Can drone pilots legally fly over people under Part 107 without a waiver and what does Category 3 approval actually change?

In this episode of Your Drone Questions. Answered, host Chris Breedlove welcomes back Benton Szejk from Wingtra to break down the current state of operations over people in 2025. They cover what’s allowed under Part 107 today, how Category 3 works, and why Wingtra’s fully integrated parachute system is a major milestone for professional drone operations.

The conversation also dives into Wingtra’s latest payload announcements, including ultra-high-resolution inspection capabilities, real-world use cases like airport runway inspections, pavement crack detection, and how AI-ready data is transforming surveying and infrastructure workflows.

Topics covered include:

• What Category 3 operations over people really mean
• How Wingtra achieved waiver-free approval under Part 107
• Practical use cases in urban, infrastructure, and public-asset mapping
• New Wingtra payloads and inspection workflows
• Where drone regulations may be heading next

Learn how these advancements impact mapping, surveying, and inspection professionals working in complex, populated environments.

https://www.faa.gov/uas/commercial_operators/operations_over_people

https://uasdoc.faa.gov/listDocs?docType=oop

https://wingtra.com/

Have a drone question for a future episode? Submit it at ydqa.io.

In this week’s episode of Your Drone Questions. Answered, host Chris Breedlove sits down with Stefan Hrabar of Emesent to unpack one of the most important emerging technologies in the drone world: SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping).

What exactly is SLAM?
How does SLAM LiDAR differ from traditional LiDAR systems?
Can SLAM work without GPS?
And—most importantly—how can drone pilots, mapping professionals, and service providers actually use SLAM-based payloads in real-life missions?

Stefan talks about:

• His robotics and autonomy background—from early USC drone research to global deployments
• How SLAM evolved inside Australia’s CSIRO labs
• The origins of Emesent and the development of the Hovermap system
• The difference between visual SLAM, LiDAR SLAM, and mixed-sensor approaches
• Why SLAM is becoming essential for GPS-denied environments
• Real-world use cases: underground mining, bridge inspections, cell towers, indoor scans, stockpiles, and more
• How modern SLAM payloads integrate with platforms like the Freefly Astro and DJI enterprise drones
• New capabilities such as autonomous exploration, waypoint-based scanning, and constrained SLAM with RTK or control points

🔗 Learn more about Emesent:
https://emesent.com

Search #Hovermap on LinkedIn to see real-world missions & customer workflows.

Have a question you'd like answered on a future episode?
Visit YDQA.io or email chris@dronelaunchacademy.com
.

In this episode of Your Drone Questions. Answered, we’re diving into one of the most in-demand (and misunderstood) drone inspection niches out there: cell tower inspections.

Today’s question is this:

👉 What are the real keys to success for drone pilots who want to work in the telecom inspection world?

To tackle this topic, we are joined by Hunter Ardrey, a drone industry veteran who has spent years flying structural, utility, renewable energy, and telecom missions across the southeast.

Together, we break down:

🔹 The scale of the telecom inspection industry
🔹 What rads (antenna arrays) are and why they matter
🔹 How digital twins are captured and delivered
🔹 What equipment is (and isn’t) used in real-world tower work
🔹 Manual vs automated tower-capture workflows
🔹 Accuracy requirements and image-quality standards
🔹 How tower work compares to inspecting other infrastructure
🔹 Whether new pilots can still break into this niche today

Hunter also shares an honest look at the current state of the telecom market, including pricing pressure, big-player consolidation, and practical paths for new pilots who want to build skills and get experience.

If you’ve ever wondered how cell tower inspections actually work — or whether this niche makes sense for your drone business — this episode lays it all out.

Have a question you want answered on the show?
📩 Submit anytime at YDQA.io or email chris@dronelaunchacademy.com