Waiver Watch | Ep 40: Tactical BVLOS
Welcome to Waiver Watch!
Here is the agenda for this Episode 40:
Weekly Waiver Totals
High altitude
Tactical BVLOS 91.113 waiver
1. | Weekly. Waiver. TOTALS
August 13-19, 2020 saw 13 waivers approved.
Some interesting waiver tidbits this week:
Starting to see a few more night waiver renewals from individuals that got waivers back in 2016-2018
2. | 107W-2020-02738
Richard Crosman
107.51(b)
Richard Crosman received a 107.51(b) waiver this week to operate up to 700’ AGL within one nautical mile of San Manuel airport. The waiver provisions are standard for 107.51(b) approvals.
Richard Crosman appears to be the Senior Vice President at The Genesis Consulting Group, LLC. They specialize in a wide range of airport and aviation projects. There appears to be some construction work going on at San Manuel Airport such as obstruction removal, fencing, and lighting. Could be that Mr Crosman is doing some survey work of the airport to prepare for this work and using a little extra altitude to be more efficient.
107W-2020-02738 Approval Area
3. | Public Safety Tactical BVLOS
91.113 Waiver
This week, the FAA announced a new “Tactical BVLOS” program for first responders.
Image credit FAA
The concept would allow first responders to conduct limited BVLOS operations in support of life threatening situations like fires, finding missing persons, or searching for suspects. “Tactical BVLOS” would have the following limitations:
The Agency must already be operating under a Part 91 COA
The operations can only be conducted in extreme emergency situations to safeguard human life
The PIC may not operate any higher than 50’ above an obstacle and within 400’ laterally of the obstacle.
The UA must remain within 1500’ of the PIC.
So the safety case is that the UA is operating very close to an obstacle and a short distance away from the RPIC. However, in this case the RPIC does not need to keep eyes on the aircraft or the airspace.
The application must be processed by the 91.113 Team at the FAA and then submitted into the COA Application Process System (CAPS). These requests do NOT go in DroneZone.
If you’re a Public Safety Agency interested in using this concept, send us a note. 107Waivers has experience acquiring 91.113 waivers and working with public safety agencies.
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…
