Drone management platform FlyFreely has announced its acceptance as a LAANC provider by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). FlyFreely can now provide authorisations as part of the Low Altitude Authorisation and Notification Capability (LAANC), which supports the integration of unmanned aircraft into certain controlled airspace.

FlyFreely now boasts connections to three national Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) systems including CASA RPAS Platform (Australia), Airshare (New Zealand) and now LAANC (USA).

Co-founder and CEO Dr David Cole said it was a significant milestone.

“We’ve been growing rapidly since 2019 and have established ourselves as the most trusted drone management platform in Australia.

“Following a successful expansion into New Zealand in 2022, the US was the next logical step and we’re excited for the opportunity.”

FlyFreely’s expansion into the US means its client base – particularly large multinational companies – will be able to streamline their drone operations across international borders. “It’s a game-changer for customers that have operations in Australia, New Zealand and the US, as it ensures they can seamlessly operate through the one platform.” Dr Cole said. FlyFreely has also taken the opportunity to add support for operations in Canada and Mexico in the platform to further enhance the value provided to North American customers. 

“If you are running drone operations across more than one country in North America and facing challenges managing your operations, FlyFreely is uniquely positioned to help with our innovative multi-jurisdiction management system.” Another boon for US drone operators is FlyFreely’s background in supporting complex operations in Australia and New Zealand which make it the perfect solution for companies operating under Part 107 Waivers. “Waiver holders face unique challenges as they are personally responsible for any operations occurring under their waiver. Furthermore, they require a higher level of record keeping and compliance.”  

The FlyFreely Platform has a variety of tools to ensure any Remote Pilots or UAS being used under the authority of the waiver are compliant with the conditions of the waiver while not imposing any burden on standard Part 107 operations. “Our platform has a unique authority and workflow system which enables multiple waivers to be simultaneously managed side by side.” FlyFreely also has unique capabilities which enable Waiver sharing between organisations.

This is ideal for short term utilisation of a waiver while awaiting approval or seeking to gain operational experience prior to obtaining your own waiver. With a background in drone operations themselves, FlyFreely has designed the platform from the ground up to support commercial UAS operations, compliance and fleet management.

This includes a mobile app which can be used offline for both mission planning and execution. It can also be installed on Smart Controllers for automatic retrieval of flight logs. FlyFreely also supports cloud based flight log syncing for DJI, Skydio and DroneDeploy.