Ground School 2

Benefits of an RPAS RPAS offer many benefits over traditional "manned" aircraft like helicopters as they can be much smaller and cheaper to operate. By being smaller and lighter they can also be much more more maneuverable and easy to operate, being able to fly closer to the ground and in places and situations unfit for any other aircraft or humans. On top of being more maneuverable there is also a much smaller risk to the pilot in command (although public safety must still be properly ensured) RPAS systems are most commonly used in: filming and photography police surveillance surveying and inspections border patrol and reconnaissance research search and rescue and many more Line of sight and RPA operations The technology behind most of the common RPAS in operation commercially is still very much based on "Line of Sight" where the pilot controls RPAS from the ground by visually seeing the aircraft in the air (unobstructed line of sight) a separate "Visual Observer" may be used to keep visual line of sight for the pilot, provided there can be very clear communication between pilot and observer. Beyond visual line of sight There are more and more requests to operate RPAS beyond visual range; these operations will require a Special Flight Operations Certificate (SFOC) generally Transport Canada is of the opinion that the technology is not mature enough to support safe operation beyond visual range, but will consider applications where: Probability of RPAS collision must be no higher than for that of a manned aircraft Detect sense-and-avoid (DSA) capability is available Detect Sense and Avoid equipment must have: Collision prevention capabilities similar to that of a human pilot - including rules regarding right-of-way Sensors and actions with a decision time similar to that of a human Must detect participating and non-participating aircraft