How far a drone can fly?

While most drones can fly as far as 8km, the remote pilot must adhere to relevant regulations and limitations on these distances. What that means is depending on the drone and operational authorisations held, these distances may be much shorter. For example, in the Open category, under EASA rules and regulations, a remote pilot must keep the drone in a visual line of sight.

If they want to operate a drone further than that, where a remote pilot would not have a direct visual line of sight, they will need to obtain an operational authorisation, for example, under the PDRA-S02 scenario. This operational authorisation will allow the drone operator to conduct operations as far as 2 km from the remote pilot with the help of an airspace observer. And if you aim to fly drones further than that, you will need to conduct a risk assessment based on SORA. With the help of SORA methodology, you could conduct drone operations further than the 20km range. This helps companies which want to work in drone deliveries or powerline inspections.