Jim Williams

UAS Integration Office

Federal Aviation Administration

800 Independence Avenue SW

Washington, DC 20591

May 12th, 2015

Re: Re: Docket FAA 2014-0727, Petition for Amendment to Exemption No. 11263

Dear Mr. Williams:

SenseFly received FAA Exemption No. 11263 on April 1, 2015 authorizing senseFly under section 

333 of the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 to operate its unmanned aircraft system 

(“UAS”), the eBee, for various commercial purposes. In this present petition for an amendment to 

Exemption No. 11263, senseFly seeks to operate its recently developed eXom UAS for the same 

purposes. 

The eXom, weighting 3.7 pounds (Maximum Take Off Weight), contains a rich array of advanced 

integrated sensors. These sensors work together to provide the user with full situational awareness 

and support obstacle avoidance:

• Five ‘Navcam’ vision sensors allow the operator to see in the direction the drone is moving 

via its flight control software, without needing to turn the system’s TripleView camera 

head. This technology is unique in such a lightweight UAS, similar to the visual parking 

sensors in modern cars, but brought into a 3D flight environment.

• Five ultrasonic proximity sensors work in harmony with eXom’s Navcams to ensure the 

operator always knows the drone’s distance from nearby objects. (The drone’s shockabsorbent carbon fiber shrouding is also always on hand to protect its rotors in case of 

surface contact.)

• Numerous other sensors, including inertial measurement units, barometers, magnetometers, 

GPS and magnetic encoders, maximize the drone’s stability and safety.
eXom offers different flight modes to suit every project: semi-automatic mode (waypoint 

navigation) or interactive ScreenFly mode (using the supplied joypad to navigate and orientate the 

drone via computer screen). The Screenfly mode includes flight assistance features such as cruise 

control and distance lock. In any situation, RC-based manual control always remains available as a 

backup function.

The eXom is particularly safe. It was developed with flexible material absorbing potential shocks, 

and SenseFly R&D team has developed also a unique carbon-fiber shrouding protecting the 

propellers. We have added also redundancy in our command and control system. In case 

something happens to the primary autopilot, the eXom will switch automatically to the secondary 

autopilot.

SenseFly will comply with all of the conditions and limitations imposed in Exemption 11263 

except that condition/limitation number 1 will need to be revised to include the eXom UAS. The 

list of “operating documents” will also need to be revised to include senseFly’s (operating manual 

and safety assessment) for the eXom UAS, which will be provided separately to the FAA. Other 

than these revisions, there will be no change in the conditions and reasons relative to public safety 

that were the basis for the initial grant of exemption.

Because the requested amendment would not set any precedent or otherwise raise any novel issue, 

and because senseFly seeks to begin these operations without delay, senseFly respectfully requests 

the FAA to determine that good cause exists to dispense with publication of the summary of this 

petition in the Federal Register and grant the requested amendment expeditiously by summary 

means.

Thank you for your consideration of this petition.

Sincerely,

Jean-Christophe Zufferey (CEO)