The release of the FAA’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) for Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) drone operations in early August has created much enthusiasm—along with a bit of concern—across the commercial drone industry.

For years, commercial operators have sought clarity around BVLOS rules with the hope that streamlined waiver processes and the ability to perform longer, further flights would unleash greater business opportunities. At the same time, regulators and members of the general public have expressed safety, privacy, and security concerns related to longer uncrewed operations.

Now, with the NPRM on the books and the process of creating new BVLOS rules well underway, it’s crucial that drone industry professionals gain as much knowledge as possible about BVLOS deployments and the commercial possibilities that they may unleash.

To help, Commercial UAV Expo 2025 will be hosting a number of special sessions dedicated to BVLOS operations. One of them, Navigating BVLOS Operations, will focus on the regulatory environment and present insights into integrating BVLOS technology within urban and rural environments in a safe and effective manner. Navigating BVLOS Operations will be presented in two parts:  

  • “Beyond Visual Line of Sight in Mode C Veil: Achieving Safe and Scalable Drone Delivery with ADS-B” with Dallas Brooks, the Aviation Standards and Outreach Lead for Wing, and uAvionix CEO Jon Damush.

  • And “BVLOS Drone Operations: Training, Waivers, and the Future of Complex Missions,” featuring Rob Knochenhauer from Censys, Scott Lashmit from Cyberhawk, Skydio’s Jenn Player, and Mike Ralich from UPS Flight Forward.

According to Brooks, the overall Navigating BVLOS Operations presentation will help attendees learn how to take advantage of current rules and prepare for the future.

“The most important take-away from our session is that you can achieve your goals for UAS integration right now, in today's environment,” he stated. “The system is complex but fair, and will be (hopefully) made much simpler by the new Part 108 rule, depending on how much the current NPRM text makes it into the final rule.  I expect that we will talk a lot about the provisions that are proposed in the NPRM and what they mean for the industry.”

For the event, Brooks will draw on his 20 years of drone integration experience. Brooks has negotiated agreements with the FAA that opened up nationwide access for uncrewed aircraft, led scientific research teams focused on solving UAS integration challenges, and was the founding Associate Director of ASSURE, the FAA's UAS Center of Excellence for UAS research. He has spent the past four-plus years at Wing, an Alphabet company focused on drone delivery.

Brooks hopes that the Navigating BVLOS Session, and the other Commercial UAV Expo sessions focused on BVLOS flights, will provide attendees with practical advice they can bring to their operations right away. On a personal level, he is excited learn lessons from his drone industry colleagues while in Las Vegas.

“My goal going into Commercial UAV Expo is always to understand the challenges that others are facing, and to try and get them the information that they need to make sound business and regulatory decisions going forward,” he said.  “Commercial UAV Expo gives me the chance to see old friends and make new ones, as it is a place where we can quickly bond over our shared passion for this industry.”

Learn more about Navigating BVLOS Operations at Commercial UAV Expo.