DroneZone: Operational Waivers under Part 107

The FAA is improving the Web portal through which waiver requests are submitted, with robust enhancements to the portal for requesting waivers from operational sections of Part 107. As airspace waivers and operational waivers are vastly different from one another and are issued by different components of the FAA, the FAA has decided that it would be logical to create a separate IC for operational waivers. The request will allow the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to leverage automated means of collecting and processing operational waivers requested pursuant to 14 CFR Part 107. The DroneZone for operational waivers includes many improvements, the most important of which being completeness validation-- a crucial feature employed by such systems as OPM's eQIP system for security background checks, or the private TurboTax by Intuit. In each case, the system will not accept a submission unless all necessary data elements are provided. By introducing this feature, the FAA will vastly reduce the amount of time applicants spend locating and submitting information that they neglected to include in their original applications, and applicants can be confident that if an application is accepted by this new system, the application is complete. This technology will help the public in availing itself of 14 CFR part 107, Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems, which provides that the FAA may issue certificates of waiver that authorize certain operations that do not fulfill the requirements of Part 107. Title 14 C.F.R. § 107.200(a) provides: The Administrator may issue a certificate of waiver authorizing a deviation from any regulation specified in § 107.205 if the Administrator finds that a proposed small UAS operation can safely be conducted under the terms of that certificate of waiver. Under 14 C.F.R. § 107.205, several operational restrictions codified in Part 107 may be waived. These waivers, which are referred to as “operational waivers”, may be requested via the web portal. Through the web portal, respondents will establish a single account where they will be able to conduct multiple activities, including requesting operational waivers pursuant to § 107.205. Part 107 respondents communicate directly with the FAA when using the web portal. When a respondent requests an operational waiver, the FAA will manually process the request and provide an approval or denial to the respondent via the web portal.

The latest form for DroneZone: Operational Waivers under Part 107 expires 2027-10-31 and can be found here.