# Low-Altitude Weather Whispers: Keeping BVLOS Drone Ops Sunny

- Event: Xpress ’23
- Published: October 9, 2023
- Length: 9:37
- Watch: https://nestgen.org/library/watch/SAE4zqynhIA/

> The transcript of a recorded NestGen session, for reading or for use with an AI tool. It comes from the video's
> captions; automatic captions can mishear names and terms.

## About this session

In this #NestGenXpress episode, Don Berchoff, CEO of TruWeather Solutions, discusses the impact of weather on beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) drone operations. Learn about the complexities and advancements in ensuring safe drone flights in varying weather conditions.

## Transcript

**[0:04]** commercial UAV Expo welcome to a NestGen Express weather reports I'm here with Adon berghoff the CEO of true weather Solutions and Don I'm just curious uh what is the weather like today is a actually a seasonable day here in Las Vegas it's 96 degrees it's sunny it's your typical Desert weather in the middle of September so it's hot it's hot damn hot it's always hot okay yeah this is a hot day in Las Vegas it's the desert it is the desert got it okay no that makes sense that makes sense so but speaking of hot days and speaking of weather what sort of impact does weather have on Beyond visual line of sight drone operations well you know the main thing the main thing is is that when we start doing Beyond visual line of site operations we're not going to have a pilot on the aircraft right right so most of the times weather data is uncertain winds are uncertain Cloud hike could be

**[1:07]** uncertain visibility could be uncertain only a meet only at airports so we actually measure the weather and everywhere else we're not measuring it so it's a model so the pilot gets us out of a lot of bad weather forecasts right they actually fly to the best weather sensor we have on board and we've depended on that for many years and it's allowed the weather Aviation system to work but when we take the pilot out and you're starting to fly drones 10 miles 15 miles and you really don't know what the conditions are in valleys or how the winds are behaving around a Terrain it becomes a mystery and that's what we're seeing right now is people are starting to fly long at distances they're starting to have a higher weather cancellation rate and the reason it is is because the uncertainty you just can't fly if you're not certain and so true weather that's what we're working on is closing those little altitude weather gaps so better weather sensor data you can't solve this problem with a weather model sure you have to solve all real data that makes sense now I think that totally makes sense the the thing that I'm curious

**[2:09]** about so what what sort of like real-time Technologies are available for getting that weather for for the Drone community well there's really no options that we're all used to seeing sure all right the aviation weather system was built with a government in the center of it uh most of your regulations have been for Approved weather sources so you have to use approved weather data what we've done uh in ASTM is we rewrote the standard for weather FAA is behind this and what this is going to allow us to do is get away from having to use certified weather instruments in the future we'll be using a data performance standard this will mean that we'll be able to use the lower cost sensors to fill the gaps than we have been able to use in the past and there's a program called ntap with the FAA ntap is going to allow us to use the current new weather data standard even before it becomes a rule in the next couple of years to test it and true weather will be working with operators and we'll have these sensors that we can work

**[3:12]** with them to deploy in areas that they're flying to close these gaps and do it affordably and allow them to get back more flight time and operate safely and really improve their business risk case so the census we're talking about are not sensors that people have seen before okay all right this is what two weather is about Advanced whether Technologies and capabilities they're bringing that out now we're unleashing that in our platforms I think that's really exciting and I am curious though so like can the drones themselves be used to gather some of this weather data absolutely I think the the that's one of the uh Solutions so when we talk about closing these low altitude weather gaps we're talking about winds above ground level above tree level maybe not here in the desert but but what you do have to worry about here in Vegas is the winds around buildings yes right and those are not forecasted today nobody has that data what we're talking about is taking data off a drones also helps to calibrate and validate what's happening uh it gives us another

**[4:16]** source of weather information but we need a diverse set of sensors because if the drones aren't flying you still need data to know what you can fly so we're working all those sensor components integrating that into a One-Stop shop and the only difference will be is that when we start taking data off of drugs they will have to follow the standard if you want to resell that or make it available in the UTM system you will be able to use your own drone data if you want and that doesn't have to be Quantified through the rule if you're using it for your own risk management but as soon as you want to make that available into the UTM system it's going to have to go through the new standard which is to quantify the goodness of your data we have to know what the error rates are the bottom line is as many weather sensors have errors in them of course and if you're taking weather data off of drones where you put your sensor on the Drone could be in the wrong place you get it's water wash you get battery heat these are all important factors when you're trying to collect

**[5:18]** weather data we want to at least know what the error rates are so they're going to have to know what those error rates are in order to turn into the system so it sounds like we're still a little bit off from being able to make this sort of like to close the gap closing the Gap is still not a today thing so what do we do we're sort of in the interim what steps can we take to sort of ensure that sort of the weather conditions that we don't have a good idea about that we just have models for today that they don't compromise the safety and efficiency of BB loss operations today it's going to be a risk management decision by the pilot um what we're seeing right now is BB loss for uh some kind of drone operations they have a 40 weather cancellation rate and it's not because of the weather weather's only driving about a 20 percent oh wow but it's the other uh 20 on top of that's the uncertainty they've got to be assured that they're not going to put their drone or people or brown at

**[6:19]** risk so they cancel and so the bottom line is is until we get these data gaps closed you're not going to see the kind of uh scaling that you're going to want to see and you're not going to see the kind of Revenue generation that is possible when you have better data and that's what we're focused on there are ways today that you can close these set these gaps we're working with different companies if you're um working with a detected avoid company that's putting a radar on a tower or we can put a weather sensor on that Tower with them and it doesn't have to be very expensive and that sensor will give us the wind data above the tree level and give a certainty we could do the same thing with some brown based cilometers we can put them out in the field with you so that when you're applying your beauty loss we can know what the ceiling lights are so there are solutions today and and that data that we uh we collect from Those sensors get sped into True Flight b360 and we turn that data back around to you in real time with all our other data so you're getting a better picture so there are things you could do today it's not going to be perfect

**[7:22]** sure but we want to keep working this off that's the key right we want to get better and better and better as we get along absolutely and I think these these sort of baby steps along the way that we're taking they're just critically important as we learn the lessons that are going to take us into the future so that's oh that well said sir uh I know that I'm personally excited for that I think weather is an extremely important topic in anything Aviation and being that we are part of the aviation industry more and more accepted we absolutely indeed to help where we can because there's so much more of us there's so many more of us and it's scaling so rapidly that we can provide such an amazing base of information for the rest of the aviation world and that's huge that's what's happening that's huge that's huge so it's on that that's all the questions I really had for you today but I just want to say thank you for coming on estrogen Express with us today really appreciate your weatherman impression um I think that was really great yeah we're just having a little fun just having a little

**[8:24]** fun here which you don't know is I actually uh I had one day in 1989 right I actually did the weather on channel seven or Washington DC I love that yeah yeah they were looking for a weekend weatherman sure and they put out this uh they made it into like a joke and you had to write a postcard of why you want to be your weekend weatherman sure and they had 10 000 postcards oh my goodness I got selected as one of the final eight and then I got to do the weather on Channel 7 in DC in 1989 and uh the thing was is that the person they had hired already without telling anybody was the ringer it turns out that I was good enough that they said if we had known that we could actually get somebody good enough it would have hired you but here's the thing I'm glad I didn't do that uh I did my military career and um we'll be here right now doing the kind of work we're doing if if I had been on channel 7

**[9:25]** in uh Washington definitely not that is a good story this is why we're here we're here to share stories share experience get smarter as an industry Don thank you so much for joining us I really appreciate it thank you absolutely