The FAA seeks to destroy UAS hobby (this week’s FAA UAS Symposium in a nutshell)

The revelations at this week’s FAA UAS Symposium boiled down to two very distinct and disappointing facts.  1. The FAA is doing all it can to impede and ensure that the UAS industry fails, plus 2. The FAA wants desperately to do the same to destroy the hobby of flying model aircraft.

Part 107 certificate operators have long lamented their delayed access to controlled airspace.  Their pain immediate began with the activation of the Part 107 regulations on August 29^th, 2016.  Operators hired to take aerial images of real estate some 4 miles from an airport from even just 10 feet off the ground were being forced to apply for airspace authorizations through a less than functional online portal system and having to wait up to 90 days for a response.  Impatient clients would turn to operators who were willing to overlook regulations in order to get their projects completed in a timely fashion.  And a schism within the UAS community was born – those who would perform safe flights but not follow regulations and those who would seethe at them while waiting 3 months to get nod from the FAA.

Those willing to wait often found themselves further disappointed with serious limitations and denials on their airspace authorization requests.  Airspace authorizations would give the all clear for 50’ AGL when the client work demanded 100’ AGL or the authorization might be disapproved and require a new 90 day wait to reprocess the adjusted request.  Pilots not willing to wait and knowing their flight plan was safe would resort to directly contacting the local ATC and seek verbal authorization and then fly as required by regulation.  The FAA recognizing this issued and order, JO 7200.23, that directed all ATC facilities to not provide authorization and repoint callers to the online portal – where, yes, airspace authorization would take 90 days.  The schism of UAS operators willing to fly safely versus those willing to wait on the FAA grew deeper.

Fast forward to this week’s FAA UAS Symposium revelations on waiver request statistics and we can see in definitive numbers on the FAA’s successful attempts to impede the industry and continue the schism.  Waivers, as you may know, are requests to be released from one of the Part 107 regulations.  The most common of these requests are to be able to fly a UAS during non-daylight hours.  Others include being able to fly a UAS from a moving vehicle or allowing the ability to pilot two or more UAS at the same time (fly a swarm).  What we’ve learned from the FAA this week during the Symposium is that they rarely approve such requests and their stoic wall on impeding safe operations continue.  See for yourself:

• Of the 5,927 requests to fly after daylight only 1,360 waivers have been approved: That’s only a 22.9% approval rate – the HIGHEST rate of approval for all waivers (yes, let that sink in – fewer than 1 in 4 have their waiver request approved).
• Waiver for operating over 100mph – 1.9% approval rate (154 requested, only 3 approved)
• Waiver for operations less that 500’ from clouds – 2.6% approval rate (299 requested, only 8 approved)
• Waiver to operate 2 or more UAS simultaneously – 9% approval rate (286 requested, only 26 approved)
• Waiver to operate a UAS with < 3 miles of visibility (while still keeping it within VLOS) – 2.2% approval rate (352 requested, only 8 approved)
• Waiver to operate near aircraft – 0.0% approval rate (392 requested, absolutely none approved)
• Waiver to not have a visual observer – 0.3% approval rate (565 requested, only 2 approved)
• Waiver to be able to operate a UAS while seated in a moving vehicle (boat, truck, snowmobile, etc.) – 0.8% approval rate (601 requested, only 5 approved)
• Waiver to be able to exceed 400’ AGL with a UAS – 3.4% approval rate (801 requested, only 28 approved)
• Waiver to be able to fly beyond visual line of sight – 1.0% approval rate (1,292 requested, only 14 approved)
• Waiver to allow your 0.7 pound DJI Spark to fly over another person – 0.03% approval rate (2,372 requested, only 9 approved)

This revelation shows great consistency in offering up any operator has a less than 3% chance at having a waiver request approved by the FAA despite operators going to great lengths to express safe operation in seeking approval.  Clearly the FAA is doing all it can to impede and prevent the UAS industry from being successful.

And with that said, the FAA has its eyes on the next target – the hobby of flying model aircraft.  The words weren’t minced when the acting FAA Administrator Dan Elwell offered that hobbyist exemption 336 “MUST BE REVISITED”.  The FAA fully intends to impose their will on the hobby just as they have on commercial UAS operators.  Hobbyists should be on the lookout for Remote ID provisions which Elwell stated the FAA is “working very quickly to establish”.  And if the statistics of Part 107 failures carry over to the hobbyist realm, well, good luck on anyone having the ability to fly.

Worthy to note here as reference points:

• Worldwide there have been no fatalities from UAS in the past 4 years. The last fatality for a model aircraft came in 2013 when an RC operator was killed by his own model aircraft.
• The AMA (world’s largest model aircraft hobby organization) has an annual membership of approximately 200,000. They have been in existence since 1936 (prior to creation of the FAA).  Congress passed the language of 336 given the clear statistical evidence that model aircraft have been, and remain, the safest aircraft within the NAS.
• Ultralights (paramotors – i.e. powered parachutes, weight shift units, and gyrocopters) operations require no licensing or test to fly. In the United State alone there are roughly 60 fatalities annually as a result of their operation.
• Ultralights do not have regulations prohibiting flight over persons, flight during non-daylight hours, or regulation prohibiting flight during fog or other minimum visibility conditions.
• Rotorcraft (manned helicopters) allow flight over persons, often have no minimum altitude restrictions, and have an annual death rate of approximately 20 persons.