Drone services group PAU passes 13,000 BVLOS inspection flights

Diversified drone services company Phoenix Air Unmanned (PAU) surpassed the 13,000 mark for beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) flights during another phase in its long-running aerial inspections of Xcel Energy transmission infrastructure.

PAU said it had cleared the 13,000 BVLOS flight count in late August after a series of missions inspecting Xcel Energy sites, work the company first began back in 2019. Those outings are carried out in annual spring and summer campaigns, inspecting infrastructure covering 18,000 miles and inspecting 5,300 miles of those assets in 2021 alone. 

PAU’s BVLOS operation without human monitors took place under a two-year Federal Aviation Admiration (FAA) waiver Xcel Energy obtained in 2019 and had extended an additional 24 months after the activity proved both effective and safe.

Read: Dominion Energy gets BVLOS waiver for Skydio X2 drone inspections 

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