Questions about night waivers

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So these are the items necessary to meet the performance based standards to obtain a 107.29 waiver for flying beyond civil twilight:

  1. Applicant must provide a method for the remote pilot to maintain visual line of sight during darkness.
  2. Applicant must provide a method for the remote pilot to see and avoid other aircraft, people on the ground, and ground-based structures and obstacles during darkness.
  3. Applicant must provide a method by which the remote pilot will be able to continuously know and determine the position, altitude, attitude, and movement of their small unmanned aircraft (sUA).
  4. Applicant must assure all required persons participating in the sUA operation have knowledge to recognize and overcome visual illusions caused by darkness, and understand physiological conditions which may degrade night vision.
  5. Applicant must provide a method to increase conspicuity of the sUA to be seen at a distance of 3 statute miles unless a system is in place that can avoid all non-participating aircraft.
How are you all addressing these in your requests? The waivers that have been granted so far (about 99% of which appear to be night requests) don't indicate how these are being satisfied. I'm particularly interested in how to satisfy #4; is there something in FAAST I can go through to demonstrate night flight awareness or is there something else the FAA will accept as proof of understanding?

Also, are night waivers restricted to a specific position, or can I just apply for a general-purpose "I can fly at night wherever" waiver?

Finally, is there a time limit, like can I ask for a permanent or semi-permanent night waiver?

TIA...


edit: link to the performance based standards (PDF)
 
If you go to the FAA site where granted waivers are listed ( Part 107 Waivers Granted) you can actually pull up the text of the waiver and read them. Should help answer many of your questions. Sure you will find that they are very location specific - no, you can't just 'fly anywhere'. And it looks like the waivers have been granted for 4 year. Reading some of the waivers, the biggest issue would appear to be pilot and VO (all of them seemed to require a VO) training for night ops. Be interesting if someone who has been granted a waiver would post their application!
 
If you go into the Pilot handbook there is a section on night flying and how to use one of two search patterns to deal with this issue. Best of luck I just sent mine off too.

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I applied for a night waiver on 11/4. I received it today.
Congrats! Would you be willing to post a copy of your application (with the personal info blacked out of course) here? There's been a lot of discussion about just what a successful application should include.
 
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Agree on checking on the approved waivers. There are a bunch of waivers for daylight only operations. If it helps there's a a quick e-guide available that walks you through the process. You can find that here. It walks you through step by step and gives you templates to help you out. It uses the night time waiver as an example.
 
So these are the items necessary to meet the performance based standards to obtain a 107.29 waiver for flying beyond civil twilight:

  1. Applicant must provide a method for the remote pilot to maintain visual line of sight during darkness.
  2. Applicant must provide a method for the remote pilot to see and avoid other aircraft, people on the ground, and ground-based structures and obstacles during darkness.
  3. Applicant must provide a method by which the remote pilot will be able to continuously know and determine the position, altitude, attitude, and movement of their small unmanned aircraft (sUA).
  4. Applicant must assure all required persons participating in the sUA operation have knowledge to recognize and overcome visual illusions caused by darkness, and understand physiological conditions which may degrade night vision.
  5. Applicant must provide a method to increase conspicuity of the sUA to be seen at a distance of 3 statute miles unless a system is in place that can avoid all non-participating aircraft.
How are you all addressing these in your requests? The waivers that have been granted so far (about 99% of which appear to be night requests) don't indicate how these are being satisfied. I'm particularly interested in how to satisfy #4; is there something in FAAST I can go through to demonstrate night flight awareness or is there something else the FAA will accept as proof of understanding?

Also, are night waivers restricted to a specific position, or can I just apply for a general-purpose "I can fly at night wherever" waiver?

Finally, is there a time limit, like can I ask for a permanent or semi-permanent night waiver?

TIA...


edit: link to the performance based standards (PDF)
I'm one of the more current approved waivers on the list. I'm no expert. I did it myself and was approved without any follow-up questions from the faa, so I must have done things right, or right enough, lol. I cannot tell you exactly what to write, but I can give a good head start, I think.

First, type up your waiver in word, where you can work on it and save it. Once you're done, just copy/paste into the section in the faa portal. Open your request with a paragraph describing why you need your daylight waiver and a detailed summary of your proposed operations. Don't ramble, but be specific and well spoken about the matter. Understand exactly why and what you need to do when flying at night and say it in a paragraph. If you don't have a particular reason for needing a daylight waiver, that's a problem. If you can't describe your proposed operation and speak to how you are prepared to do it safety in the opening paragraph of your request, that's a problem. It's not just about performance based standards. They want to have a full understanding about why you need the waiver in the first place. Use your opening statement to address this.

Here's some clues without specifics about your questions on the standards.

1- think about the orientation lights on your bird.

2- visual observer(s). That's what they want to hear and they'll insist on it, so say it and describe how you might use them in your particular situation to make your flight safer.

3- think the dji app and all its telemetry information.

4- the material to use for training is in the faa handbook of Aeronautics pdf, chapter 17. Specifically, from page 19-30 is most relevant. Also consider this video

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5- think strobe light on your bird. There's lots to choose but I would recommend a DS -30. I reviewed this strobe here-

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If you wish to embellish anything with further safety measures, do so. For each standard, address them with a short statement about the matter. The more intelligently you convey your proposal and how you'll mitigate risk for a safe operations, the better.

Also, for location I put varied, not knowing any better and because my operations will literally be varied, all over the country. No problem. They only stipulate class G airspace when you do so. If you'll only be in one area, define it. As for the dates, I put a date three months out to give them 90 days to consider it and the end date I put in 2020. Ask for 4 years. They're currently giving it. My waiver was grated in exactly 31 days.

I hope this helps people. If it helps you and the faa to streamline the process, win/win. Good luck with your night waivers!
 
Great review. Thank you. We found it easiest to save everything outside of the application as well. Part of what we created were templates to help with that. This also gives you a copy because the FAA doesn't give you a copy of what you submitted.
 
If you go to the FAA site where granted waivers are listed ( Part 107 Waivers Granted) you can actually pull up the text of the waiver and read them. !

You can just see the waiver as it was granted but unfortunately you can not see the language that convinced the FAA reviewer to approve it. You can tell all the granted waivers say the same thing. Except disney's.
 
Anyone else notice that Disney does not have "light with 3 mile visibility" required???
I wonder how they greased those wheels.

They probably have a Certificate of Authoritarian (COA) which basically allows them to work under an approved program.
 
Great review. Thank you. We found it easiest to save everything outside of the application as well. Part of what we created were templates to help with that. This also gives you a copy because the FAA doesn't give you a copy of what you submitted.
Do you mind sharing?
 

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