Movo Aviation will not fly, nor will it permit its customers to fly its microdrones commercially or operationally except under valid FAA regulations. Ultimately, Movo Aviation expects the FAA to promulgate a general rule for operation of microdrones, as the Congress has mandated. When this occurs, ENG drone operations will be conducted in compliance with the limitations set forth in the rule. Before the rule is promulgated, Movo Aviation limited its activities to operational planning, equipment evaluation and selection and testing, development and testing of appropriate live streaming wireless links, and training, unless it has, or a customer has:

• Successfully obtained approval of a petition for exemption;
• Received a Special Airworthiness Certificate-Experimental (“SACE”); or
• Received a Certificate Of Waiver And Authority (‘COWA”)

It will assist customers in applying for one or more of these types of authority, helping to arrange for legal representation when that is necessary.

The central premise of Movo Aviation’s product and service offerings is that TV stations need to understand the current and probably future regulatory environment and be ready to operate within it as the rules evolve.

Movo Aviation is filing a Petition for Exemption with the FAA to allow it to expand its planning, evaluation, and training activities to include pilot and demonstration operational flights actually to cover news identified by station personnel according to their usual protocols. 

Product description

 Movo Aviation will offer a turnkey product comprising hardware, software, training, regulatory assistance, and support.

Basic Services Package

The basic services package comprises a number of camera-equipped microdrones, selected by Movo Aviation. The customer will assign the microdrones to ENG vans and other reporter/producer teams designated. Movo Aviation will provide DROPs, photojournalists, maintenance personnel and trainers, according to the terms of the contract. The station will designate reporters and producers to receive training on microdrone operation.

The microdrones will be equipped with HD video cameras that will capture imagery and record it on a memory chip. When the microdrone has covered a scene, the DROP will land it, remove the chip, upload the recording to transmitting equipment and downlink it to the station via an ENG van or directly through the cellular telephone infrastructure.

Enhanced package

The microdrone vehicles, somewhat larger than those offered as a part of the basic package, will carry video transmitters and modems that insert the imagery into cellular telephone channels linked to the stations or use transmitters linked to ENG vans. This will enable the station to receive the live imagery, similar to what’s used currently for ENG vans or helicopters.

Regulatory assistance

While Movo Aviation, itself, is foreclosed by legal ethics rules from offering legal representation, it has close ties with one of the most active members of the bar in representing ENG news photographers and advancing arguments to the FAA about how it should accelerate its efforts to allow use of microdrones for ENG support.

It can thus offer a convenient pathway to customers desiring to file petitions for exemption or waiver to permit them to introduce ENG microdrone operations even before the FAA finalizes its general rule.

For those customers who want to begin using their microdrones for gathering news before the FAA releases a final rule, Movo Aviation will recommend member Perritt as an attorney to apply for a petition for an exemption to allow them to engage in commercial operations. This legal representation will be distinct from the services that Movo Aviation itself provides. Movo Aviation will comply in every respect with the requirements of Illinois professional responsibility rules for lawyers acting in a dual capacity.

It’s attractive to have an experienced lawyer who already has obtained an exemption for a news photographer to use microdrones for commercial purposes, and has filed section 333 petitions on behalf of a number of other clients. 

This would distinguish Movo Aviation from the competition. Movo Aviation does not provide legal services, and no legal fees will be shared with the LLC. Nevertheless, the connection between Movo Aviation contract services and possible legal representation to accelerate station operations should be attractive to customers.