Our BVLOS (beyond visual line of sight) has been approved by the CAA (Civil Aviation Authority). This very exciting approval allows us to move into a plan to begin continuous monitoring of the dolphins.
We're one of few organisations in New Zealand with full-time BVLOS approval for a remotely piloted aircraft.
We've got continuous BVLOS approval for the core Māui habitat, allowing us to get out and survey up to 50km away from the pilot in a single flight without any observers required for spotting the drone or surrounding airspace.
To get this we completed a JARUS SORA which required us to outline and plan mitigations for all risks involved in the missions we are performing. Including our type 102 documentation for flying, this is about 170 pages of documentation. We're thankful for the CAA assistance through the process and a special mention to Heidi Jordan (CAA), John Newton (MAUI63) & Christopher Stevenson (MAUI63) for getting this over the line.
Now we're approved and can operate safely, we can put all of our years of R&D efforts into practice and start to collect more meaningful data, to help understand the best way to protect marine mammals in New Zealand.
JOUAV CW25 Flying - MAUI63 test flight.