Waiver Watch | Ep 37: Speed Week!
Welcome to Waiver Watch!
Here is the agenda for this Episode 37:
Weekly Waiver Totals
A new speed waiver!
Back when 107Waivers tried to get a speed waiver…
1. | Weekly. Waiver. TOTALS
July 23-29, 2020 saw 40 waivers approved:
37 - Daylight Operations (107.29)
1 - Simultaneous Operation of Multiple sUAS (107.35)
1 - Operations over Human Beings (107.39(a))
1 - Complex (107.29, 107.31, 107.33, 107.51(a))
We’ve got waivers all over this week!
2. | 107W-2020-01693
Michael Hopmeier
§ 107.29, 107.31, 107.33(b) & (c)(2), 107.51(a)
This week, Michael Hopmeier received an interesting waiver which covers 4 regulations including 107.51(a): Operational Limitations SPEED!
The waiver does not give much for clues on what aircraft or where this operation is being conducted. However, it’s fairly clear on a few items:
The waiver is good for approximately one month
The waiver is approved for specific flight locations and flight paths that must be clear of all non-participants.
The waiver must use at least one Visual Observer
The Visual Observers must see at least 2 statute miles around the unmanned aircraft
Michael Hopmeier is the President and Senior Principal Investigator at Unconventional Concepts, Inc. He’s published papers on undetectable stealth UAV and air-to-air counter UAV concepts.
Perhaps the Mr. Hopmeier has finally developed a fast, stealth UAV worth testing??
2. | The time 107Waivers tried to get a speed waiver…
Back in 2018, we were deep into FPV racing and the components being used to build these racing drones was getting better and better. Cell counts started climbing, speed controllers started getting more reliable, flight controllers started running faster loops.. We found a guy trying to build the fastest electric quadcopter over at QuadStarDrones and thought “we can do that”.
Check out his site for some cool blog posts about fast quadcopters: https://downanddirtydrones.wpcomstaging.com/2017/07/11/quadcopters-have-hit-the-sound-barrier/
Ultimately, he did end up breaking 200 mph which is an incredible feat. Check out the run below.
Because we do waivers, we requested a 107.51(a) waiver to accompany our speed flight attempts. It was denied and looking back at the request, we can understand why! Our waiver processes and waiver knowledge has come a long way in two years.
Might be time for 107Waivers to dust off the speed drone and try the waiver again…
Wrap Up
Thanks for reading this week! Leave us a comment if you have any questions or would like us to write about any specific waivers next time! If you have a waiver and would like to join us on the show to talk about it and other waivers, drop us a note! Until then…
