Virginia Beach, VA, May 1, 2018 (Newswire.com) – HAZON Solutions ("HAZON") and PrecisionHawk today announced a strategic partnership where HAZON will serve as the preferred training partner for PrecisionHawk’s Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) waiver consulting program.
"This partnership is the perfect marriage of resources between two best-in-breed companies," said HAZON CEO and co-founder David A. Culler, Jr. CAPT, USN (ret.). "Under the FAA Pathfinder Program, PrecisionHawk has developed a strong safety case for enterprises to conduct BVLOS drone operations, of which training and crew experience are a key component, two services where HAZON excels.”
While BVLOS flight operations offer an exponential increase in return on investment over traditional visual line of sight (VLOS) drone flight operations or manned aircraft operations, expanding the area of operation by up to 50 miles, pilots must have sufficient experience in VLOS and receive BVLOS specific training. Under the Pathfinder fieldwork, PrecisionHawk recommends a practical performance evaluation (in-field test) and at least 15 to 20 hours of VLOS flight before BVLOS is attempted.
“BVLOS flight operations require significant hands on training due to the inherently complex technical and operational requirements,” said Tyler Collins, VP airspace services at PrecisionHawk. “This partnership with HAZON is not a test case or a proof of concept – we will be enabling production-level, routine BVLOS flight for commercial operations.”
HAZON plans to facilitate the already-growing backlog of training requirements by expanding their training team and opening regional training centers. Details on expansion locations and hiring will be released in coming months.
“This …is not a test case or a proof of concept – we will be enabling production-level, routine BVLOS flight for commercial operations.”
"The HAZON-PrecisionHawk team is a natural alliance based on our shared vision and approach to enabling advanced drone operations," said HAZON VP business development Ed Hine. “We’re looking forward to the opportunities that BVLOS flight unlocks for our industry. There is no doubt that this is an enormous step for the unmanned aviation community."
About HAZON
HAZON Solutions is a drone service provider focused on critical infrastructure inspections for Fortune 500 utility and industrial clients. HAZON leverages a combined 80 years of combat aviation experience to deliver industry leading drone based solutions to help organizations increase reliability and decrease down time due to maintenance and inspections while also mitigating risk to personnel. HAZON’s primary focus is delivering inspection services to those companies with significant investments in critical infrastructure. HAZON leverages our aviation expertise to collect actionable data that is otherwise difficult, dangerous or costly to gather. For organizations that want to build out an organic drone program, HAZON offers professional aviation consulting as well as basic and advanced flight training. To complement the consulting and training services, HAZON has developed fleet management software for professional drone operations – Drone Management System™.
About PrecisionHawk
PrecisionHawk is a leading provider of drone technology for the enterprise. PrecisionHawk’s client list includes Fortune 500 companies and market leaders in 150 countries, spanning a range of industries, including agriculture, energy, insurance, government and construction. To date, PrecisionHawk has raised more than $100 million from leading venture capital firms including Third Point Ventures and Millennium Technology Value Partners, with strategic investments from enterprise customers and partners including Comcast Ventures, DuPont, Intel Capital, NTT Docomo, and Yamaha Motor. The company, founded in 2010, is privately held and headquartered in Raleigh, NC. More information about PrecisionHawk can be found at www.precisionhawk.com or on Twitter @PrecisionHawk.