BVLOS Flight Test Council
To join or find out more, please contact the Co-Chairs of the council:
Chris "Filter" Baughman (baughman@alumni.nd.edu)
Chris "Tex" Teixeira (chris.teixeira@airbus.com)
Note: Membership in SFTE is not a requirement for joining
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BVLOS Flight Test Council
Charter
Under the auspices of the Society of Flight Test Engineers (SFTE), the BVLOS Flight Test Council is an open forum for flight testers operating beyond visual line of sight. The scope covers all uncrewed aircraft sizes, performance capabilities, and configurations across the automation spectrum - from remote piloting though fleet-managed deterministic autonomous operations. The council‘s mission is to promote flight test safety, efficiency, and knowledge for BVLOS aircraft development, certification, and qualification. The spirit is to advance knowledge through reciprocal contribution of non-proprietary information. The means is to openly collaborate on best practices and to share all council discussions, papers, and recordings across three mutually beneficial areas:
Safety
- General FT planning and execution to reduce risk to the lowest practical levels.
- Detailed hazards and mitigations specific to flight testing under BVLOS conditions.
- FT considerations for new-paradigm safety assessments and failure probability calculations.
Rulemaking/Standards
- Serve as a resource where flight testers have pertinent knowledge that might influence separate rulemaking bodies.
- Propose harmonized and safer means of compliance.
- Translate Flight test best practices into operational best practices.
Efficiency
- Review common resources such as test facilities, ranges, and training
- Flight test equipment design/interface standards (e.g. instrumentation, flight termination systems)
- Data analysis and presentation methods
- Common failure mode demonstrations
- Promulgate DoD and civil test techniques specific to BVLOS testing.
Operationally, this all-volunteer council will:
- Encourage but not require membership in SFTE or any specific organization.
- Encourage members to present and publish formal technical papers through SFTE or their chosen organization and disseminate links to those papers.
- Promote various digital, virtual, or in-person collaboration forums for discussions.
- Manage a repository and links for best practice guidelines, published and unpublished papers, internal discussions, and other content germane to BVLOS flight testing.
- Promote collegiate and technical talent networking.