top of page

FPV / EVLoS / BVLoS Services

BVLoS diagram.JPG

What is FPV / EVLoS / BVLoS? First, some definitions.

​

FPV stands for First Person View, it refers to drone flying where the pilot is using a monitor (eg, goggles) to see the world through the drone's camera. This means the pilot no longer has unassisted visual eye contact with the drone, hence flying FPV can drastically reduce the pilot's situational awareness. It is only legal to fly FPV commercially in Australia where the drone pilot has a trained observer standing next to them, acting as a "spotter" for the drone. The maximum distance of FPV operations is up to 1.5km from the pilot. At this distance, it is usually impossible to see a drone with the naked eye, hence the observer is legally allowed to use binoculars to keep track of the drone. 

​

EVLoS stands for Extended Visual Line-of-Sight, it refers to drone flying where the drone is still within visual sight of a person, but that person may not be the pilot. One or more trained observers are used to extend the area of operations. Each observer extends the area of operations by a radius of 1.5km around that person. Each area of operation must overlap the others, if there is to be a contiguous coverage area. Multiple observers can also be in a straight line, eg to cover a linear area such as a road or powerline. There are two classes of EVLoS operations; Class I & II.  EVLoS Class I is where a single observer is co-located with the pilot. So EVLoS Class I includes FPV operations described above. EVLoS Class II uses remotely-located observers to extend the area of operations, as per the example in the diagram below.

​

EVLOS_Aviassist-905x509.JPG

BVLoS stands for Beyond Visual Line-of-Sight, it refers to drone flying where the drone is beyond the visual sight of the pilot, and there are no observers involved. Situational awareness of the drone and knowledge of it's current location are all achieved indirectly, via the drone sending information back to the pilot's remote controller.

​

EVLoS Class II, and BVLoS operations, can only operate to a maximum distance of 80% of the link range specified by the drone manufacturer.

​

Uses

​

First Person View (FPV) drone flying is often used for filming fast-moving sports events (eg, motor racing), and for drone racing, since it can feel more intuitive to fly these scenarios with FPV. EVLoS Class I is useful for covering a slightly larger area than Visual Line-of-Sight (VLoS) allows.

 

EVLoS Class II is useful when drone operations need to cover an even larger area than can be covered by EVLoS Class I. EVLoS in general is useful where a rapid response is needed, as CASA approvals for EVLoS apply Australia-wide.

 

Beyond Visual Line-of-Sight (BVLoS) is useful for even larger areas where EVLoS Class II isn’t practical or feasible, however it is significantly more complex, more expensive, and approvals take a lot longer to obtain. CASA approvals for BVLoS are also site-specific.

 

EVLoS Class II and BVLoS can find use in difficult applications, such as for powerline inspections in the mountains. However, EVLoS Class II and BVLoS can only be performed by a drone pilot that has passed their CASA Instrument Rating EXamination (IREX), or is being directly supervised (ie, in the same room) by one.

 

CDS Differentiators:

​

bottom of page