First over-water commercial drone flight tests carried out in Cook Inlet

After three years in development, HEX Cook Inlet LLC and its affiliate, Furie Operating Alaska, conducted the first Beyond Visual Line of Sight test in Cook Inlet last Thursday, July 11. HEX was working with the Alaska Center for Unmanned Aerial Systems Integration at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

The university has been working with the Federal Aviation Administration, or FAA, on testing the use of drones for commercial applications that operate beyond the visual sight of the drone pilot who is on the ground. FAA regulations currently do now allow these flights, but has granted waivers for tests in Alaska to demonstrate the technology.

In the Lower 48 the FAA allows demonstrations on a case-by-case basis, for example by Amazon in testing delivery of parcels.

HEX received approval from the FAA to conduct the 15-mile flight. It was the first waiver approved in the U.S. for a flight to and from an offshore oil and gas platform and was the second waiver issued by the FAA anywhere in Alaska. The first waiver was for an out-of-sight flight along a section of the Trans Alaska Pipeline System, where drones might supplement aircraft piloted by humans to do visual inspections.

HEX’s test flight last Thursday, on July 11, began at the company’s onshore natural gas processing facility in Nikiski, on the Kenai Peninsula, with e flight path along a pipeline corridor to Furie’s offshore gas platform, Julius R. Flying at around 50 knots the drone took about 30 minutes to fly the 15-mile route, according to Hunter Van Wyhe, Furie’s operations engineer.

Once refueled and with a test payload attached the drone returned to Furie’s onshore processing facility, also following the pipeline route. The test “payload” attached were containers that, once the system is operational, could carry fluids from the platform drawn for environmental monitoring.

Four round-trip test flights were made last Thursday, Van Wyhe said. Data from the flights will be provided to the FAA for its use in developing regulations and standards for commercial drone operations.

For HEX, the drones could eventually also carry small payloads of supplies and materials to the platform, Van Wyhe said. This could provide a less expensive delivery method in lieu of transporting materials with a charted boat. The significance of this is that it could reduce HEX’s cost of operating its platform.

During flight operations the airspace was monitored using Raytheon Technologies’ ground based detect and avoid radar system. Drone pilots monitor edair traffic frequencies and previously announced operations in the area to avoid conflicts with general aviation activities.

The test used a SuperVolo Gen 4 unmanned aerial system, one of several drone technologies being tested at UAF. The SuperVolo is 10 feet long and has a wingspan of six feet. It has a vertical takeoff and landing system with hybrid gas/electric motors with a cruising speed of 50 knots. The drone takes off vertically under an electric power system and at about 200 feet can switch to gasoline power. It then flies horizontally like a conventional aircraft until it prepares for landing, in this case on the helideck on the Julius R platform.

During most of the flight the drone was out of visual contact with the operator, but onboard cameras allowed pilots to see the surface. When it neared the platform a human pilot resumed direct control and landed the drone.

“This is a great opportunity to utilize emerging technology in Cook Inlet and throughout Alaska noted HEX President John Hendrix. “It is our hope that by establishing a safe and reliable program with our operations, it will serve as a steppingstone for additional drone usage not only in the oil and gas industry but across the state,” Hendrix said.