Hunters’ Fly Into the Eye of Hurricane Milton

NCDA said pilots need to also be aware of Standard-use Army Aircraft Flight Routes (SAAFR) designed to separate civilian from military traffic. These SAAFRs are corridors in the sky and have specific protocols and communication procedures. Check the NOTAMs for details.

In addition, temporary flight restrictions (TFRs) can pop up at a moment’s notice to facilitate search and rescue, emergency surveillance and the like. Relief operations, including civilian and volunteer operations, may access the restricted airspace if they are coordinated with emergency responders. Check TFRs frequently here. 

The post Western North Carolina Air Traffic Up 300 Percent After Hurricane Helene appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The organization on Monday tapped Frequentis Australasia—a regional arm of global communications provider Frequentis—to develop a digital air traffic management (ATM) system that could safely integrate millions of uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) into the nation’s airspace.

Airservices said the system—which will allow it to incorporate drones, air taxis, and other uncrewed aircraft alongside traditional models—“will be at the core of Australia’s UAS traffic management (UTM) ecosystem.”

Airservices selected Frequentis as a partner following a comprehensive process that included several other applicants. It said the company “has proven experience in the delivery of operational UTM systems around the world.”

Backing up that assertion is the fact that Frequentis technology is used by the FAA, NASA, and the European Space Agency (ESA). The company is also a key stakeholder in the Single European Sky, a European Commission initiative aiming to reform the continent’s ATC system through better integration of European airspace.

“Frequentis is the only company worldwide to have successfully delivered UTM solutions to multiple Air Navigation Service Providers,” said Martin Rampl, managing director of Frequentis Australia. “This strategic partnership with Airservices Australia represents another important milestone in our mission to support the Australian airspace ecosystem with safe, efficient, and compliant integration of drones.”

Frequentis has been tasked with creating a Flight Information Management System (FIMS), which will be operated by Airservices and linked to the organization’s existing ATM system.

The FIMS will allow Airservices to share flight information between ATC, traditional aircraft, and uncrewed airspace users. According to the plan, drones, electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) air taxis, and other new designs could all be flown alongside traditional aircraft.

“Drones are the biggest growth area in aviation, and our partnership with Frequentis to develop a FIMS will enable us to integrate traditional and new airspace users into increasingly busy airspace,” said Jason Harfield, CEO of Airservices. “With Frequentis, we will develop a FIMS that meets the needs of Australian airspace users and ensures we can safely integrate millions of drone flights with other users.”

An Airservices analysis published last month predicted that commercial drone flights in Australia will surge from around 1.5 million in 2023 to more than 60 million by 2043, assuming battery technology and propulsion systems advance incrementally and there is a permissive regulatory environment.

That represents an average increase in drone traffic of 20 percent per year. According to Airservices, new technologies will be needed to weather the coming storm.

Per the report, drones in Australia complete about 120,000 deliveries of food and goods every year. The country is the largest market of Wing, the drone delivery arm of Google parent Alphabet, but many drones come from homegrown companies such as Swoop Aero and even the nation’s postal service. At the same time, more recreational flyers are taking to the skies as Australia develops drone regulations.

“Most companies based in Australia are looking to invest and grow their drone fleets by two to five times over the next five years alone,” the report forecast.

The exponential growth predicted by the report is expected to be driven largely by the transportation and logistics industries, which are forecast to account for 77 percent of the anticipated drone traffic increase.

The report further predicts that Australian farmers will make 500,000 drone flights annually to monitor crops, while police will complete 300,000 flights to support frontline personnel. Another 1.5 million deliveries are expected to be made to Australian households, and about 100,000 patients could be transported to hospitals using air ambulances, such as the Vertiia design from Australia’s AMSL Aero.

Electric air taxis will also be in the mix—those models are expected to make one million flights by 2043. Airservices said several providers are targeting Australian launches coinciding with the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Brisbane. Among them are AMSL and Boeing’s Wisk Aero.

The FAA has a similar plan, with launches expected to align with the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Before then, air taxis are expected to fly this summer at the 2024 Games in Paris.

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The post Airservices Australia Plans Nationwide Air Traffic System for Drones, Uncrewed Aircraft appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The FAA issued its 1 millionth airspace authorization for a small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS)—also known as drones—to use busy airspace. 

The authorizations are issued by the FAA’s Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC). LAANC is an automated process for drone pilots who need to quickly gain authorization for flying in controlled airspace. LAANC provides air traffic with information about the location of drone operations.

Drones, once the purview of hobbyists, are becoming increasingly popular in the industrial sector where they are used to inspect tall buildings, construction sites, reseeding forests and for the observation of animal migration. Law enforcement and the military also use drones for surveillance and search and rescue, as the drones can cover terrain much faster than a person on foot.

• READ MORE: The Real-Life Evolution of the Drone

Drones By the Numbers

The FAA keeps track of drone restoration as well as the number of people who apply for and receive drone pilot certificates. As of the first week of February 2022:

• 860,983 drones registered
  • 328,670 drones registered for commercial use
  • 528,725 drones registered for recreational use
  • 3,588 drones registered on paper 
• 261,952 remote pilots certified
• 187,644 completion certificates issued by test administrators

The post FAA Drone Pilot Numbers Hit Milestone appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Sam Taylor, ForeFlight’s senior video marketing specialist, on April 14 hosted a virtual update at Sun ‘n Fun of new features added to the company’s software in the first quarter of 2021. At the top of Taylor’s list was mention of changes to ForeFlight’s efforts to learn from the successes inherent in the original traffic collision avoidance system (TCAS) now standard in most transport category aircraft. Taylor said pilots will now see nearby traffic outlined either in yellow or in red depending upon their proximity. “We’ve been inspired by TCAS alerts and now account for an aircraft speed and direction of flight. He said the software is now predictive relative to the ForeFlight user aircraft’s direction of flight. “Targets expected to pass within two nautical miles of your airplane and within 1,200 feet vertically will be outlined in yellow. If within the next 25 seconds the traffic will come within 1.3 nm and 1,200 feet vertically it will be highlighted in red.” He added that for safety concerns, traffic alerts are disabled when aircraft enter the airport traffic pattern and are flying near to other airplanes.

Additional updates include a Flight Aware feed that offers users the ability to track any aircraft currently being tracked via ADS-B and other systems. There’s also a new map feature when pilots touch an airport icon on the map. Rather than bring up user-requested airport information on top of the airport queried, ForeFlight now sends that data to MAPS sidebar to ensure the airport is no longer blocked. “Jeppesen is now the only source of NOTAMs for ForeFlight,” Taylor added. “Their data is better curated and managed than the previous NOTAM source, especially for aircraft flying outside the US.” ForeFlight has also improved its traditional flight binder system to better organize approach data.

Recordings of all Foreflight sessions can be viewed here.

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