Waiver or permission?

[MaverickMcBride]

sorry I'm on my phone, and also only fly mavic for now (too poor to own an inspire since I have to upgrade my cinema gear)

Anyway, I know you can apply for a waiver for fly in class C or B airspace for a 2 week period, but since that takes so long... can I just contact the tower and ask permission? They seem to not mind recreational drones, but but how do they feel about commercial drones (if this is even legal)

Thanks.

 

[uasairsupport]

107 says they have the authority to grant permission and I have received permission verbally from the tracon but their official guidance from Washington says we must use the portal. So, it depends on who answers the phone. Most controllers have been nice enough to grant me permission but if a knowledgeable admin type answers then he will refer you to the portal. I didn't want to wait the 90 days they promised it would take so I called the FSDO and ask them to call Washington for me. They did and I had my authorization in a couple of days for Charlie AS. Get to know your FSDO guys. They are the cops but not to be feared. If you are doing things the right way and have legitimate need of help, most will do so.

 

[MaverickMcBride]

107 says they have the authority to grant permission and I have received permission verbally from the tracon but their official guidance from Washington says we must use the portal. So, it depends on who answers the phone. Most controllers have been nice enough to grant me permission but if a knowledgeable admin type answers then he will refer you to the portal. I didn't want to wait the 90 days they promised it would take so I called the FSDO and ask them to call Washington for me. They did and I had my authorization in a couple of days for Charlie AS. Get to know your FSDO guys. They are the cops but not to be feared. If you are doing things the right way and have legitimate need of help, most will do so.

Sweet, I'll attempt this first then. Just feels unfair though since hobbiest can just cal and not even ask permission and I had to learn so much stuff and now I'm limited. I hope that change the laws soon.

 

[licensed pilot]

sorry I'm on my phone, and also only fly mavic for now (too poor to own an inspire since I have to upgrade my cinema gear)

Anyway, I know you can apply for a waiver for fly in class C or B airspace for a 2 week period, but since that takes so long... can I just contact the tower and ask permission? They seem to not mind recreational drones, but but how do they feel about commercial drones (if this is even legal)

Thanks.

The "official" but not "really policy" from the feds is that part 107 operators can only receive authorizations via the FAA portal and ATC is not to approve any flights but refer back to the portal. However, as you saw above, some ATC folks appeared to be more helpful.

I learned one thing, after losing a 2K job recently, I am not playing that game again, next time I am pestering my FSDO to intercede. Perhaps I'll get lucky...

 

[Pescatoral Pursuit]

Assuming you are part 107 certificate holder...

The moral here is to make the TOWER, not the FAA bureaucracy, aware of your presence, so they can do their job, which is to provide airspace deconfliction.

Call it in. IF they ask, tell them you are a hobbyist, then go do your job and hopefully get paid.

Buona Fortuna

 

[uasairsupport]

The "official" but not "really policy" from the feds is that part 107 operators can only receive authorizations via the FAA portal and ATC is not to approve any flights but refer back to the portal. However, as you saw above, some ATC folks appeared to be more helpful.

I learned one thing, after losing a 2K job recently, I am not playing that game again, next time I am pestering my FSDO to intercede. Perhaps I'll get lucky...

FSDO helped me out tremendously. I called my contact, in fact the same guy that signed me off for my 107 and he called Washington. I had my waiver in a week.

 

[BigAl07]

Call it in. IF they ask, tell them you are a hobbyist, then go do your job and hopefully get paid.

With all due respect, that's horrible advice IMHO. Outright lie in order to do a job? We need a little bit of ethics now and again.

If you're going to be a professional and play with the big boys it's much better to be up front and honest about your intentions. A small infraction now could hamper or ground your business for a LONG time to come.

I'm new to Inspire Pilots but far from new to UAS and working with the FAA to get clearances etc.

 

[BigAl07]

sorry I'm on my phone, and also only fly mavic for now (too poor to own an inspire since I have to upgrade my cinema gear)

Anyway, I know you can apply for a waiver for fly in class C or B airspace for a 2 week period, but since that takes so long... can I just contact the tower and ask permission? They seem to not mind recreational drones, but but how do they feel about commercial drones (if this is even legal)

Thanks.

As already stated above (very well), you "can" call the tower. Until the statues are re-written to state otherwise you can contact the tower directly and ask for clearance. The worst thing they can say is NO and direct you to the portal. You might get lucky and get approval but if that is he case be sure to document who you talked to etc and file that with your logs just in case.

Fortunately Authorizations are coming much more quickly for the "easy/Safe" submissions than they were. The risky ones are still taking a while because they require more sign offs and such. The Waivers take a bit longer because they are good for a longer period of time.

The good news is we are seeing some potential for the new "AP" approval system going live in the next year or so. All indications are by the end of July 2018 we could be on the INSTANT approval/denial system. I stress the term we "COULD" because I suspect there will be a lot of bugs to work out of it.

 

[Deleted member 37921]

In my experience, tower facilities generally don't know the rules all that well. Pure civilian facilities tend to be more accommodating. I've dealt with a few military towers and they almost all direct you to apply for a FAA waiver and don't believe they even are allowed to grant verbal authorizations, but if you say it's recreational they're fine with it. It's all CYA from them.