Okay, so what we're going to do now is we're going to listen to Kevin Morris from the FAA
talk about the performance based standards that are going to be the standards you have
to show the FAA you are going to comply with in order to get a Part 107 waiver. So there's
a lot of mystique around the Part 107 waiver process, the Part 107 waiver website that
the FAA launched, and how do you actually go about getting these waivers? A lot of
nighttime waivers have been granted, but not much of the airspace authorizations have
found their way through the process outside Class G. We're starting to learn more about
what the FAA wants and expects as part of the filing process for your waivers and airspace
authorizations. So this is going to be an important part of your educational curve. Let's
listen directly to Kevin. Alright, so I want to talk about performance based standards
here. So why are we doing performance based standards? Well, we are required as the FAA
to find that anybody looking for a waiver meets certain requirements. One, obviously
the operation has to be safely conducted under the terms of that waiver, but the waiver
application must also identify a complete description of the proposed operation and
a process to mitigate risk based relative to certain criteria. Now, how that's all done
is performance based standards, and we issued this document because, well, we really should
have issued from the get go, but we were a couple days late on it. We're identifying
with performance based standards. So those of you who are requesting waivers, what we
need to see in order for your waiver to be approved. So what I want to do here today
is talk a little bit about performance based standards. I talked about them before in my
previous webinar, but I think it's good to bring up the point again here. So when we're
using performance based standards, how we successfully apply is use it as a guide. Don't
just cut and paste the performance based standards in there, but we want to know how are you
going to meet our performance based standards for the waiver that you are seeking?
Alright, so let's talk a little bit about what Kevin is referring to here. On the FAA
website, at this link, which is you're going to find off of the waiver request for waiver
and authorization page, which is here, FAA.gov slash UAS slash request underscore waiver.
You're going to see that there's a set of instructions, one for performance based standards,
one for airspace authorization and waivers in general. Kevin is talking about now the
performance based standards. So if you go through this document, you're going to see
that there's a waiver policy, which talks about how you get a waiver from part 107.
And now how do you go about getting a waiver as to the specific regulations that have been
identified by the FAA as being subject to waiver? So one of the regulations that you
can get a waiver from is operation from a moving vehicle or aircraft. This is what the
regulation says. You can't do it. Here are the performance based standards that you're
going to have to meet if you want a waiver in order to operate a drone from a moving
aircraft or from a moving land or water borne vehicle. You're going to have to provide a
method to ensure the dynamic area of operation is properly evaluated for potential risks.
You're going to have to describe to the FAA, how are you going to ensure that the dynamic
area of operation, and there's a definition for that, properly is evaluated. What is your
site survey going to be? What are you going to be looking for? What are the hazards you're
going to identify? What are the risks as to each one of those hazards? What about to non-participating
persons, people who aren't part of your flight crew, and to property. So are there any risks
to property created by the hazards? Must provide a method to ensure a visual line of sight
is maintained that is typically going to be a visual observer and you're going to have
to describe how your visual observer is going to operate in the airspace. Must provide a
method to ensure all persons involved in the operation are free from any distractions. You
have to describe how you are going to ensure that. Method to ensure loss of data link procedures.
What is your loss link procedure that will apply if in fact there's a problem? Because
keep in mind you're operating from a car that could be going 30, 40 miles an hour or more.
What happens if you lose link? How is that going to be resolved? And you can see that
there are different guidelines for each one of the, each one of the waiver items. So if
you want to waiver from daylight operations, you got to meet these performance based standards.
You want a waiver from visual line of sight, you have to meet these performance based standards.
Now you can't just regurgitate these, you have to tell the FAA exactly what you're going
to do on each of these items. Visual observer is potentially can be waived. Operation of
multiple SUAS from a single pilot, that's waivable. Operation near aircraft and right
of way rules, that's waivable. Operation over human beings, that's waivable. Now we expect
different standards to come out on that that will help us understand what needs to be required
there. Operation in certain airspace, this is going to be in your controlled airspace.
What are you going to do to make sure that operation is safe? Operation, operation limitations,
ground speed, you can get a waiver for that. Altitude, you get a waiver for that. Visibility,
you can get a waiver for that. Cloud clearance, you can get a waiver from that. So these are
the types of things that you're going to have to be thinking about for waivers, alright?
So let's get back to Kevin's presentation and see what he says next. And to do that,
you have to be very detailed, very specific, identify the procedures or processes you're
going to use. Don't just simply say I'm going to do a process that does this. And lastly,
be original. So what we have been seeing with some of our waivers talking to the group,
now I should probably throw a caveat in there. I'm not approving waivers. I'm not involved
in the process, but I've been trying to communicate with the folks that have been to try to give
you guys some better information on what you should and shouldn't do. So here's some of
the things that are getting waivers denied. They are too vague in the description of how
they're going to apply with the program space standard. Or some folks have just been quoting
the regulation. They pluck it out and say, I'm going to make sure I do this. Or people
are applying like it's an automatic thing. Whereas they just think the waiver is guaranteed
to them, so I'm going to submit it. And literally they don't put anything in the description
box.
And what Kevin's really trying to say here is that this isn't like the Section 333 process
where if you put in a form that was similar to someone else's form, you're going to get
the same answer, the same result, the same document. With regards to the performance
based standards for waivers, the FAA wants to know what you're doing, where you're doing
it, and how you're going to be safe as to the specific situation that that flight is
going to occur. Now there's an exception to this because they are granting a waiver for
nighttime in all of uncontrolled airspace class G that's national. So a lot of things
you're going to hear Kevin saying here really deal with some of the other waivers as opposed
to the nighttime class G waiver. If you wanted a nighttime waiver in class C or D or B, you're
going to have to be very specific about the location, what is in the area, and how you're
going to be safe. So the exception is the waivers we've been seeing being spit out by the FAA,
which are these standard nighttime waivers. The rule is going to be what Kevin is talking
about now where you have to really be detailed and be specific and make sure you are doing
more than cutting and pasting. Or they ignore the performance based standards or they didn't
know it was there. The performance based standards have to be met and if you ignore
the standards, there's no way to approve the waiver. Copying somebody else's application,
word for word, process for process, won't work for you because it's not the same person,
it's not the same mission, it's probably not going to be the same UAS. So don't copy
somebody else's waiver and don't buy in a company selling waivers like, hey, give us
a few hundred dollars and we'll get you your nighttime waiver. Waivers have to be specific
to the individual. They are very, very customized documents in terms of your application submitting
it. All right, so what Kevin is saying here is partially correct. Now the truth is that
the FAA on its nighttime waivers in class G is pretty quickly cut or about that. On
many other waivers and anything outside class G, Kevin is no doubt going to be correct that
in order to get those waivers, you are going to have to be very specific. You're going
to have to deal with a specific location and the specific risks at that location. So whereas
some of the waivers will no doubt be like the nighttime class G, the ones that are operational
specific that are going to occur on a given date in a given airspace under a given waiver,
you're going to have to provide detail, which is why we are trying to help you, the drone
pilots and operators, learn how to do your own waivers. Now we do help some companies
who need to learn the process and don't understand how to draft the language that's going to
give them the best chance at a performance based standard, but ultimately it's you, the
drone pilot that needs to be able to do this because you're going to have to file a lot
of waivers and get a lot of airspace authorizations. You cannot be paying attorneys to do that
each time you need to make it happen. If you're going to do something really out there, then
getting an expert involved may provide value. So performance based standards right back
on track here. So what I want to do is provide you folks with an example application for
a waiver for daylight operations. That's probably our most common request we have right now
is people wanting to waive the daylight operation requirement. And the reason why that is is
because they're actually granting that waiver right now. So sometimes the FAA plays a little
bit of hide the ball here. And what we do know about the waiver process is that they've
been very circumspect about granting airspace authorizations outside of class G. They have
started to grant some of those in D. They're going to start going faster in D and C and
eventually they'll get to B. In terms of waivers, we know that they've granted waivers for daylight
operations in a fairly summery manner. So most people are going to be able to get those
for class G. Many of the other waivers like flights over people are just not happening
yet. You can go ahead and file those. See what kind of input you get back. There's no harm,
no foul in filing a waiver request. It'll be great practice for you. But they're going
to slowly work their way through the system. Kevin's going to tell us a little bit now
about how to get the nighttime waiver or the daytime waiver for nighttime operations.
We have a document that we can provide that will give you a template as to what to file
on that to help you work your way through that process and get that first waver.
So the daylight operation waiver needs to have a method for the remote pilot to maintain
VLOS during darkness. A way for you to see and avoid other aircraft people on the ground,
ground based structures and obstacles during darkness. A method by which your remote pilot
will be able to continuously know and determine the position, altitude, attitude and movement
of the small unmanned aircraft. Ensure that everybody participating in the operation has
knowledge that they can recognize and overcome visual illusions caused by darkness, understand
physiological conditions. And finally, some way to increase the conspicuity of the small
unmanned aircrafts would be seen at a distance of at least three statute miles unless there's
a system in place that can avoid all non-participating aircraft.
One of this stuff that I just did in that slide previous or this slide here is secret
information. This is all in our performance-based standards. When you go to our portal and you
open it up and you go to the waiver side, one of the things that I want to say it might
be a blue box or maybe even like an orange box near the top is performance-based standards.
This is listed in there. So some of you might be thinking, hey, this is great. The super
friendly FAA guy Kevin Morris, he's going to tell me exactly what I need to put in my
waiver application. Nighttime ops, here I come. Well, I'm going to be a little bit of
a party pooper here. I'm not going to tell you guys exactly what you need to have on
your nighttime waiver. But what I want to do is say, this is great. The fact that you
guys are here that we're talking, that I can get information to you that you guys can ask
questions. So absolutely, this is a great thing. But what I'm going to do is provide
you guidance on what you need to put in your waiver application. I'm not going to tell
you specifically what you need to put in there because if you remember, one of my previous
slides was you can't just copy somebody else's or you can't just put in generic information.
You have to make it yours. Your specific operation with your specific UAS for your specific company.
Okay, let me just stop Kevin here for a second and just say this. So the document that we
are providing is a daytime waiver for nighttime operations. And it is exactly as Kevin suggests.
It'll tell you how to fill out the waiver request form that the FAA is requiring. It'll
tell you what the FAA is looking for in certain boxes, right? But at the end of the day, you're
going to have to customize it to your own needs as well. So if you're filling out this
waiver request and you get down to the daylight operations and you check that box, and your
airspace is going to be in Class G, at least for your base operation, you can see here
that you're not going to have to identify BC or E because you'll be in Class G. And
then we'll provide you with some information to put in the description of proposed operations.
You want to note that it's Class G only. Then follow up later with another waiver request.
If you have a specific nighttime job you want to do at a specific location and really identify
that location. So the general approach here that Kevin is providing is great. We can get
you the language to help train you to get through this first waiver. And then you should
be in pretty good position to then move forward and start filing your own waivers and airspace
authorizations in order to fly.
So how to do that is in the next few slides. So one of the requirements of the performance
based standards that you maintain visual line of sight during darkness. Some things you
want to identify, not everything, but definitely some things you want to identify is that maybe
you're going to use a visual observer at all times to help you make sure that you've got
visual line of sight with that visual observer can help you point out where it is if you
momentarily lost it, that the small unmanned aircraft is going to be adequately illuminated
to aid you for the visual line of sight operations. Or maybe you want to put in there that the
remote pilot command will be prohibited from engaging in any other activity during nighttime
small unmanned aircraft operations. So the remote pilot command won't be looking down
at a system, won't be looking down at charts, they will be eyes on the aircraft the entire
time.
What about seeing and avoiding other aircraft with people on the ground or ground based structures
and obstacles? How are you going to meet that performance based standard? One of the things
you can identify is that you're going to go into the area during the daylight and you're
going to map it. You're going to note all the hazards, all the wires, all the poles,
all the possible structures or items that you could bump into at night, you're going
to go document them all during the daytime. You're going to bring in that visual observer
not only to help you with VLS with the aircraft, but to make sure that no other aircraft or
people on the ground enter your area of operation. So what happens and maybe you want to have
a tool to bring the UAS back home if something goes awry or you're in an area or something
enters your area of operation you don't want. So identify some way that you're going to
get your UAS back to you safely if a hazardous condition is identified by either the remote
piloting command or the visual observer. One of the other performance based standards
that you must continuously know and determine the position, altitude, attitude and movement
of the small unmanned aircraft. How are you going to do that? Be specific. So you may
have onboard telemetry data that will be sent down to a particular control station to let
you know the exact position, attitude, altitude and movement of it. That in addition to the
telemetry data that you're getting, that visual observer is going to report back to you with
this UAS hovering. Is it moving? Is it stationary? Is it high? Is it low? You're going to have
some sort of other backup system for that so you will always know where that aircraft
is and what it's doing. Again, these are generic guidelines for you, but these are some of
the information you can put into that waiver to meet those performance based standards.
So what about this one? This is a good one. How are you supposed to have knowledge to
recognize and overcome these visual illusions at night or understand physiological conditions
that degrade your night vision? With the FAS pilot handbook of aeronautical knowledge,
Chapter 17, which I believe is the aeromedical chapter on that, has a lot of good information
there about what happens to vision at night and some of the nighttime illusions you might
be able to see. So as a UAS operator applying for a daylight operation waiver, you want
to, you're required by performance based standards to make sure that everybody involved
understands those limitations, those optical illusions, those physiological issues that
come up at night that we don't necessarily have in the daytime.
Alright, let's just take a break here. Let me just kind of give you some context as to
exactly what Kevin is suggesting here. So when you fill out your daytime waiver application,
right, what you are going to need to do in this description box here is to identify all
the different things that you're going to do, the methods by which your operation can
be safely conducted. So you would say things like that all your entire flight crew will
have knowledge and recognize and overcome visual illusions caused by darkness and understand
physiological conditions which may degrade night vision. And so you could put in here
that all persons will be required to be trained on nighttime visual and physiological issues
consistent with chapter 17 of the FAA's pilot handbook of aeronautical knowledge. So that's
the type of thing that you're going to put in here among many other things that he's
covering here. So these performance based standards get entered into this particular
box. Be specific in your application. What specific
are you going to train everybody on? How are you going to ensure that they're trained?
How are you going to ensure that they understand the information you're getting to them? And
maybe there's better material out there than the pilot handbook of aeronautical knowledge.
Being an FAA guy, I can't imagine that there is, right? But maybe there is some better
information out there. Don't be afraid to use that. Again, the more specific you are,
the more detailed you are, the more likely you are to have that waiver approved. So how
about increasing the conspicuity of the small unmanned aircraft so you can see the distance
of three statue miles? Kind of all over the place on this one. And you guys are much better
experts at this than I am. But one of the things you may want to identify is that, look,
I'm going to equip my aircraft with static lighting, some sort of static lighting system
that's visible from all sides for at least three miles. Or maybe I'm going to touch the
strobe. I've already seen on some of the UAS groups that people are saying this particular
strobe works really, really well. It's light. It's powered by this battery. Maybe you're
going to put that strobe on there. And maybe you can control that strobe on or off. So
you can't have a strobe on there if you're trying to take pictures and you've got a bright
light flashing. But maybe in the performance based standards on your waiver application,
you say, I'm going to run that strobe until I need to start doing the video or the photography.
And then when I'm done, that strobe is going to go back on. Again, be specific in exactly
what type of lighting. And make sure that you can see the lighting from 360 degrees.
You don't want to just say, I'm going to put a light on the bottom. It's a little Christmas
light on the bottom. That's good. And that would be fine. Because that's probably not
going to work to meet the performance based standards. Make sure that you can see it from
all angles, top and bottom. So another quick quiz for you here. My audio seems to be rocking
along nicely here. That's good. I don't have to worry about that too much. But this one's
actually a little bit of a quiz for you. See if you guys have been paying attention here.
So the question is, the individual ultimately responsible for ADM and risk management is
the... All right. So this is a good little quiz that he goes through a bunch of these.
I will tell you that the remote pilot and command is the person with the remote pilot
certificate. That's the person that the FAA can come after if in fact there's a problem
that remote pilot and command has the most risk in these situations.
All right. During the question and answer period, Kevin Morris also answered some questions
about the waiver and airspace authorization system. So let's take a listen to some of
those and talk about them.
My question is, I hate to be infantile, but if we don't hear from the FAA regarding waivers,
should we just continue to wait? Should we email? Should we try and smoke signal? What
do we do?
That's a great question. So I'm going to put you back on mute. I appreciate that question.
You're not alone in your frustration with the delay in waiver applications. The short
answer is wait. The way our system is set up now is once you submit your waiver, it
goes into queue. And one of the downsides of the system is that we don't send you an
automated response. Like, hey, thanks for submitting your waiver. We'll get in touch
with you soon.
So it kind of goes in from your perspective into this black hole, but it's not lost. I
can promise you that. Once a human being takes a look at it, it's assigned a number and you'll
get an email from the FAA saying we're reviewing your waiver at this time. At that point, once
it's being looked at by a human, it can go one of three directions. The waiver is either
going to be approved and you'll get a notification back, a formal form, it's signed and everything.
It'll be denied, in which case you would still get a message back saying your waiver application
is denied, or they're going to request further information.
Okay, so let's talk a little bit about that for a minute. If your waiver request just
doesn't even have the basics in it, the performance based standards aren't addressed, you just
don't have enough information. It looks like you just cut and paste and there's nothing
specific that ties the waiver request to you, or you just regurgitated information back
to the FAA off of their instructions, then their chance are they're just going to deny
it. What you're trying to do is to get enough information in order to get the FAA to engage
in a conversation with you so that they can ask questions such as, are you willing to
use a visual observer in your operation? And if you say yes, then now you can go from being
questionable to getting granted. So you want to use the system, the online system in order
to provide enough information to get over that hurdle, get the FAA engaged with you so
that you can address any of the FAA's concern, and get the waiver request in a format that
they can essentially grant it to you. So they'll send you an email saying, we need
an explanation of how you're going to meet the performance based standard here. You
didn't go into enough detail, but everything else looks good. So the one of three ways.
What to do in the meantime is wait. And I know you're probably laughing or maybe even
swearing at me through the screen right now, but we recently just upped our staff working
the waivers because it needs to be going faster. We're getting better at it. Keep in
mind that we didn't even start approving waivers for small unmanned aircraft until a couple
of months ago. So it's a new process for us, it's a new process for you, and we have to
take these waivers in order that they come. Alright, so again, let's make a comment here.
The FAA rushed the Part 107 process and as a result did not have the waiver and airspace
authorization system designed or in place in a way that it could be meaningful to drone
pilots and operators. If you need to fly in Class C airspace in your downtown area to
do a real estate shoot, you can't wait 60 to 90 days for approval from the FAA. The
FAA says they realize this and that they're getting better and they've got an automated
system coming, but it's important for you to understand that that system is not operational
yet and while some waivers may be coming faster, others are getting hogtied by the system
and certainly there's no guarantee as to when they're going to respond, which makes operating
a drone business nearly impossible if you've got to get special permission for a waiver
or to get airspace authorization under Part 107. So we still have at least one hand tied
behind our backs as we try and maneuver through this system with no guarantees that the FAA
is going to improve it in the near term, only hope and prayer here that they're going to
get better at this so that you can actually be a legitimate drone business and fly within
the rules. All of them are fantastic applications. Some of them are really, really poorly written.
So we still have to look at them and it still takes up human resource time to do that. So
unfortunately the process is slow right now, but it is getting better. We recognize the
delays frustrating a lot of people. We really do understand that and we're doing what we
can with our resources to get that move forward. So I know that's not the greatest answer in
the world, but unfortunately it's kind of where we're at right now. So if you have a
waiver submitted, you haven't heard anything back, that means human eyes have not read
your waiver application yet. So your best bet is just to wait. So OK, hands are going
down again and if you still have a question, go ahead and raise that hand.
All right. So I have a question. I mean, it didn't get answered yet, but I did pose it
and that is they've got this new online system that will eventually provide real time authorizations
in waivers, either a grant or denial within a very short period of time, minutes potentially,
or hours of you submitting it. That's supposed to be coming online. There's supposed to be
an app for that. It's supposed to be coming online sometime next year, but they haven't
said one and they've made no guarantees. What we don't know is are they expected to
pick up speed in terms of waivers and airspace authorizations or are things going to get
actually slower because of the volume of airspace authorizations and waivers that are being
made and their limitations of staffing. We don't know if things are going to get better
or worse at this point and the FAA has provided us no assurances.
All right. So there's going to be a question coming up here about whether or not you need
to have a special remote pilot certificate in order to actually get a waiver or make
an airspace authorization. So you'll see in the form there's a responsible person area,
but then there's a remote pilot area. So what if you don't have your remote pilot certificate?
And that would be where you would put your airman certificate number here. You can put
pending in that box and you will still make it through the system.
It's okay. Hands are going down again. And if you still have a question, go ahead and
raise that hand. Okay. We'll go with Kevin Haley. Can you hear me?
Yes, I can, Kevin. Thank you. Yeah, I got you loud and clear. Go ahead.
So I haven't stopped for my 107 yet. I'm getting ready to. Do I have to have my 107 before
I can submit a waiver? Okay. So thanks, Kevin. I'm going to put
you back on mute. One of the questions I hear a lot or the way I hear it phrased a lot is
to get my 107. You don't really get a 107, but I understand what people are saying when
they speak in that term. What you're going to get is your remote pilot certificate. There's
two certificates you need from the federal level to operate. You're going to need your
remote pilot certificate and you're going to need your registration certificate for your
commercial UAS. If you are applying for a waiver, you must have both. You must have
a commercially registered UAS and you must have a remote pilot certificate. You do not
need the permanent remote pilot certificate card to start your waiver application process.
If you have your temporary remote pilot certificate and it'll say pending where the certificate
number is supposed to be, that's okay. You can apply for a waiver and when it asks for
your certificate number, put pending. But regardless of if you have the number on the
hard card or the pending on the temporary certificate, you still need to have your remote
pilot certificate before you make an application for it.
All right. So that concludes this video from DroneLawPro on obtaining your waiver from
daytime operations so you can operate at night. We will see you next time, DroneLaw.pro.
