NYPD's Groundbreaking Waiver: Live Q&A and ADS-B Guidance

Alright. Good morning and afternoon, everybody.

Jakee Stoltz here with the Skydio Regulatory Team again.

So we're back, with kind of a round two on NYPD's groundbreaking waiver.

This is really kind of a follow-up from an October twenty ninth webinar that I did, first talking about this approval. And in that webinar, we, you know, talked a little bit more about shielded operations and kind of focused on what that is, started to answer some of the common questions that I've been getting.

But we we didn't get to all the questions, and and there's kind of still some more content, that I thought would be worth covering. So, here we are again. So, in the next forty five minutes or so, we're gonna talk more about some new approvals, which is actually kind of just very recent news, but excited to talk about that.

I'm gonna give a little bit of information on ADS-B and how that works in our system, because that's a a key part of these approvals.

And then I'll just take some more live Q&A, as well. I'll probably get to some of the questions that that we didn't get to last time.

So without any further ado, let's jump into it here. So, here's a a quick recap because I realized there may be some new folks on on the webinar here and and perhaps didn't watch the last one. So in September, the NYPD, they received a a really a revolutionary kind of first of its kind FAA approval, that now allows them to do DFR across about eighty five percent of the city without visual observers.

And so, I wanna pause even on this slide already because there's a a question last time that I'll kinda hit here. So if you if you see the graphic on the right side, the green areas are where this approval, allows just routine DFR operations.

But you'll notice maybe kind of two gaps in the green around the two major airports, JFK and LaGuardia.

And so for now at least, the FAA still has, you know, the there's still risk around, airports where there's plenty of offline traffic taking off and landing out of these airports.

And so to kinda manage that risk, the FAA has chosen to use the facility maps as as kind of a way to, allow operations in certain areas and not in others. So the gaps in in the graphic there on the right side kinda correspond to the zero grids around those two airports. And so there was a question last time of, like, you know, where should I start my DFR program? You know, Class G airspace or or different kinds of airspace. And so what I would say what I would recommend is that, you know, look in your jurisdiction for these zero grids. They're typically within about a mile of of, control airports.

And and just don't start your program, you know, within those zero grids is kinda what I would recommend bottom line. So, we're we're working through those areas with the FAA to to find ways to still get operations done in those areas.

SGIs is one option today currently, but we're looking for some other more routine ways.

But they they are they there is kind of more requirements there in zero grades than anywhere else. So, you know, I'd recommend starting your program outside of those, to make sure that you can kind of get the the full capabilities of of these approvals.

And the NYPD approval, again, just to kinda recap a few things. So it allows them to do what we call shielded DFR operations that's operating generally at 200' AGL or within 50' of structures above 200' AGL.

They just have to use ADS-B In technologies, so no other sensors are required. No visual observers are required.

The approval was based on some unique characteristics of New York City airspace, primarily the Mode-C Veil.

Does a lot of day and night operations. And as I already mentioned, it it covers a very wide area of the city. And so there was a couple questions on the last webinar as well related to some of the altitudes here, so I'll just hit those. So one of the questions was was sort of like, can can your fly outside of, like, the Manhattan, like, the downtown area where there are, buildings generally less than 200' tall?

And the answer is yes. I mean, essentially, anywhere in the city outside of those kind of two areas around the airports, they can fly at 200'. So that's kind of just consider that, like, the default altitude that you fly, as you respond to calls.

But when needed so in this example here, the the graphic at the bottom, let's say they they're launched into a call for service. They're flying a line at 200' AGL, but they encounter a 190-foot tall building, that's kinda between them and and the call for service.

So that 50' from structures, objects, or buildings allows them to kinda go over that building, and get past it so they can continue on on their way to the call for service.

So, yeah, it's kinda two hundred feet just anywhere. And then if needed to go above 200', you have to be within 50' of the structure. And so there was a second question on whether it's, like, just buildings, just structures, or if, like, other things like trees, you know, towers, and so on, are included in that.

And the specific example was redwoods in in California. It's those are quite tall trees, of course. So, it is similar to Part 107 and and the four hundred foot kind of allowance, and that if if the object is essentially anything that would, you know, physically damage a traditional aircraft, that would count here. So 50 foot from structures, from buildings, from towers, from trees, those are all all okay.

And then finally, there was a range question. So I think that's, this slide is a good one to hit that as well. Just like, functionally, what is the range of of our system?

And I wanna answer that from kind of a regulatory perspective first.

So with this type of operation, shielded operations, and and using ADS-B, there's effectively no regulatory limits anymore to the range. Like, it's not based on how far a human can see aircraft or it's not based on, like, radar detection distances and so on.

So so this kind of approval really opens up, like, the the capabilities and the and the range of your operations, and it comes down more to, like, aircraft performance and connectivity and some of those other things. So, for example, you'd wanna respond to calls where you'd still have some battery life to be on station, get the mission done, and then return home. So it's more about considerations like that than a strict, like, kind of FAA maximum range.

Alright. So, the new exciting news is that we've done this now two more times, since NYPD. So, just last week, actually, we, were really excited to announce that Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department has received a similar approval as NYPD.

So their approval actually kinda just matches, like, one for one what New York got, and it's really exciting for us because it's starting to show some scalability and some repeatability in these approvals as we kinda continue to work with agencies across the US to to enable this.

And then, Oklahoma City Police Department also received, a No VO approval, across their city.

So just big big congratulations to those two and shout out to them.

We're really excited about that.

And I wanna I wanna kinda stick with Oklahoma's approval for a second. So there's a small but pretty significant change between New York, Las Vegas' approvals, and Oklahoma City's approval. So their approval still allows them to do shielded DFR operations, so two hundred foot AGL or within 50' of structures.

They only have to use ADS-B In technology again.

But this time, instead of being based on a Mode C Veil or or a specific type of airspace, their approval was based on congested areas.

And so this this is exciting because, you know, you no longer have to have, like, that Mode-C Veil over your your jurisdiction to qualify for this type of approval. So it's much more scalable, across the US, we believe. And I'm gonna come back to congested area in a second. But, just to finish the slide here, it's a day and night approval again, and it is a wide area approval. So it covers their whole city, again, with some caveats around the the airports, of course.

Alright. So congested area. So, I just kind of assumed this would draw some questions around, like, what is this, how do you define it, and so on. So I thought I'd try and get ahead of questions by just providing some context to, like, what this term is, for folks that aren't aware.

So congested area refers to what exists on the ground. So so first off, this is not like an airspace characteristic. It's not congested airspace or not. It it's what's on the ground.

And so this is generally associated with the presence of public or, you know, the the citizens in your community.

And there is some, you know, kind of regulatory background to this. So this term shows up in in other parts, other regulations that the FAA has.

So, for example, 91.119, this is a regulation that just kind of applies to all aircraft flying in the NAS, generally speaking.

And, the red text is kind of on the right here. But the the thing to point out here is that they the FAA has been using congested areas or not congested areas, as a as a way to kinda limit the the altitudes of aircraft flying in the mass. And this is all in furtherance of protecting the public essentially in in noise abatement and things like that.

So over a congested area for this regulation, aircraft are prohibited from flying below a thousand feet, AGL or 1000' above the highest obstacle.

And then as they get into, like, more sparsely populated areas, you know, other than congested, they can fly 500' above the the surface.

And there there's exceptions to this. So, you know, taking off and landing at an airport is an exception. That's why there's some restrictions still around airports.

Helicopters, of course, have have some caveats where they can fly lower as long as they have a safe place to land.

But this rule, you know, prohibits, generally speaking, just a wide segment of traditional aircraft from flying at low altitudes over cities.

And then, likewise, the the, rules that govern ultralights, also has a restriction around this. So, ultralights are just prohibited from operating over congested areas, period, regardless of the the altitude.

And so, so the FAA, basically, you know, they've acknowledged at this point that flying drones at low altitudes in kind of a shielded way over cities is safe, and they have to write code provisions to to kind of, carry that intent and and the expectation there. So they they they basically chose to use this term, as kind of a way to, give operators flexibility, but also mitigate that risk of low flying aircraft.

And so, finally, you know, even to be more specific, like, is there a specific definition? Like, if I give you an address, can you tell me if this is a congested area or not? And, the answer is gonna be it depends. So it's gonna really be kind of a case by case basis thing.

There's plenty of other situations in the drone industry where the the answer is also it depends. So just as an example, if you've flown a drone or you're a remote pilot out there, you've probably been asked or have your own interpretation of how far is visual line of sight. Like, how far can I fly a drone within visual line of sight? And def a doesn't have a specific distance, published anywhere, and you you'll get a bunch of different answers depending on who you talk to and the size of the drone and the color of the sky that day and so on.

So that that's a similar question to what a congested area is at this point. So there's gonna be some cases where, you know, it's probably clear, some where it's not.

Unlike visual line of site, there is a lot of case law around congested areas.

You know, this has kind of been tested over the years and used to, violate, you know, like, traditional aircraft operators from from flying at low altitudes.

And so I'll just kinda give one example, and, I mean, this is really just straight out of an FAA legal interpretation. So there's a there's a interpretation from twenty ten where an individual wrote into the FAA seeking a definition of, densely populated and sparsely populated areas.

And FAA wrote back, kind of reaffirming that there is no specific definition. It's case by case, but they gave some examples that had been used in previous cases to violate operators. So those examples included a a small area consisting of approximately ten houses and a school.

Another example was a campus in a university.

Another example was a beach area along a highway.

And so the point is that there is some case law around this where you could kinda look to for guidance, but bottom line is, like, there is no specific definition, and it is gonna be kinda case by case basis.

Okay. So, I'm gonna take a look just actually really quick at questions.

Maybe before I move to the next section, we'll try try something a little different this time. So, a question of if NYPD has made their approved way over, available for review.

So it's not publicly available, and my recommendation would be just to to reach out to them with a request to to gain access to that at this point. So, it is their approval, and so it's really their call whether to to share it or not.

And, you know, a question about the range. So you mentioned that the range of this waiver is only limited by hardware, and what is the effective hardware range limitation?

So, the answer, just like congested area, it's gonna be a little bit of an it depends.

But what we kind of see as, like, a a general answer at this point is that, responding to calls for service when within about two miles is kind of a sweet spot, and that that's assuming you have, like, connectivity. Like, you have 5G coverage in that area or where our our Skydio Connect access points, can get that far. Like, there's no line of sight obstructions or interference and so on. So it is dependent on, you know, the availability of c two. But, with with the battery life of the X10, you you can get out to about two miles, still have time on station, to to do the work and then get back, to the dock for landing.

But there there can be cases where you could fly further if you had, like, a safe landing point at the call, or maybe less. So it's a little bit it depends, but two miles is kind of a a good general answer for that kind of question.

Okay.

That's about it. I'll I'll answer one more question from, the previous webinar actually to, since we have a few minutes here. So, there was questions, kind of two questions actually related that were asking, you know, do I need to do an air traffic analysis for my area to get an approval like this? Like, do I need to talk to NTC or or or anything like that?

So the way I'd answer that is we to to get these initial approvals, we did do some air air traffic analysis, like that, to really kind of drive the point home that there is very little, traffic flying over cities at, you know, two hundred feet, for example.

So so air traffic analysis was done to kinda get these initial approvals through and and help the FAA understand the the kind of traffic environment over cities.

But but moving forward, the expectation is that, you know, they're they're not gonna require kind of that level of analysis every time moving forward.

Now now we've kinda got these approvals. We're starting to see some repeatability with them with Vegas and Oklahoma City.

You know, I think that phase is kind of just working on creating a process to just make that even more streamlined to get this kind of approval.

So that so you probably won't need to do, like, a really in-depth traffic analysis, but I would still recommend, just just doing kind of a an assessment of, like, what is in your airspace. You know, where are the airports?

Where are the heliports? You know, there's often heliports with, major medical centers, so it's good to kinda understand where those are.

You know, each agency that I work with, they typically have, a couple, like, stories or examples of, like, I just I know there's always, like, helicopters flying along this path, to get in and out of the city or along the shore or whatever. So you you may just kinda understand your own airspace as well and kinda know some of those, like, common float paths, for lower lower altitude aircraft. So I would still recommend doing that and just kinda get a good sense of what what kind of airspace and what kind of low altitude operators are gonna be, in your jurisdiction.

But there's not gonna be a requirement for, like, a really in-depth, like, statistical, air traffic analysis there.

Okay. Some more questions are coming in.

Let's see. So can we, one here about, can we get a two hundred foot site waiver with just ADS-B In and class airspace?

So the answer to that would be, yes as long as it's over a congested area.

So the Oklahoma City approval, this really kind of sets us a bit different precedent moving forward where, you know, in theory, any agency should be able to get this type of approval regardless of the airspace. So GE, CDB, etcetera, just as long as the operations are over a congested area.

So hopefully that answers that question.

And then, question, about the the ADS-B, actually. Yeah. So, I'm gonna I'm gonna go on to the ADS-B slides. I think that might answer the question here, but then I'll I'll come back to if there's still some, kind of ADS-B specific questions.

Okay. So let's let's dive a little bit into, like, how ADS-B works in our system. This is, again, just, like, a big part of the safety case for these approvals. All three, approvals require it, and we expect it to be required really for for any Beyond Visual Line of Sight approval moving forward.

So, really quick, some basics. I I realize, folks on on the webinar here may may know this already, but just to kinda make sure, we're all working from the same sheet of music. So ADS-B, it's a technology that's been around for years and years now. It's actually on, traditional aircraft. So this is a transmitter that's installed on, you know, traditional people carrying aircraft that broadcast a signal about once a second, and that signal includes a bunch of information about their aircraft, so altitude, speed, position, and a whole bunch more. And this data is all based on, GPS, so it's very precise, very, very specific data.

And there's a question pretty often or maybe a misunderstanding. Like, does the drone have does our X10 or any drone really for that matter have ADS-B Out? Does it broadcast?

The answer to that is is no.

Actually, by regulation, small drones are prohibited from broadcasting ADS-B. That's drones do have remote ID, and that's a separate topic. But ADS-B, specifically, our drones do not broadcast this. This is just from, the traditional aircraft.

So, that signal is broadcast from aircraft, and then we receive it, and we receive it in two different ways. So the X10 has a built in receiver. So if if you have an X10 today, there is a a ASB receiver in your drone already.

And, actually, to answer, one of the questions, that data currently goes into DFR command. So if you're flying the X10, or, like, 5G with DFR Command, you will see ADS-B data.

That is not available on our controller today, but that's coming soon, so early next year. So by early next year, there will essentially be the same functionality between controller and DFR Command.

And then, additionally, the the docks that we deployed also typically have a ground receiver connected to them.

So either way, you're gonna get ADS-B data from either the aircraft or a sensor connected to the to the Dock.

So those are approved. The the ADS-B, for the sake of these approvals, it has to be received from a local source, and it can't be Internet traffic. So things like Flightradar24 and ADS-B Exchange, like, those are great systems for situational awareness, but they're not approved for collision avoidance purposes, in the context of these waivers. And that's kind of for three main reasons. Number one, there's no guaranteed performance, of those systems or or latency, in other words.

You know, anecdotally, it's it's pretty good, and I know, like, some of you have even kind of correlated, like, what you see to what's on the map, but there's just no guarantee of it.

There's no guaranteed coverage. And for drone operations, we care really mostly about very, very low altitude. So, again, there in many places, there probably is very good coverage from these systems, where there's, like, lots of people that have kinda crowdsourced their receiver data into the system. But in other areas, there may not be. So kinda bottom line is you just don't know for sure if you're receiving, you know, ADS-B traffic at very low altitudes.

And then finally, there's no integration between these and our DFR command. And that's really a key thing to kind of make this data usable, and help pilots make decisions.

So, speaking of how we display, so once we receive that data, we display it on our map view in DFR Command, and we do a few things with the data, to display. So distant aircraft that are not really a safety issue, like, more than, you know, six miles away, higher than 3000', we just don't display those. We call that filtering.

But it it's basically like, you don't particularly care about an airline that's flying overhead at ten thousand feet, for example. So rather than kinda cluttering your screen with data that's not really relevant to the safety of your mission, we just kind of get rid of it and and don't display it.

And then as aircraft kinda get closer to your operating area, we start to show them as, white triangles with an altitude tag. And so you'll you'll know heading of the aircraft, which which, way the triangle is facing, where the aircraft is on the map, and then the altitude relative to your drone, relative to the X10. So, the altitude being relative to the X10 is really key. That way you don't have to do the math between MSL and AGL and, like, how high is this really, you know, over my drone?

You just know right right there by looking at this that aircraft is 600' above me, for example.

And then, finally, as the aircraft get even closer and start to become a safety issue, we give the operator an alert, and we change the the color of the triangle to red. And, additionally, we give the operator some more information. So in addition to altitude, we give speed, vertical speed, and distance. And distance is also relative to the drone. So when you get an alert and you look at the map view, you'll know exactly how high that aircraft is above you and how far away it is.

Okay. And then the alert.

So, again, this is for aircraft that get close enough to start to become a safety issue.

This alert shows up. It's visual. It's audible so that it kind of draws the pilot's attention to look at the map.

And the alert, there's some assumptions that we've made based on how fast, you know, the kind of general population of helicopters go, how long it takes a person to sort of recognize that that there is an alert, there's an aircraft that's a threat, how long it takes to get the drone actually out of the way if necessary.

And so bottom line is that alert is designed to give you about thirty seconds as an operator to to kind of go through that sequence of events. You know?

React to the to the alert, check the map, make a decision, and get the drone out of the way. So the alert's designed to give give you that time if you need to.

And then oops. Next slide here. Okay. So then, finally, if you do get an alert, what is the response to that?

So how do you respond to one? So when you get an alert, the operator's goal is to keep the the drone a safe distance from all aircraft. Or in other words, yeah, they're the aircraft, you know, should be a safe distance from the ground. So the FAA has actually defined what safe distance now means in these approvals in the New York, Vegas, and Oklahoma approval.

And for when you're doing shielded DFR, so operating at two hundred feet AGL or within 50 units structures, that safe distance is kind of a hockey puck shape. So it's 500-foot radius from the drone and a 100-foot vertical. So your your goal is as an operator is to keep aircraft outside of that volume at all times.

And so when when you get an alert, you know, the the operator is expected to go to the map and, check. Basically, is an aircraft gonna get within these distances? Are they gonna get within 500' and 100' vertically? And if the answer is yes, then they should maneuver.

If not, then they can continue the mission, but probably just keep a close eye on that because it's still an aircraft that's relatively close to you.

So, hopefully, these aren't too small or or, you know, make make the the webinar here full screen, but I I kinda put, just two examples together of what this actually looks like on our map view and then, like, kind of my, you know, what my thought process would be as I think through these scenarios. So, so, again, this is this is our map view in, DFR Command. You can see the alert there is triggered on the top, and the drone is the blue triangle kind of on the left side. The the aircraft that's triggered the alert is the red triangle, a bit on the right side of the screen.

And you can see, you know, altitude speed, vertical speed, and and distance, there. So, if I was an operator and I got an alert and I checked map view, what I would kinda look for is maybe three things. So how high is the aircraft? Is it within 100' of me or or higher?

Is it climbing or descending? Because, you know, it could be 500' above you, but descending, which means it may still kind of get within 100' of you, once it arrives. And then finally, you know, what kind of heading is it? Like, is it gonna fly directly over me, or is it just kinda passing by, you know, off in the distance a bit?

And so in this specific scenario, at least, because the aircraft is sort of just flying past past the drone, it's not necessarily flying directly over.

I would not maneuver, but I'd probably just keep a close eye on this to to make sure it doesn't turn or do anything, that does put it on a a conversion course.

And then, similarly, just another example kinda on the right side now. So now the drone is kind of at the bottom of of the graphic on the right, and you have a, an aircraft that's triggering this alert on the left side.

So, again, just check altitude, so within a hundred feet, vertical speed, climbing or descending, and then what what kind of trajectory is that? Where is it heading? In this case, it's heading right for the drone. It's only a hundred feet above. So in this case, I I would maneuver.

So hopefully that helps explain just kinda how this functionality works in our system, and hopefully it gives you an idea of kind of why it's a very key part of the safety case for these approvals.

Okay. So just gonna go back to Q&A here.

K. I think I think we hit the the ADS-B question, but to just to reiterate it. So, the X10 ADS-B is in is in our DFR Command right now. So when you're flying over 5G, it's there. It's not in the controller today, but that's coming soon.

And then a question here so this isn't about ADS-B, but just good question kind of just back to some basic things. So, like, as a search and rescue team, in a forested, sparsely populated area, it's is it likely or or is it unlikely that we'll ever be able to obtain a BVLOS waiver? So, yeah, I think this this scenario so, again, it goes back a little bit to, like, congested area. Is the area that you're searching a congested area or not? So that'd probably be one one kind of big, consideration.

And and if it really is, like, truly sparsely populated, it it may not meet that definition. But, again, I can't can't really give a specific answer on whether it is or isn't today.

So that'd be that'd be one consideration that may, may kind of not give you the ability to get this waiver.

The other things in in this I haven't really talked about this, but to qualify for this, type of approval that NYPD Vegas and Oklahoma City got, you have to be a public aircraft operator, to get this type of COA. So depending on how your search and rescue team is set up, you know, you you may or may not qualify as a public aircraft operator, to be eligible for this type of COA to begin with.

So so that's kind of a consideration on, like, the COA side. Could you qualify for a Part 107 waiver?

I think the answer is potentially yes.

And maybe there's some follow-up we can do to just kinda talk through options. But, but, yeah, if you don't qualify for COA, that doesn't necessarily mean you can't get a BVLOS period. You you may still be eligible under, Part 107 waivers and just kinda thinking about things a little differently. The the COAs that that we're really talking about here with NYPD and, Vegas and Oklahoma City are really kind of designed for DFR in in, like, cities and in urban areas.

Okay. And then, another question about ADS-B. So in in the pre fit previous, like, slides here, I could probably even go back.

Does the shaded area around the drone represent the 500-foot radius?

No. So so the shaded area is actually just kind of a it's more just, like, UI stuff to kinda help you, like, identify where your drone is and kinda help, like, with the contrast of the icon against the map. So it doesn't actually have anything to do with 500', although that's a, like, a good guess. It maybe, coincidentally, it it does. But, yeah, it's it's more just a a user interface kind of design thing than a, than a representation of anything.

I see one more coming in.

Will the ADS-B for X10 controller be a firmware upgrade? Yeah. Yep. So there's it's not gonna be a cost. It's just, an update we have to make to to bring that data to the controller.

K. I think we still have some time here. As questions kinda come in, I think there's still some questions coming in, but I'll answer a couple questions from the previous webinar that I I still haven't quite gotten to. So so there was a question last time about working with statewide law enforcement agencies, where officers are obviously covering large areas, you know, state patrols and and things like that.

So, the answer is is yes. We we are working with some states. And, for for statewide approvals, there's again maybe a couple options, but, I do expect that this this DFR type of COA over congested areas, would apply to let let's say, you know, you wanna get all the congested areas in your state approved. I think that will be a pathway, to give you the ability to do beyond visual line of sight, like, in in those cities.

But and then as you get, like, out of the cities, you know, we're we're we're looking at more maybe different models of, kind of a patrol ed model where the accident is is driven around. But then when you get to your, your call or the incident, the drone can be flown remotely still.

So we are kind of looking at some different options, but I I think, as kind of a general answer, like, yes, we are supporting kinda statewide requests.

And and it might be that we have to do maybe, like, two different types of approvals to kinda cover all the areas and and kind of meet all your objectives, but I I think there are some pathways, to that.

There there's a question last time about, scheduled operations.

So and and, I think the the question really is, like, more more about, like, automated dispatch and response. So, you know, could could this approval allow for the drone to just respond to a a license plate head or, some kind of sensor that, you know, is is in your community?

And so the answer today at least is that they're these COAs, these approvals do require a pilot to be essentially, you know, at the controls and and conducting the flight at all times.

The way we've got integrations working with some of our agency partners is, you know, those calls for service come in and they create, like, markers. They're basically pre-populated flight plans.

So it's very easy for the operator to send a drone to those mission. They they don't have to necessarily, like, plan anything. It's pretty, you know, click and go, so to speak.

But it's not we're not quite to the point where the drone can just be autonomously dispatched without any pilot there, at all. So we are we are looking to the future of that and and working on that, but at least today, there there has to be a a pilot at the six line.

Alright.

Second for more questions here, but give me a second. I think there's a question coming in here.

Okay. So, kind of question coming in around radar. So using radar to fly at, four hundred feet.

So there I kinda touched on this actually in the October 29th webinar.

So it'd be maybe worth going back and and reviewing that. But, the the NYPD approval, as well as Vegas and Oklahoma, there's basically an an allowance now for operating up to four hundred feet if you also deploy an FAA approved, noncooperative detect and avoid system like a radar.

So our focus has really been on on the shield operations with ADS-B because we think that's the most scalable, way to do DFR.

But we know there's agencies that are working on requests with, different types of radar systems or camera systems, and there have been some approvals.

Campbell PD, recently got approval with a drone system, for example. So, those types of approvals, you know, are being worked by the FAA as well. They're typically taking a little longer because there's there's work that has to be done in sort of characterizing that that sensor's performance, and and ex explain to the FAA basically, like, how that system will work and detect aircraft in in all scenarios and and keep the the operator safe. So, so, yeah, there there is a pathway to that. It's a little bit more complex and and longer pathway.

But if if you're you basically, if you need to operate over two hundred feet or if you need to operate in a non-congested area, that that will be an option for you to explore.

And then there there's, like, kind of a part two to that question. Can we land the drone on the scene and swap batteries?

So, you know, the the answer, I won't from a regulatory perspective, and I'll I'll probably defer some of those questions to our product team and solutions engineers as well. But from a regulatory perspective, their the answer is yes. That that is possible.

It's kinda what I mentioned with respect to range. Like, if you, you know, two miles is, like, a good general answer to give you time to get to the call, have time on station, and get back to to your dock, your landing point. But if you did have a safe place to land and you wanted to fly at three miles and just kinda land it there where maybe an officer is, like, controlling a a safe landing area for you, there's nothing necessarily regulatory wise that that would prohibit that.

Alright. Well, I think that's it for questions, but a lot of good ones. I mean, thanks to anybody that kinda threw a question in.

So I think we'll just end with a few minutes early then, and give everybody some time back. But, I really appreciate everybody joining again today, and hope everybody stays safe and and has a good holidays coming up. So, we'll see you all soon. Be safe.