Choctaw Nation obtains FAA approval for beyond visual line of sight operations with uAvionix installation

BIGFORK, Mont. — uAvionix announced that the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma (CNO) Beyond Program received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations using uAvionix SkyLine Managed C2 and Detect and Avoid sensors on the Emerging Aviation Technology Center UAS Test Range.

This marks the second BVLOS waiver by the FAA for the combination of uAvionix SkyLine software and SkyLink hardware in as many months and allows drone pilots operating at the CNO range to leverage only an Electronic Observer while meeting requirements to remain well-clear of crewed aircraft while the uncrewed aircraft is beyond the pilot’s visual range of sight.

“This approval is a major milestone for the Choctaw Nation’s Emerging Aviation Technology Center,” said James Grimsley, Executive Director of Advanced Technology Initiatives for the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. “With this approval, we achieved a major milestone in the FAA Beyond program by enabling BVLOS test flights for our partners and customers by leveraging the permanently deployed hardware and software from uAvionix.”

The approved waiver signifies that uAvionix and the CNO have demonstrated to the FAA that the aircraft detect and avoid systems, procedures, and the control network meet the safety threshold for operations in the national airspace. Key components of the system deployed on the UAS Test Range include the uAvionix SkyLine C2 management platform and pingStation3 dual-mode ADS-B receivers. The SkyLine C2 management platform is integrated with the DeTect Harrier radar as part of the surveillance layer and used to control several CNO and uAvionix-owned eVTOL aircraft through the uAvionix muLTElink and SkyLink series of C2 radios.