Waiver Watch | Ep 42: Batch Expirations
Welcome to Waiver Watch!
Here is the agenda for this Episode 42:
3 Weeks of Weekly Waiver Totals
“Batch expirations” of waivers
Florida Power & Light Type Certification
1. | Weekly. Waiver. TOTALS
So first an update from our last episode when we encountered the scenario where the FAA didn’t update the waiver table for an entire week! Well it was finally renews on Sept 1 making it eleven days of no updates. So last week’s total was 17 waivers. Now onto the last two weeks because we didn’t release an episode over Labor day weekend.
August 27 - September 2, 2020
Two weeks ago, the FAA approved 34 waivers:
29 = Daylight Operations waivers
2 = Operations over Human Beings
1 = BVLOS waiver
1 = Clouds and visibility waiver
1 = Operations Over Human Beings and Vehicles
September 3 - 9, 2020
Last week, the FAA approved 26 waivers:
25 = Daylight Operations waivers
1 = Complex waiver (this is a Michael Hopmeier speed waiver renewal!)
2. | First batch of waivers expired!
The first Part 107 waivers approved by the FAA were on August 29, 2016, approximately 2 months after the rule was announced. This early batch of waivers were transitioned from Section 333 requests and included some notable names like CNN, BNSF, Intel, and a host of entrepreneurs looking to make their mark as a Part 107 drone operator.
This first batch of approvals also came with an expiration date far in the future, 4 years to be precise. This leads us to August 31, 2020, the date most of these first waivers expired! And this date just passed. For the first time in Part 107 history, we’re seeing “batch expirations” and a new data point!
Who renewed and who didn’t
On August 29, 2016, seventy-five (75) waivers were approved. As of the time this article is written, only four (4) of the Responsible Persons and Companies renewed their waivers! This is approximately 5%, ouch. The four waivers that were renewed were Intel’s drone light show waiver, a night waiver to Joshua Brown but at a new company, Airobotics’ night waiver (these guys have been around a long time!), and Ryan Wewers’ night waiver.
Waiver Expiration from August 2016
In August of 2020, there were 103 waivers approved and so while August saw a net gain in waivers, it was much smaller than usual as 71 waivers were removed from the FAA Part 107 Waivers Issued table.
This is a statistic we are going to start monitoring each month. How many waivers expire, who is renewing them and who isn’t, and whether or not the industry sees a net gain in waivers (or a decline!).
3. | Florida Power & Light getting TC going
Florida Power & Light received a 107.31 and 107.33 waiver three weeks ago to support their Type Certification program, #TC17406LA-R. This is significant in that it mostly likely confirms that Percepto is in the Type Certification process and is well along in the process. These waivers are typically granted to conduct things like the AED flight demonstration or gather hours for the durability flight testing.
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…
