Inside Unmanned Systems provides actionable business intelligence to decision-makers and influencers operating within the global UAS community. Features include analysis of key technologies, policy/regulatory developments and new product design.
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14 unmanned systems inside August/September ugust/Septe August/September August/September be August/September 2016 0 2016 6 2016 AIR REGULATION Photos courtesy of (Left) Dominion Virginia Power and (Right) Measure HQ operations in anticipation of the new rules and the potential to fly more in the U.S. "The entire UAS industry benefits from this rule," Miller said. "The bottom line is, instead of having to go through a process to get per- mission to f ly, I can look up the rule and I'm good to go. That's very different. It (the new rule) is disruptive and I don't think people re- alize that yet. The psychology of that is huge." Industries the Rules Could Benefit Most Industries that want to deploy small UAS for data collection will benef it most from the Part 107 regulations, said William Janicki, a partner with the law firm Schnader Har- rison Segal & Lewis. That includes mining, real estate, some agriculture applications and industries interested in infrastructure inspection such as utilities, wind farms and oil and gas. Steve Eisenrauch, manager for Transmission Forestry & Line Services for Dominion Virginia Power, said that while most of the larger utility companies already fly UAS for inspection pur- poses, he sees the rules opening up new possi- bilities for smaller companies. The biggest rea- son? They won't have to find and hire a licensed pilot to f ly the drone—a requirement that had proven to be challenging and costly. Another benefit he sees, in this case for the utilities industry and others that deploy UAS for vertical infrastructure inspection, DOMINION VIRGINIA POWER currently uses service providers to perform all UAS inspections, but the new rules will make it possible for them to do some inspections on their own down the road, said Steve Eisenrauch, manager for Transmission Forestry & Line Services. MORE FREEDOM Eisenrauch can see a day where a line crew that needs to inspect a tower pulls up to a site, punches the line and structure number into a UAS and then sends it out to complete the inspection. While Eisenrauch said this is several years out, it would mean companies like Dominion Virginia Power wouldn't have to rely on service providers quite as much—giving them the freedom to complete simple inspections in-house and to turn to service providers for more complicated applications, such as specialized structures and beyond visual line of sight missions. "Another important piece is you don't have to have a licensed commercial pilot on staff to fly," he said. "This will bring the cost down a little bit also, which is another good effect of the rules." Dominion Power deploys UAS to inspect power lines. "IMAGINATION IS THE LIMIT." William Janicki, a partner with the law firm Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis