Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations extend drone missions beyond the direct visual range of the pilot, enabling aerial data collection, monitoring, inspection, delivery, and response across larger and harder-to-access areas.
Volatus Aerospace supports BVLOS operations for remote asset monitoring, corridor inspection, emergency response, and logistics, and continues to expand the range of missions it flies beyond visual range. By combining aircraft, operational expertise, remote monitoring from its Operations Control Centre, communications, and mission coordination, Volatus helps organizations take aerial operations past the limits of conventional visual-range flights.
BVLOS operations are governed by a framework that covers the aircraft, the operating environment, communications, airspace, mission requirements, and the applicable approvals. The right approach depends on the aircraft, where it will operate, the type of operation, and what the mission requires.
In Canada, Transport Canada’s rules that took effect on November 4, 2025 allow lower-risk BVLOS operations without a Special Flight Operations Certificate (SFOC), provided the operator holds an RPAS Operator Certificate (RPOC) and the pilot holds a Level 1 Complex Operations certificate. These flights must stay in uncontrolled airspace, below 122 m (400 feet), and away from airports and aerodromes, with an aircraft of 150 kg or less. Medium drones (over 25 kg) must stay at least 1 km from populated areas, while small drones may also fly over sparsely populated areas. Operations outside those limits, such as higher altitudes or aircraft over 150 kg, are authorized case by case through an SFOC. Volatus works within both pathways.
BVLOS is particularly useful when an operation needs to cover remote assets, long corridors, large geographic areas, or locations where maintaining direct visual contact with the aircraft is not practical.
For Volatus, BVLOS is part of a broader remote operations model. Its Operations Control Centre (OCC) connects remote aircraft, field teams, sensors, communications networks, and customer stakeholders within a coordinated operating environment. This allows missions to be monitored and coordinated even when aircraft are operating far from the OCC.
Extended-range operations open the door to cargo delivery and other missions that need greater payload capacity. Volatus is developing the Condor XL, a heavy-lift aircraft designed to carry up to 180 kg over a 200 km range.
The value of BVLOS is therefore not simply the ability to fly beyond visual range. It is the ability to build an aerial operation around the geographic scale and operational requirements of the mission.
BVLOS operations require more than an aircraft capable of extended-range flight. Aircraft, payloads, communications, remote monitoring, regulatory approvals, and mission planning all need to work together. Volatus brings these elements together through a coordinated operational approach.
The Operations Control Centre (OCC) provides centralized oversight of remote aircraft operations. Certified OCC pilots monitor aircraft position, system status, communications, sensor feeds, and mission progress while coordinating with field and customer teams. The OCC is built to integrate new aircraft as they come into service, which recently included the first remotely operated flight of Dufour Aerospace’s Aero-30 from the Volatus control centre.
Volatus can also tailor the aircraft, payload, and operating approach to the mission, whether it involves infrastructure inspection, surveillance, emergency response, logistics, or monitoring. For recurring programs, centralized oversight supports consistent operations across multiple locations.
Volatus has conducted more than 10,000 RPAS flights from its Operations Control Centre, giving it deep experience in planning, monitoring, and continuously improving distributed aerial operations.
Volatus also supports cargo and aerial operations for remote communities and infrastructure where conventional access is difficult or costly.
Volatus has surpassed 75,000 flight hours of crewed pipeline integrity monitoring across North America. That operational knowledge of long linear infrastructure now informs its drone-based BVLOS programs.
Volatus has been selected to provide RPAS inspection, mapping, and data services across approximately 100,000 miles of transmission and distribution lines under a multi-year agreement with a major North American utility.
Transport Canada has approved Volatus to conduct long-distance, remotely piloted BVLOS operations at night across Canada, in atypical airspace below 400 feet over low-density areas.
At Edmonton International Airport, Volatus completed more than 3,000 commercial drone cargo flights covering over 8,500 km, operated from its OCC in Toronto, 3,300 km away. The project's second phase was the first drone operation in Canada to safely cross an active runway glide path.
Volatus flies extended-range operations for surveillance, infrastructure inspection, emergency response, and logistics, and keeps adding mission types as approvals and platforms mature.
The Operations Control Centre provides a centralized environment for aircraft monitoring, mission coordination, communications, situational awareness, and data delivery.
Volatus selects and integrates aircraft and sensors according to the mission rather than relying on a single platform or payload configuration.
BVLOS missions can incorporate electro-optical, thermal, lidar, mapping, and other payloads depending on the application and data requirements.
Decades of crewed aviation experience, including pipeline patrol, inform how Volatus plans, flies, and scales its remotely piloted operations.
Centralized oversight supports individual deployments as well as recurring and multi-site operations, helping organizations move from single missions toward broader aerial programs.
Volatus holds air operator certificates, Canadian Transportation Agency licences, dangerous goods authorizations, and specialized RPAS approvals, including national approval for nighttime BVLOS. It works within Canada's lower-risk BVLOS framework and secures SFOCs for operations beyond it.
Tell us where you need to operate, what you need to monitor, inspect, or transport, and the scale and frequency of the operation. Volatus Aerospace will assess your requirements and recommend the appropriate aircraft, payload, regulatory pathway, operational approach, and mission workflow for your BVLOS program.
