The bird’s eye view is now available to all who need it — via drone.
Drones, a remotely piloted aircraft, are shaking up everything from modern warfare to roofing and are expected to only grow in popularity, industry insiders say.
“The last 10 years have been crazy in terms of drone proliferation and adoption,” says Dan Juhlin, chief regulatory officer at Aerium Analytics, a Calgary-based company that provides industry-specific drone technology solutions.
But drones also pose serious security and privacy risks and thus require regulation.
Juhlin chairs the Regulatory Committee for Aerial Evolution Association of Canada, an association that represents 400 drone companies across the country and advises Transport Canada on its regulatory framework.
In recent years, the drone industry has conveyed its concern to regulators that Canadian drone rules were not keeping pace with recent innovations, according to a 2021 report by Transport Canada, the federal agency responsible for regulating drones.
But a coming amendment to Canadian drone rules that will allow operators to fly drones beyond the point where they can see them in the sky is an “important step to enabling faster growth,” Juhlin says. The rule will enable drones to be used for more activities that are dull, dangerous and dirty, he said, citing long-haul flights, wildfire suppression and oil vessel inspections as three examples.
Canadian drone rules
Current Canadian drone rules cover two types of drones: those under 250 grams, and those between 250 grams and 25 kilograms.
For drones under 250 grams, such as the DJI Mini 4 pro, operators do not need to register their aircraft with Transport Canada or obtain a drone pilot license.
The bigger drones, such as the DJI Air 3, need to be registered with Transport Canada and operators need to obtain a drone pilot license. There were 53,000 registered drones in Canada as of 2021, according to Transport Canada.
There are two types of drone pilot licenses: basic and advanced.
Basic licence holders cannot fly their drones above bystanders or within three nautical miles — about five and half kilometres — of an airport. Advanced licence holders are allowed to fly above bystanders and near an airport. But to fly near an airport or other controlled airspace, the operator must seek permission through a special app.
Some activities aren’t covered by current Canadian drone rules, such as flying above 122 metres. Transport Canada grants case-by-case exceptions for these activities through what’s called a special flight operation certificate.
“[The certificate] allows us to do stuff that’s otherwise illegal, as long as we’re doing it with Transport Canada, and [Transport Canada] is using those flights for advising the development of regulations,” Juhlin said.
Soon, Transport Canada will introduce an amendment to the current regulatory framework that will allow “beyond-visual line of sight” flights, where the operator can’t see their drone in the sky.
“We regularly operate in areas that are low-risk, unpopulated and in uncontrolled airspace, where the new amendments will directly benefit us,” said Craig Holland, chief pilot at Holland Productions, a Toronto company that provides commercial drone services.
“This [rule] will allow us to be more efficient with our flight planning, while reducing the number of launch/landing sites.”
Currently, for projects covering large areas, Holland must launch the drone, then land it before driving to a new location. Then he launches again, so that it always remains in his line of sight.
Lives saved
Holland Productions offers a variety of drone imaging services, including thermal scanning of rooftops, which large industrial clients use to prevent structural damage.
“They used to need a team with handheld infared cameras to scan these massive roofs, and it would take them a week. But with a drone, we can scan [around 280,000 square metres] in a night,” Holland said.
Last Sunday, Holland worked with some ecological researchers who wanted him to photograph a large plot of land so they could look for animal tracks.
Before joining the Calgary-based Aerium Analytics, Juhlin was the program co-ordinator for Alberta’s Remotely Piloted Aircrafts System program. He oversaw flight management and training for Alberta government employees operating drones. That could be a fish and wildlife employee, or a sheriff, for example.
The program found that by working with drones, departments increased their efficiency by 30 per cent on average, Juhlin says.
“[The drone] will save you having to go back because you forgot to check or count something. By flying the drone over, you can capture what the entire site looks like,” Juhlin said. High resolution cameras are a core feature of most, but not all, drones.
“Oh, ‘I forgot to check that ditch. The drone will show me how much water is in there.’ Or ‘I forgot to count the fire hydrants in that new subdivision.’ Well, just use the drone imagery and count them.”
Ryan Shore, chief pilot for Texas drone company Big Sky Visuals, says his most common work is cellphone tower inspections.
In the past, engineers would have to visit towers to conduct inspections, and would either take pictures with a zoom lens or climb the tower.
The latter option “can be extremely dangerous. Lots of lives have been lost working on cell towers,” Shore said.
Sky takes hundreds, sometimes thousands, of pictures of the cell towers and then renders them into a 3D model.
“That same construction manager or engineer that was having to travel around the country visiting site after site and risking his life is now working in an office, reviewing dozens of [3D] models a day.”
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