Anyone ever applied for a BVLOS waiver?

[Leed1315]

Anyone on here ever applied for a waiver for BVLOS? I am getting into some wildlife management and analysis and will be extremely difficult to keep within sight and be efficient at all. I believe those already doing what I am planning on doing are just not following it very closely. This would be in remote areas with no people or structures. What are the odds in getting a waiver It seems like a waiver won't actually grant you a provision for any time but will only be for every specific job? That wouldn't be practical either. Will this be the year guidelines are put in place vs individual waivers?

 

[AlanL]

Paging @Vic Moss to the white courtesy phone please.

From what I have heard and read this is possible but not yet fully documented as to how to obtain approval.

 

[Vic Moss]

I have a non-VO FPV BVLOS waiver.

It may not apply in your circumstances exactly, but you can use some of the safety mitigations in an application.

We are actually offering all of our applications, waivers, and modifications free as a thank you for taking part in a quick survey about Chinese drone use in the US commercial UAS ecosphere.

Take the survey, then get access to the article and paperwork at 2023 Drone User

You may also want to look at the safety mitigations for some of the 107.33/107.31 waivers at the FAA waiver page: Part 107 Waivers Issued

 

[Leed1315]

I have a non-VO FPV BVLOS waiver.

It may not apply in your circumstances exactly, but you can use some of the safety mitigations in an application.

We are actually offering all of our applications, waivers, and modifications free as a thank you for taking part in a quick survey about Chinese drone use in the US commercial UAS ecosphere.

Take the survey, then get access to the article and paperwork at 2023 Drone User

You may also want to look at the safety mitigations for some of the 107.33/107.31 waivers at the FAA waiver page: Part 107 Waivers Issued

Thank you I will look into it. I'm sure your information probably lays out some of the groundwork but I'm a novice right now. I'll give a little back drop to what I have and what I plan to do. In the deer hunting world right now thermal drone use is taking off. A guy made some videos about making big money recovering deer and using it for heard analysis (letting people know how many deer they have on their property). It was very efficient to say the least. Now these operations are popping up quickly. My job at the moment allows me to have enough scheduling that I could get into it myself. I have purchased a Mavic 3 enterprise thermal and am getting website and pages setup now. I plan to take the 107 test shortly and work my way into it. I honestly won't to abide by regulations if possible, but honestly with what I have been doing practicing its just not doable. There are places where you can't see 100yds because of trees. In the event someone needed lets say 500-1000 acres checked you would need to be able to do so without seeing the drone. In my situation I would literally never have to fly over people or structures while out of sight of the drone. I believe I could structure my waiver and and be ok at .5 miles and be able to do the job good enough. I wouldn't complain about 1 mile but .5 would provide a sufficient distance where I could move further if needed at that point. With the knowledge you have about these waivers would is there a way to be granted a waiver for general use for my services where I woud have the LBVOS waiver at all times or is it stricter than that? Thank You for the help.

 

[Leed1315]

I have a non-VO FPV BVLOS waiver.

It may not apply in your circumstances exactly, but you can use some of the safety mitigations in an application.

We are actually offering all of our applications, waivers, and modifications free as a thank you for taking part in a quick survey about Chinese drone use in the US commercial UAS ecosphere.

Take the survey, then get access to the article and paperwork at 2023 Drone User

You may also want to look at the safety mitigations for some of the 107.33/107.31 waivers at the FAA waiver page: Part 107 Waivers Issued

I took the survey and then went to the article and it said the content was password protected. Is there something else you have to do or am I missing something?

 

[Vic Moss]

I took the survey and then went to the article and it said the content was password protected. Is there something else you have to do or am I missing something?

Password is bvlosdspa. It pops up at the end, but you're not the first to miss that. We'll have to make sure that's more obvious if we do something similar in the future.

 

[JeffreyS]

Does this mean that I break the law every day?

 

[Leed1315]

Password is bvlosdspa. It pops up at the end, but you're not the first to miss that. We'll have to make sure that's more obvious if we do something similar in the future.

Thanks, I was up working late and just overlooked it. Based on you getting approved and what I can see of your site you clearly are not an average drone flyer. I have read a few articles about BVLOS and its progression. Where do you think we stand for the waiver being dropped like night flying was and a set of guidelines that must be meet to govern it?

 

[Vic Moss]

Where do you think we stand for the waiver being dropped like night flying was and a set of guidelines that must be meet to govern it?

The plan is to make eVLOS (extended VLOS) and some BVLOS operations normal everyday occurrence w/o waivers. I wrote about 100+ 107.29 waivers for folks before that waiver went away. We'd like to see the same with 107.31 waivers.

When that will happen is anyone's guess though.

I'm also on the FAA's AAAC Task Group for expediting eVLOS and BVLOS approvals. Our report will be given to the FAA at April's meeting in D.C. We hope they take our suggestions to heart.

When the FAA publishes the link to the live broadcast of that meeting, I'll make sure to put it in this group and others.

 

[Vic Moss]

Does this mean that I break the law every day?

You're not alone...

 

[Leed1315]

The plan is to make eVLOS (extended VLOS) and some BVLOS operations normal everyday occurrence w/o waivers. I wrote about 100+ 107.29 waivers for folks before that waiver went away. We'd like to see the same with 107.31 waivers.

When that will happen is anyone's guess though.

I'm also on the FAA's AAAC Task Group for expediting eVLOS and BVLOS approvals. Our report will be given to the FAA at April's meeting in D.C. We hope they take our suggestions to heart.

When the FAA publishes the link to the live broadcast of that meeting, I'll make sure to put it in this group and others.

Have you considered writing the 107.31 waivers like you did for the 107.29? If so what would you charge for that? I did see your waiver from the approved list and read through it. When i get a little more time I plan to read through some of your documents for getting the waiver. I haven't had time yet. I'm still a rookie and so I'm having to get familiar with the terminology just to know whats being talked about. Is there a limited amount of times you can apply? If I were to get turned down could I immediately apply again trying to accommodate the reason why I might have been rejected? In my situation I believe I could make a strong case for the safety of people and property on the ground as I would literally never have to fly over any structure or person in normal operations. My case would be safety for airspace. I show the drone i have to be equipped with Airsense, which notifies you of any activity. I have no idea if that is considered a sufficient system when granting BVLOS for say 1 mile or if there is much more to it. If it is not sufficient, then what systems are available that would meet the requirement and are they feasible for someone in my shoes. Thanks gain and hopefully I'm not pestering you too much with all the questions.

 

[Vic Moss]

Have you considered writing the 107.31 waivers like you did for the 107.29? If so what would you charge for that? I did see your waiver from the approved list and read through it. When i get a little more time I plan to read through some of your documents for getting the waiver. I haven't had time yet. I'm still a rookie and so I'm having to get familiar with the terminology just to know whats being talked about. Is there a limited amount of times you can apply? If I were to get turned down could I immediately apply again trying to accommodate the reason why I might have been rejected? In my situation I believe I could make a strong case for the safety of people and property on the ground as I would literally never have to fly over any structure or person in normal operations. My case would be safety for airspace. I show the drone i have to be equipped with Airsense, which notifies you of any activity. I have no idea if that is considered a sufficient system when granting BVLOS for say 1 mile or if there is much more to it. If it is not sufficient, then what systems are available that would meet the requirement and are they feasible for someone in my shoes. Thanks gain and hopefully I'm not pestering you too much with all the questions.

Honestly, we don't really have time to write them for folks.

One of the reasons we have released our paperwork and waiver applications is so folks can write their own. Our goal is to have a verifiable set of safety cases in order for the FAA to relax the 107.31 regulations.

As of now, our waivers are very limited. The FAA has a "crawl, walk, run" philosophy when it comes to expanding rules. And we're in the crawl stage. There are some BVLOS waivers with VOs for expanded ops. Ours were written specifically for FPV ops with out VOs.

Airsense is a good safety mitigations, but that's only good for cooperative manned aircraft (active ADS-B), and that's not required in all of the airspace. So that can only be a partial mitigating factor. When it comes to expanded distances, VOs are a necessity at the moment.

I'll be in DC at the end of the month talking to legislators, and one of the things I'm going to bring up is the restrictive nature of maintaining VLOS for our everyday work.

We're hoping to get some language changes in 107.31 in this year's FAA Reauthorization Act. Stay tuned for that.

 

[Leed1315]

Honestly, we don't really have time to write them for folks.

One of the reasons we have released our paperwork and waiver applications is so folks can write their own. Our goal is to have a verifiable set of safety cases in order for the FAA to relax the 107.31 regulations.

As of now, our waivers are very limited. The FAA has a "crawl, walk, run" philosophy when it comes to expanding rules. And we're in the crawl stage. There are some BVLOS waivers with VOs for expanded ops. Ours were written specifically for FPV ops with out VOs.

Airsense is a good safety mitigations, but that's only good for cooperative manned aircraft (active ADS-B), and that's not required in all of the airspace. So that can only be a partial mitigating factor. When it comes to expanded distances, VOs are a necessity at the moment.

I'll be in DC at the end of the month talking to legislators, and one of the things I'm going to bring up is the restrictive nature of maintaining VLOS for our everyday work.

We're hoping to get some language changes in 107.31 in this year's FAA Reauthorization Act. Stay tuned for that.

I understand not having time, I appreciate you answering what you have. At this point are waivers only for one specific flight or for a general use as you mentioned for "everyday work"? I would be writing one for a general use waiver vs a specific flight. Yours that I looked at looked to be for a specific flight, I just didn't know if that was the only way a waiver would be approved. A one time waiver would be useless for me as the ability for BVLOs would be needful or necessary in most situations and trying to write and wait for one would not be practical. My aim for applying would be to gain a waiver for a BVLOS for general use at a specified distance. I would hope to gain a minimum of .5 miles but a desired goal would be 1 mile. I wouldn't want to go through the process and waste my time if thats not how it works at this time. Thanks

 

[Vic Moss]

I understand not having time, I appreciate you answering what you have. At this point are waivers only for one specific flight or for a general use as you mentioned for "everyday work"?

I wrote mine to practice FPV w/o a VO. But it was granted for all of G, as long as it's 3 miles from a charted airport. It also needs to be remote.

But there is no definition of remote, so I can decide what is or isn't. The park I usually fly at it very uncrowded, so I consider that remote.

I would be writing one for a general use waiver vs a specific flight. Yours that I looked at looked to be for a specific flight, I just didn't know if that was the only way a waiver would be approved. A one time waiver would be useless for me as the ability for BVLOs would be needful or necessary in most situations and trying to write and wait for one would not be practical.

It's for more than a single flight. It's good until 2025.

My aim for applying would be to gain a waiver for a BVLOS for general use at a specified distance. I would hope to gain a minimum of .5 miles but a desired goal would be 1 mile. I wouldn't want to go through the process and waste my time if thats not how it works at this time. Thanks

You don't know unless you ask. I would also look at the 107.31/107.33 waivers to allow VOs for more distance.

 

[rimmeraerialmedia]

I have a non-VO FPV BVLOS waiver.

It may not apply in your circumstances exactly, but you can use some of the safety mitigations in an application.

We are actually offering all of our applications, waivers, and modifications free as a thank you for taking part in a quick survey about Chinese drone use in the US commercial UAS ecosphere.

Take the survey, then get access to the article and paperwork at 2023 Drone User

You may also want to look at the safety mitigations for some of the 107.33/107.31 waivers at the FAA waiver page: Part 107 Waivers Issued

Vic, I found your BVLOS waiver 107W-2023-01413_Victor_Moss_CoW
Could I possibly see your app for that, to know what I need to show for these?

 

[Vic Moss]

Vic, I found your BVLOS waiver 107W-2023-01413_Victor_Moss_CoW
Could I possibly see your app for that, to know what I need to show for these?

That's an OOP waiver.