Ozark Drones has recently been granted a Night Wavier from the FAA to permitting drone operations at night. This waiver will help expand the services offered from Ozark Drones, and now allows us to film at client locations at any time after sunset. Under normal FAA Part 107 commercial flight rules, drone operations must take place during daylight hours only, or at civil twilight, which is 30 minutes before or after sunset. (Anti-collision lights are required to fly at civil twilight periods though.) However, now with our approved night waiver, Ozark Drones can legally conduct drone flights well into the night. This will allow us to film nighttime aerials for clients that previously wouldn’t have been possible. It should also be noted that our night waiver isn’t limited to flights in Arkansas areas, but actually allows us to fly at night at locations all across the United States.
Conducting all of our SUAS flights safely will always be our top priority, and with our new night waiver comes additional safety measures. These safety measures include: strobing lights on the drone visible from 3 miles away, GPS geo-fencing to secure the flight area of the drone, and the use of an additional Visual Observer to assist the Remote Pilot.
As part of our first night operation, we filmed over 6.5 million Christmas lights from the sky for Silver Dollar City in Branson, MO. You can see one of the aerials featured in this news story about Christmas in Branson by Ozarks First.