FAA Ag Drone Exemptions Issued
On May 25th, the Federal Aviation Administration issued revised and streamlined exemptions for Part 137 regarding utilization of agricultural drones. The following message from FAA was transmitted earlier this week. Overall, the new exemptions appear to be good news for IFCA members for which this would apply.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is streamlining the application and approval process for agricultural drone operations by issuing two precedent-setting exemptions today. Given the significant increase in agricultural aircraft operator certificate applicants seeking to use UAS in agricultural aircraft operations under 14 CFR Part 137 and the agency’s approval of hundreds of these requests with few incidents, the FAA is shifting to a risk-based approach, which will provide applicants looking to use their drones for agricultural spraying or surveying a clearer and more efficient path to obtain approval from the agency. These exemptions apply to certain drones both over and under 55 pounds. We anticipate these precedent-setting exemptions and the streamlined process will enable the FAA to ultimately clear a sizable number of existing applications in the coming weeks.