A Quick Dive Into UK Drones & Regulations
BVLOS (Beyond Visual Line of Sight) – BVLOS means flying a drone beyond the pilot’s direct line of sight. It unlocks large-scale, automated operations but requires regulatory approval and additional safety mitigations.
It is illegal to fly a drone BVLOS without authorisation from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA)
Current UK Pathways to BVLOS
- BVLOS VM (Visual Mitigation) – BVLOS VM approvals enable drones to be flown remotely from a control room by the remote pilot, provided the drone remains within the visual line of sight of a visual observer. A visual observer does not need to have control of the drone, but must maintain constant communication with the pilot and keep a continuous eye on the drone and the surrounding airspace at all times during the flight.
- BVLOS AAE (Atypical Air Environment) – As defined by the CAA’s CAP 3040. Here, drones operate without visual observers by integrating into the wider airspace through electronic conspicuity (EC), compliant procedures, and special volumes where the likelihood of encountering manned aviation is extremely low. Only a handful of UK sites currently have this approval.
Introducing Flight School™
Sorair houses the UK’s leading experts in drone-in-a-box automation, aviation technology, and compliance.
Our mission is simple: to bring the power of drone automation to the security industry.
But with drone automation comes complexity — aviation regulations, insurance, compliance, and operational expertise can be hard (and expensive) to navigate alone. That’s why we created Sorair Flight School.
Flight School is our industry-leading drone program. It removes the barriers to advanced drone operations for all Soranet Pilot Users. Instead of sourcing your own authorisations, technology, and procedures, you join a proven framework where BVLOS is no longer a mystery or a hurdle — it’s a membership. It’s Flight School.
With the challenging aspects addressed, you can focus on safe operations and scale with confidence.
Flight School™ Memberships
With Sorair Flight School membership, organisations gain immediate access to capabilities that most in the industry are still chasing. As outlined in our Pathway to Level 5 UAS Autonomy article, Sorair has already achieved Level 3+ autonomy through a one-of-a-kind UK-wide BVLOS Visual Mitigation approval.
We’re also setting the precedent for Level 4 BVLOS in Atypical Air Environments (AAE), where operations can move beyond visual observers and integrate directly into wider airspace. Flight School packages this hard-won expertise into a membership model, giving your team access to the authorisations, safety procedures, training, and infrastructure needed to scale with confidence — always underpinned by Sorair’s support and uncompromising, safety-focused oversight.
And because all Soranet Pilot users — our proprietary drone security automation platform — come with Flight School access, your team benefits from built-in BVLOS authorisations, training, and operational support from day one, ensuring every mission meets the highest standards of aviation safety.
So What’s Next?
For years, drones in security have been stuck in the realm of trials and proof-of-concepts. Sorair’s mission is to move beyond experimentation and deliver operational autonomy at scale — helping organisations improve efficiency, reduce costs, and expand security capabilities seamlessly.
As our CTO – Adebayo Popoola states, “Drone-in-a-box solutions are a true engineering wonder, but they don’t sell as well as you might think. Unlike tactical drones, they only make real sense in BVLOS environments — and that has always been a huge barrier. Flight School removes that barrier. My goal is to see this technology succeed”
So if you’re interested in autonomous drone security, for the first time, you can just… do it. Contact us today and make it real with Sorair.
