Learn to File your own Part 107 Waivers with the FAA

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If you are a commercial drone operator, or part 107 Pilot, you will need ATC airspace permissions in controlled airspace (Class B, C, D and E surface area) and your basic Part 107 Waivers (under 14 CFR Part 107, Subpart D). The FAA suggests you obtain ATC permission 90 days prior to the start of the proposed operation. Yes, this sucks and is totally impracticable. A 90 day 'or os' wait period ignores the realities of the UAV services market which rarely provide 3 months notice on operations on a 'maybe the FAA won't grant it' basis.

However, it's not all bad news. The FAA did provide a process which may allow you to obtain airspace authorization for Class B, C, D and E airspace in 3 mile radius sections, for a period of 4 years. So here is our recommendation on filing strategy. If you start the process now and file for multiple controlled airspace authorization in contiguous 3 mile radius blocks, you may be able to obtain many square miles of airspace authorizations up front. You would file for authorization in all the locations you are most likely to fly for a 4 year period. or strategically file for authorizations and then target your marketing to those areas if you offer regional or national services.

Prior to August 29, no one was sure what the process would be to obtain Part 107 waivers, or obtain airspace authorization from ATC for controlled airspace (Class B, C, D and E surface area). We were happy to see that the FAA created a relatively simple website for Part 107 waivers and ATC airspace permission. Here is the FAA web page titled "Request a Waiver/Airspace Authorization, Small Unmanned Aircraft System (sUAS)" where you request waivers and permission to operate in controlled airspace.

The FAA provides limited instructions here.


Unfortunately, the FAA's instruction are general and provide NO strategy, little insight or instruction on how fill out your wavier requests or ATC authorization requests.

Our law firm www.dronelaw.pro represents over 200 drone service companies across the United States. While we initially thought these clients, and other prospects, would need to hire us to file waivers and obtain ATC permission, we are now convinced that our clients should be preparing and filing these requests themselves. It is part of your core business. And you may need to file many dozens of requests. While there may be some more complex issues for which you need legal assistance, we are convinced that you should do most of these requests yourself. To help, we created free training videos to teach our clients how to file requests for airspace Authorization in controlled airspace and file your requests for Part 107 Waivers. We are now making these training videos available to the Phantom Pilots community as well in hope we can collectively share information as the FAA starts granting permissions. If you haven't started requesting waivers and authorizations, you should start now.

You can obtain a password to these free training videos here.

https://www.dronelaw.pro/part-107-waivers/
We will better understand the process and benchmarks for FAA waivers and authorization as airspace and waiver requests are processed by the FAA and eventually granted. As we learn more, we will add videos to the series so that you can 'self help' your way through the process. Good luck! Fly Safe!
 
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Excellent thread and THANK YOU for supporting Phantom Pilots.
 

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