The FAA has sent out this notice to UAS Part 107 pilots. Important information for COA pilots is below the Part 107 update. The first Remote Pilot certificates were issued in August 2016 and are nearing the end of their 24 calendar month currency. Remote drone pilots must complete a recurrent training course or pass a recurrent knowledge test within ... Read More »
The FAA has released information on the recurrent test Part 107 pilots will have to take. I was just asked if there will be 40 or 60 questions on the test. Interestingly the FAA does not say. What we do know is the allotted time for the recurrent test is 1.5 hours instead of the two hours for the initial ... Read More »
I recently started using instrument flying training glasses as a tool to help teach night flying to students. The FAA describes the device as a view-limiting device. In the airplane cockpit, during instrument flight training we always called them horrible names. I always dreaded them as a student. You will typically hear pilots call them foggles. Here is an example ... Read More »
Yesterday I brought along five students for a VIP private tour of the Air Traffic Control center and tower at Raleigh-Durham International Airport. It is extremely helpful for those drone pilots who have not had any or much exposure to the airspace issues faced by controllers, to do a tour like this. We started in the dark radar room and ... Read More »
The Aviation Safety Network gathers data on complaints or reports by manned aircraft regarding sightings or misses between UAS and manned airplanes. Since the database has been recorded there have been 2,750 reports filed. This is not a comprehensive listing and does not contain many reports from the FAA after 2017. Some of them are like the examples below. The ... Read More »
Here is my latest effort for AOPA, the best aviation association out there. I would love to tell you that as an aviation writer, public safety remote pilot, and longtime airplane pilot I’ve always made the best decisions when it comes to flying. The reality is, I have not. But this is also reality: Every pilot makes mistakes. “The FAA ... Read More »
I wanted to start a new feature of taking a look at those rules we often forget about that regulate our UAS flying. The Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR). FAR 91.13 Careless or reckless operation. (a)Aircraft operations for the purpose of air navigation. No person may operate an aircraft in a careless or reckless manner so as to endanger the life ... Read More »
New public safety drone pilots face a severe problem in their early flight years. They lack the experience and confidence to say “no” to flying. As a UAS pilot, we can never forget FAR 91.3 that says “The pilot in command of an aircraft is directly responsible for, and is the final authority as to, the operation of that aircraft.” ... Read More »
Like everything else in out flying world, nothing is ever clearcut. Yesterday I was at an operation that was a public demonstration that was located up against a small airport (43). But could Part 107 UAS pilots fly over the airport? I made the call they could not for the following reasons but I welcome your feedback and discussion if ... Read More »
Just recently a rather worrisome issue has arisen regarding UAS anti-collision lights. It does not matter what you have seen in advertisements regarding strobes, all strobes are non-compliant. There is a lot of advertising out there which claims strobes for UAS meet the standards. But I got curious why none of the ads advertised the strobes coming with the appropriate ... Read More »
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