part 107 waiver for nighttime operations

[Lapeer20m]

I just submitted a waiver on behalf of the fire department for nighttime operations. It will be fun to see how long it takes and how easy it is to get approved.

Then i want to try for other waivers......like flying over people. I want to see if the FAA will grant permission for the PIC to weight the risks/benefits to flying over people and use this decision matrix to decide if the risk is worth the reward....ie: delivering a life preserver to a person who fell through the ice. In this example, the uas would likely have to fly directly over the persons head in order to deliver a life jacket that may safe their life.

anyone else have any waivers?

 

[beachcombing]

There have only been a limited number of waivers issued to allow flying over people.

https://www.faa.gov/uas/request_waiver/waivers_granted/

None, thus far, have been for emergency type operations. So, it will be interesting to see how the FAA responds to the request. Seems like a legitimate request especially with weighing the risks and benefits.

 

[rysingsun]

Yeah I've only heard of one granted for flying over people. It was to NBC and they flew a drone 21' up.

 

[Lapeer20m]

It's unlikely that the request will be granted, but i've done quite a bit of research and have been writing arguments based mostly on FAA guidelines. For instance, the FAA already allows certain dangerous maneuvers when combating forest fires. They allow a 747 supertanker to fly at low altitude, as low as 300 feete agl, and dump almost 20K gallons of water/fire retardant. This is relatively dangerous, but when incident commanders weigh the risk vs reward, the flight is allowed to proceed.

I likely will not be successful, but would like to use this sort of logic to try to get approval.

That stranded ice fisherman may thank me someday when we fly a matrice 210 over his head in order to drop a life jacket.

 

[beachcombing]

Yeah I've only heard of one granted for flying over people. It was to NBC and they flew a drone 21' up.

Actually, there has not been a 107.39 waiver issued to NBC.

If you click the link I posted and search for 107.39, you will see the waivers that have been issued.

 

[beachcombing]

It's unlikely that the request will be granted, but i've done quite a bit of research and have been writing arguments based mostly on FAA guidelines. For instance, the FAA already allows certain dangerous maneuvers when combating forest fires. They allow a 747 supertanker to fly at low altitude, as low as 300 feete agl, and dump almost 20K gallons of water/fire retardant. This is relatively dangerous, but when incident commanders weigh the risk vs reward, the flight is allowed to proceed.

I likely will not be successful, but would like to use this sort of logic to try to get approval.

That stranded ice fisherman may thank me someday when we fly a matrice 210 over his head in order to drop a life jacket.

Seems like in that situation, I might be inclined to use the drone with or without the waiver and deal with the consequences later.

 

[FatherXmas]

Check back and let us know the outcome.