Drone Flies Above Blue Angels, FAA FRIA Map, and a Burglary Suspect Caught by a Drone

We have three stories for you this week: a drone pilot that flies above the Blue Angels (not good), the FAA finally gets a FRIA map, and lastly, a burglary suspect that was caught in the act by a police drone. Let’s get to it!

Don’t Be That Guy: Drone Flies Over Blue Angels

First up this week is our “Don’t Be That Guy” segment. Unfortunately, a video was posted this week of a drone flying over the Blue Angels near Pensacola Beach in Florida. The drone appeared to be in the flight path of the jet, just slightly higher. The footage has since been deleted from social media.

Please, please, please do not be that guy. Do not interfere with other air traffic up there, especially during an air show like this. I can’t even imagine the consequences. We’ll keep you updated as we see more about how this drone incident story progresses, but I’m sure there will be more.

FAA Releases FRIA Map

Next up this week, the FAA finally released a FRIA map. The new interactive map functions very similar to the UAS Facility Map but instead just displays FRIAs. The map includes information about each FRIA, including the site name, the affiliated CBO approval and expiration date, and address.

This is obviously a great site if you’re a recreational flyer and you want to fly at a FRIA where Remote ID is not required. This is the only place where you can fly without Remote ID unless you’re flying a drone under 250 grams for recreational purposes. Good job, FAA – better late than never, right?

Burglary Suspect Caught by Police Drone

Lastly, a burglary suspect was taken into custody after a drone observed them breaking into multiple vehicles. This may sound like a casual occurrence, but in this case, it was really interesting how they got there.

A DFR (Drone as First Responder) was returning from a mission and was used to survey a parking lot in a busy area. The operator noted a man acting suspiciously. After watching the man for a short time, the police operator observed him using a screwdriver to break into a vehicle. The suspect sat there for a while before breaking into another vehicle.

Police units responded and were directed to the vehicle the man was in, and then he was arrested. This is, I think, a really interesting secondary use of DFR drones. I’m sure we’ll see more of these stories as more police departments start using drones for DFR.

Event Announcement: EAA AirVenture Oshkosh

There’s going to be no live update this week. Please note we’re going to be at Oshkosh in Wisconsin at EAA AirVenture. Come and see us at the booth! We actually have two booths:

1. Booth 209: Where the tent and the aircraft will be, along with most of the team.
2. Booth 2141: In Hangar B, where we’ll have a team demonstrating the VR and AR systems that we’ve developed over the years.

We’ve got a lot of swag and a lot of smiling faces, so just come and see us, and we’ll entertain you for a little bit.

That’s it! That’s all we have. We’ll see you next week, either me or somebody else, on the Friday news update. Have a great weekend!

Flying to Oshkosh

We’re going to be flying Saturday, possibly tomorrow (Friday), depending on the weather. We’ve been keeping an eye on the weather, and it’s not the greatest, so we’ll see.

The exciting part about landing at Oshkosh is that you’ve got to hit the dot, right? You’ve got to follow 100 other people that are in the pattern at the same time, and then they give you a dot assignment on the runway. Then you land on the runway, hopefully!

And yes, we’re going to eat cheese curds – enough for the whole team! For those that can’t go, we’ll bring some cheese curds back.