Altitude Angel Adds Recreational LAANC Service
London, UK: Altitude Angel, the world’s leading unmanned traffic management (UTM) technology provider, today announced it has added Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC) Exception of Recreational Flying/Section 44809 service in its products, meaning its U.S.-based recreational drone pilots can now join commercial pilots and use the company’s capabilities to access airspace at around 600 U.S. airports – free of charge.
Recreational pilots requesting Exception for Recreational Flying/Section 44809 can now gain LAANC approval through Altitude Angel’s DroneSafetyMap.com without any need to visit a third-party platform.
The ability to provide the LAANC recreational service follows the announcement Altitude Angel made in July of this year in which it reported being awarded the status of approved LAANC service supplier for Part 107 Near Real-Time Authorisation and Part 107 Further Coordination.
On the introduction of the LAANC recreational service, Simon Wynn-Mackenzie, Altitude Angel, Head of Products said: “With over a million registered recreational drone pilots in the United States, we’re thrilled to be able to offer them the ability to request approvals to fly in restricted airspace via our user friendly portals.
“At Altitude Angel we have big plans for 2020 and the ability for both commercial and recreational drone pilots to request LAANC approvals either directly, or via third-party providers who use Altitude Angel’s API, will play a major part.”
Altitude Angel’s implementation of LAANC means recreational pilots as well as commercial operators can quickly check their ‘options’ before submitting a full authorisation request and make any adjustments in a streamlined process to maximise their chances of securing approval.
To make seeking LAANC approval as easy as possible, Altitude Angel has created a step-by-step ‘walk through’ guide for drone pilots which can be found here.
Altitude Angel was initially approved by the Federal Aviation Authority (F.A.A.) as a UAS Service Supplier (U.S.S.) of the LAANC in October 2018.
Guide to LAANC approvals:
Part 107 Near – Real Time Authorization = automated (instant) approval (or denial) of commercial operations in LAANC enabled facilities (airports). E.g. a commercial operation request that is at or below the intersecting grid(s) altitude limit set by the facility.
Part 107 Further Coordination = manual approval/denial of commercial operations in LAANC enabled facilities. E.g. a commercial operation request that is above the altitude limit set by the facility and below 400ft.
Exception for Recreational Flying/Section 44809 = automated (instant) approval (or denial) of recreational operations in LAANC enabled facilities. Further coordination is not available. E.g. a recreational operation request that is at or below the intersecting grid(s) altitude limit set by the facility.
About Altitude Angel:
Altitude Angel was founded by Richard Parker in 2014 and is headquartered in Reading, UK.
Altitude Angel’s developer platform is open and available to all at https://developers.altitudeangel.com
About GuardianUTM:
GuardianUTM enables drone manufacturers and software developers to connect into a rich, dynamic source of accurate, authoritative and relevant information to support geofencing, while offering enhanced UTM capabilities such as a single interface to multi-country flight authorisation.
The system is being deployed by NATS, the UK’s main air navigation service provider, and was demonstrated as part of ‘Operation Zenith’ in 2018, offering enhanced airport safeguarding and automated approvals to fly in controlled airspace. Altitude Angel is now bringing online functionality to enable drone pilots anywhere in the world to get 1-click access to controlled airspace.
Its companion product, GuardianUTM O/S, supports all the functionality required to deliver national-grade drone traffic management capabilities to any country that wishes to safely unlock the potential of drones.
Introduction video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bd0pvUrS07g
For further information or to arrange an interview, please contact:
Stephen Farmer, Altitude Angel, Head of Corporate Communications & PR
Tel: +44 (0)118 321 4100
