Recent content by William Gaddy

If your start and/or end times are past civil twilight, yeah they're going to kick it back to "manual approval" which means... welcome back to the portal ghetto with me, brother.

I'll note that we're well into Winter 2017, so I imagine a lot of people sleeping in squeaky heavy-as-a-dumptruck steel govt issue chairs with their feet on their desks in their dingy cublices. "Ah f-it. The private sector will handle it now"

It's not in the Airmap nor Skyward apps AFAICT... the FAA maintains a poorly maintained list at FAA Facilities participating in LAANC Initial Prototype Evaluation – Fall 2017

FAA1000 by William Gaddy posted Nov 10, 2017 at 8:15 PM

It HAS been getting better for routine requests lately. But, yes, it smells of healthcare.gov when they first rolled that out -- a raging fustercluck. Large area waivers and combo's still go into the manual pile, and by the time they get back to you, it'll be Indiana Jones finding you guarding...

I'm in NY/NJ/PA/San Francisco, and I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for them to add LAANC for KLGA, KJFK, KEWR (should be renamed to KLOL for authorizations), and KSFO. This affects me less than others. I'll be stuck in the portal ghetto for quite a while methinks.

It was a free app for me, but I have not completed a full LAANC authorization in it yet, so I don't know if you run into a paywall.

Howto: Download Airmap app on your ipad/iphone/android, follow the bouncing ball, and pray that they have added LAANC to your desired area. Otherwise you're still in the FAA portal ghetto.

When my wife asks me this (she quit trying quite a few years ago), my answer is always too complicated. I just say "watch the movie "Buckaroo Banzai", "Too Big to Fail", "The Social Network", "Air America", and merge 'em, and yep, that all's pretty much what I do"... she just rolls her eyes.

So, as a public service: When it comes to government-related applications (not just the FAA), it's a wise idea to turn their own language around on them. Oh, you need "14 CFR 107.299 (b): Pilot must have available a Purple Pony With Sprinkles"? IIV. Justification that Pilot has a Purple Pony...

Administration plans to establish test sites for promoting commercial-drone use by dividing oversight What could POSSIBLY go wrong, here (paywall): https://www.wsj.com/articles/white-house-to-test-federal-local-sharing-of-drone-regulat

By the way, I wrote a whole elaborate article on this mess that you folks might find informative/helpful. It's specific to airspace Autorizations and Waivers, but a lot of the same rigamarole applies to other 107 waivers: Part 107 Waivers and Authorizations — a Primer

HA. Yeah, I'm starting to get cheeky with those guys now. I asked for a blanket Class Bravo COA for NYC, linked to my 107.29 about a month ago. I Wonder What Their Response will be... hmmm. At least they were skippy with giving me a tracking number. I also have a waiver app in for the IFR...

Email me and perhaps we can compare notes.

I've heard anecdotally from others that they seem to be more restrictive with respect to non-airspace waivers (such as 107.29 daylight ops) now. Mine issued about this time last year. There's a lively discussion about this in one of my professional facebook groups right now. It's probably...