Next frontier for drones is flying out of sight (Video)

(6 Jul 2022) FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4387336 ASSOCIATED PRESS Remington, Virginia - 8 June 2022 1. Close of drone lifting off at a Dominion power plant ANNOTATION: A cardinal rule for flying civilian drones is keep them within your line of sight. But some drones have recently gotten permission to soar out of their pilots' view. 2. Various of Dominion drone operators flying their Uncrewed Aerial Vehicle (UAV) beyond their visual line of sight around a large fuel tank ANNOTATION: As of July, the Federal Aviation Administration has approved more than 200 'beyond visual line of sight' waivers to power companies & delivery services. 3. SOUNDBITE (English) Nate Robie, Dominion Energy Services, Unmanned Systems Group Director: ++PARTIALLY COVERED++ "No, I mean, that capability is huge. Certainly on an inspection type of situation like this where you would have to erect scaffolding or have people go in with a bucket truck. Now you can go in on a 20 minute flight. An inspection that may have taken a week you can do it in 20 minutes. Capture all the angles that you want, videos, go back to your desk, look at that. And now you have a digital file for the next time. When you go back to do another inspection, you can overlay that information." 4. Various of drone near the top of a smoke stack at the power plant ASSOCIATED PRESS (UGC) - MUST CREDIT DOMINION ENERGY SERVICES INC. ++USER GENERATED CONTENT: This photo has been authenticated by AP based on the following validation checks: ++Video content checked by regional experts against known locations and events ++Video is consistent with independent AP reporting ++Video cleared for use by all AP clients by content creator Nathaniel Robie ++Mandatory on-screen credit Dominion Energy Services Inc. Remington, Virginia - 8 June 2022 5. Aerial drone footage inspects the top of the smoke stack at the Dominion Energy plant ++MUTE++ ASSOCIATED PRESS Remington, Virginia - 8 June 2022 6. SOUNDBITE (English) Nate Robie, Dominion Energy Services, Unmanned Systems Group Director: ++COVERED++ "We've been working very closely for the last four years now with the FAA on regulations such as this. So for us to get beyond visual line of sight waiver is a good win for us, and it's certainly just the first stepping stone on where we want to take this program and certainly get widespread throughout our footprint where we can operate beyond visual line of sight." 7. Wide of Dominion drone operators under a tent as they fly the UAV in the background 8. Various of Dominion drone operators looking through photographs the drone captured 9. Zoom in on a Dominion Energy sign outside the power plant ++FULLY COVERED++ 10. SOUNDBITE (English) Nate Robie, Dominion Energy Services, Unmanned Systems Group Director: "And what we're looking to do when our crews are on site flying is making sure that the airspace is clear. But when we're executing during our beyond visual line of sight, we're staying in close proximity to our infrastructure. So that's addressing the airspace risk and that's also addressing the risk for Dominion or the safety concerns that Dominion has with proper PPE." 11. Various of Dominion drone operators landing the UAV 12. Tilt down of the power plant as a small plane flies over head ANNOTATION: But lightweight aircraft pilots are warning of crashes with the FAA's pending rule change for drones. Civil liberties groups say people's privacy is at stake. 13. Dominion drone operators set down UAV on pad, set it's wings 14. Close of a camera on the drone ASSOCIATED PRESS Pembroke Pines, Florida - 8 June 2022 Subscribe for more Breaking News: http://smarturl.it/AssociatedPress Website: https://apnews.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP Facebook: https://facebook.com/APNews Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/aa18b5c7ba3646acb863fc745695856b