UAV flight control operations for predicted traffic encounter

An uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV), comprising:

• a control system configured to:
• receive an indication of presence of an aircraft in a vicinity within a sensor detection range of the UAV which is flying along a flight path;
• based on the received indication, decelerate the UAV to reduce ground speed along the flight path;
• after reducing the ground speed, descend the UAV to a hover position;
• when the UAV descends to the hover position and stops descending, initiate a persistence timer having a set amount of time to make a conditional determination, wherein the conditional determination comprises:
• determining to resume the flight path, based on a further indication of the aircraft leaving the vicinity of the UAV within the set amount of time;
• and
• determining to land the UAV, based on continued presence of the aircraft in the vicinity of the UAV for the set amount of time;
• and
• controlling the UAV based on the conditional determination.

A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising program instructions executable by one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

• receiving an indication of presence of an aircraft in a vicinity within a sensor detection range of an uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) which is flying along a flight path;
• based on the received indication, decelerating the UAV to reduce ground speed along the flight path;
• after reducing the ground speed, descending the UAV to a hover position;
• when the UAV descends to the hover position and stops descending, initiating a persistence timer having a set amount of time to make a conditional determination, wherein the conditional determination comprises:
• determining to resume the flight path, based on a further indication of the aircraft leaving the vicinity of the UAV within the set amount of time;
• and
• determining to land the UAV, based on continued presence of the aircraft in the vicinity of the UAV for the set amount of time;
• and
• controlling the UAV based on the conditional determination.