FAA Waiver Process

Beyond the Buzz (episode 1) - FAA Waiver Process 

July 12, 2024 

Erin Roesler: 

Good morning, and welcome to the Northern Plains UAS Test Site’s first Beyond the Buzz webinar. We’re hoping to host these monthly to talk about a whole wide variety of topics, trends, and insights into UAS and autonomous systems. 

Today, we’re going to be discussing what a waiver is, talking about the FAA waiver process, and discussing how you can get a waiver as well, along with some of the tips and tricks we’ve learned over 10 years as one of the seven federal FAA UAS test sites. 

First, my name is Erin Roesler. I am the deputy executive director of the Northern Plains UAS Test Site. Thank you for joining us today for Beyond the Buzz. 

I’d also like to quickly thank our host here in Grand Forks, The Hive, which is one of the best technology accelerators for UAS and autonomous systems, bringing together a whole host of companies that are working together to really advance UAS. 

As we delve in today, welcome to Beyond the Buzz, talking about what a waiver is. For everyone here who is flying UAS or coming up with UAS operations, we have a wonderful rule book, Part 107, and that tells us everything we can and want to do with UAS and the rules of the air that we need to follow and fly by. It’s a wonderful set of rules, but I will say that the industry and the innovative experts in the field come up with a few new ideas, and those new ideas really push beyond those rules and start challenging us to find new and innovative ways to fly. 

But there’s a process for that. If you do want to fly beyond the existing rules, there is a way to get a waiver, meaning you’re going to justify and make your safety case on why you can and should be able to fly beyond those rules. 

If we look first at the Part 107 regulations, at the end of Part 107 there is 107.25, and that lists all the different waivers that are subject to waiver. You can see the list on the screen here, and it’s not all-encompassing because you can also get exemptions to additional regulations, but we’re not going to be talking about that today. We’ll just talk about waivers. 

Waiving some of these rules does allow a whole wide variety of new operations. So how do you get a waiver? Let’s go back a couple of regulations to 107.20, and it gives you exact instructions on how to file and get a waiver. 

First and foremost, you’ve got to prove that your operation can still be conducted safely. How do you do that? The FAA asks for a complete description of the proposed operation and a justification that establishes that the operation can be conducted safely. Set another way, you need a ConOps and a safety case. 

That’s a lot of information, but it really doesn’t tell us much. So how do we file a waiver? What do we do if we develop a ConOps and a safety case and go from there? 

The FAA has developed some waiver application instructions, and you can find the link there. It’s also directly available on the FAA’s website. That FAA document talks about how to leverage an online processing tool called DroneZone, and we’ll be demonstrating that today. 

As you build out the description of the operation, this document contains a little bit more on what you should include within that ConOps and what you should include within that safety case. But it still leaves a lot of questions for operators: How much do I need? Do I need five sentences? Do I need five pages? Or do I need to write five novels? 

Again, there are two great source documents that the FAA provides for applicants to really add additional information. The first one is the waiver safety guidelines document, and the second one is an advisory circular called Advisory Circular 107-2A. 

Let’s look at the first one. The waiver application guidelines has two versions of this document: one that talks about the waiver explanation guidelines and one that has guiding questions. It is our best practice and our recommendation as the test site to use the one with the guiding questions. 

Our experience has shown that if you don’t answer all those questions in some form, FAA reviewers will probably come back and ask you some of those questions because that’s the minimum information they need. So you and we can all do ourselves a favor and expedite the waiver process by ensuring we answer all those questions up front. 

The other document, Advisory Circular 107-2A, is 105 pages of pure, lovely reading, and I mean that sincerely. It truly has a lot of content and a lot of information, and it’s a lot more than just waivers. It provides guidance for all small UAS, as well as the context by which UAS was created, or Part 107 was created. 

You can see here that it has some nice nuggets of information where it talks about how Part 107 was a set of rules that came out in response to Section 333 of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2016. Wonderful, great. But again, it might not be the information you need when you’re filing for your waiver. 

It’s a good document and it has a lot of great context. We definitely recommend reading it for that broader UAS knowledge area, but not really as the best source for waiver guidance. 

So let’s go back to those waiver guidelines. The waiver guidelines are really the source document that will help guide your answers and what content you need to put into your description of operations and your safety case. 

We recommend that you answer those questions in a direct question-and-answer format, as well as provide a full narrative for your concept of operations. This isn’t an FAA recommendation, and it isn’t dictated by the FAA, but it is what we have found really articulates how we plan in our proposed operation to address the FAA questions in that question-and-answer format, as well as the additional narrative that provides who we are as a company, what we’re aiming to do, more about our pilot requirements, pilot currency, aircraft requirements, normal procedures, emergency operating procedures, and in particular how we’re still going to safely conduct the operation while asking for an alternative set of rules. 

Do I need to document this out in a separate document? You don’t need to. We’ll see in just a minute on DroneZone how you have the opportunity to put all this content and all this information directly into the portal. However, that portal does limit formatting and the professional appearance of your submission, as well as your ability to add pictures and additional content. 

So, as a test site, our best practice is to put in that box in the form on DroneZone that you have attached documents, whether that be your concept of operations, your waiver safety guidelines, or your safety case documentation, because in that document you can very clearly articulate with pictures, other media, and graphics that show what your proposed operation is, as well as how you plan to conduct it safely. 

What’s going to be an acceptable answer? That first document, the waiver safety guidelines, talks about a list of questions that you as an applicant must answer. But again, what’s going to be an acceptable answer to that question? 

The FAA also provides part-107 section-specific evaluation information. This has a lot of really great information and examples of what type of information will be enough, what will not be enough, and then it lists some examples of operations that have been approved versus what won’t be approved. 

But we do still find this document sometimes falls short, and that’s not a fault of the FAA. I actually attribute this to industry, because industry keeps pushing further and farther beyond what we’ve done before. We come up with new innovative ideas and strategies, so it’s difficult to keep this document up to date with all the possible ways you can still conduct an operation safely. 

So it’s a great place to start. It’s worthwhile for you to review, but don’t take this as the only way to answer the FAA’s questions. 

Okay, so you followed 107.20 and you’ve built your concept of operations, your ConOps document, and you’ve built your safety case. You’ve followed those waiver safety guidelines. You’ve added those in a question-and-answer format. You’ve added those in a narrative. 

Now what? 

Now we come to FAA DroneZone, a wonderful FAA portal where we get to enter all this information to submit our waiver package. It really is only 12 quick steps, and I’m going to demonstrate this more than just the steps here, so I’ll quickly breeze through these 12 steps and then we’ll go right to DroneZone itself. 

1. You log in. 
2. Scroll halfway down the page once you’re logged in, and you’ll find a button to create a Part 107 waiver or authorization. 
3. Click that, and create a 107 waiver or authorization. 
4. A pop-up will appear that allows you to select operational waiver and then start application. 
5. From there, you’ll complete this first part of the waiver as a questionnaire. This actually is not your waiver package, but it is a series of questions that will help guide you as the applicant to seek waiver to the appropriate regulations. 
6. Go through the series of questions and answer them based upon the operation you are planning to propose. As a result, there will be an additional pop-up that recommends which waivers you are seeking relief from. 
7. It’s really important at this step to ensure that the right regulations are selected because once you move on and click continue, you will not be able to amend or change which regulations you’re seeking waiver from within your waiver package or application. 
8. Take caution at this step. Make sure you have all the right boxes checked and all the regulations you want waived. 
9. Enter a title for your application and click submit. 
10. Now you’ll enter your information for your package, including who is going to be the responsible person for your company or operation. That could be the same person as your remote pilot in command, or it can be different. 
11. Enter the appropriate information there. The next section will have boxes associated with how many waivers, or which regulations, you’re seeking waiver from. Our recommendation is to put in “See attached ConOps document” or “See attached waiver safety guidelines,” or whatever the name of your document is. But again, as the applicant, you can put in your direct proposed concept of operations or your safety case rationale right within that field. 
12. Next, the form will ask for the geographic location where you’re asking to operate. We recommend putting that in simple lat/long format. You’ll also have the opportunity to include that in your concept of operations document with additional graphics, maps, and things like that. Again, that’s another reason why we recommend attaching it as a separate document. 
13. The last step will take you to a page where you can review your entire application and click submit. And that’s it — that’s a waiver in 12 steps. 

So I was challenged to do a waiver live for you guys, and so we’re going to do just that. Let’s file that waiver. 

We’re going to propose that I have an innovative inspection company that conducts oil well inspections out in Western North Dakota. However, as the pilot, I’m not going to travel to each oil well. I’m going to have a visual observer that is stationed at each oil well location and will be able to see and monitor not only the airspace but my UAS at all times during the flight. 

So I’m conducting the operation as visual line of sight to a person and a crew member at all times, but not necessarily to myself as a remote pilot in command. That operation is not currently allowed by Part 107 rules today, but again, I can seek a waiver from those rules to allow the operation to occur. 

Just one moment, and we’re going to go to DroneZone and file this waiver. 

Okay, so FAADroneZone.gov gives you access into the portal in which you’re going to file and use for your waiver application. You go ahead and log in or create an account if you haven’t before, and we’re going to launch the dashboard. 

As the test site, we have a lot of different waivers. As you scroll down about halfway through the page, you’ll see “Create Part 107 Waiver or Authorization.” Click that button, and you’ll see a pop-up that gives you two options: to ask for an airspace authorization or an operational waiver. We’re seeking that operational waiver, so we’ll start an application. 

As I talked about, the first part of this provides that questionnaire, and again, this questionnaire is to help guide the applicant to select the right regulations from which you’re seeking waiver. So we are going to conduct day operations for our proposed operation. I’m still going to be a small UAS, so maximum 54 pounds. I’m not going to be transporting property. I will be operating from a stationary location, so I will not be moving while I’m conducting the operation, and visual line of sight. 

Now, if you’ll notice, there is a prompt underneath here to provide additional clarification. So will I, as the remote pilot, be able to see the aircraft, or will I and the visual observer be able to see the aircraft at all times during my operation? And the answer to this is no, because while I will have a visual observer see it, the remote pilot and the visual observer will be able to see the aircraft throughout the entire flight. 

So for the visual observer role, if I am flying beyond visual line of sight, the answer here is: Will each visual observer be able to maintain line of sight and effective communication throughout the entire operation? Now, while I will be able to maintain effective communication, I will not have each of my visual observers being able to maintain line of sight. One visual observer may be able to maintain line of sight while another may not, as proposed to my scenario. So I’m going to select no. 

You’ll notice as I’m selecting some of these answers, on the right-hand side it starts presenting what relevant waivers I should seek relief from. As I go through visibility from control station, yes, I will still be able to conduct the operation because I will keep good weather. I’ll be operating only a single aircraft. Yes, I’ll be able to maintain right of way. My maximum ground speed will keep to Part 107 regulations at 100 miles per hour. Maximum altitude: I’m not going to fly higher than 400 feet, and I will still be able to keep good distance from clouds. The last section is whether I will be operating over moving vehicles or people. No. We continue on there. 

This was the section I was talking about before. This is a critical part for us to make sure that we have the right boxes checked and the right relevant waiver selected because you will not be able to continue or go back to this step of the waiver application. You can definitely start a new application, and that’s easy to do. As you’ve seen, I’ve only answered the questionnaire so far, and I don’t lose any of that work. 

So for my proposed operation, yes, I am going to be seeking relief from 107.31 as well as 107.33. I title my application and continue. So we’re now at about steps three and four of the process. I make sure my contact information is provided there, that I am going to be the remote pilot for this operation, which makes it easy — I just get to check the box and click next. 

Now here is the heart and meat of your waiver application. You can see the boxes that are provided for 107.31 and 107.33, where it asks for my waiver safety explanation. Again, this is where we recommend not just entering your proposed operation directly into this form. You have the opportunity to do that, but our recommendation instead is to enter content where it will say “See attached Ops,” so we will do that now. 

The next section is talking about when I want to start these operations. My first scheduled operation is in August of this year, so we put in that date. You’ll see the note that you can’t ask for a waiver that is longer than 48 calendar months, so we will put in the ending of the operation, and it can be less than that. I only plan to conduct these oil inspections for the next year, because that is the length of my contract. 

The last step in this process would be to enter the geographic location. I have some sample text that I will enter — something similar to this, where I’m just going to put in that my proposed operation is going to be near this town, and it’s going to be defined by these lat/longs. Once again, it asks for my maximum altitude. I’m not proposing to go any higher than 400 feet. The last question it has is whether there are any pending or related waivers associated with this operation, and no, I haven’t done these operations before, so I’m just going to select no and click continue. 

Now this next section talks about the device details, or your UAS aircraft details, and there’s a small note in here that indicates this is actually not a required section. So a lot of times we simplify our waiver applications and just click next. You do not need to include aircraft information in that section of the package. 

If you are using a more advanced or unique style aircraft in which some of the features or capabilities of that aircraft really justify your proposed operation or how you can conduct the operation safely, it is our recommendation to put that content directly into your ConOps document. 

The last step here is your review, as well as the opportunity to add attachments. So we are going to our files, and I’m going to select my ConOps and my safety case document as well. Then after I’ve reviewed everything, the last step of the process is just to click submit. 

So that is how you file a waiver. Quick recap: our recommendation is to log into DroneZone and try it out. There’s no harm in trying to go all the way up to that submit button, or even hit the submit button if you have your package ready to go. 

Read the waiver safety guidelines document. Read the section-specific evaluation information, as well as the advisory circular, which has a lot of additional content and, therefore, historical knowledge as well as a wider variety of information for UAS operations. 

Now is the time for any questions, comments, or things you guys might have encountered in the industry, or questions you might have in a broader sense beyond just waivers. 

Okay, well again, thank you for joining us on Beyond the Buzz. We are holding these monthly webinars, and next month we’ll be talking about Remote ID. Our director of operations, Jake DeForest, will be joining us on August 13 at 9:00 a.m., both online as well as in person here at The Hive. 

We really hope that we’ve answered a few of your questions on what a waiver is, and next month hopefully we’ll answer a few of your questions on Remote ID. Thank you for joining us on Beyond the Buzz. If you have any questions, reach out to the test site or reach out to The Hive at any time. Thank you.