Welcome, Commercial Drone Pilots!
Join our growing community today!
Sign up

FAA Part 107 - Operations Over People January 2022 USA

BigAl07

Administrator
Staff Member
Premium Pilot
DSAR Member
Joined
Jan 8, 2018
Messages
2,817
Reaction score
2,533
Age
53
Location
Western North Carolina
Let's get this out there in one neat and tidy package for future reference. This is only relevant for Part 107 Operations under the FAA in the United States of America!!

This is from April 2021 so the actual dates might have changed a few days here or there but they are very close. At this point it's irrelevant!!

Ops over People (OOP):

There are 4 categories of OOP.

Ops over People, Category 1:

The PIC must use an aircraft that:

•Weighs less than 250g (.55 lbs.), and
•Contains no “exposed rotating parts that would lacerate human skin upon impact with a human being”.
•There are no manufacturer requirements for Declaration of Compliance. It will be incumbent upon the PIC to make sure the UAS qualifies.
•No sustained flights over open air assemblies w/o RID (concerts, construction sites, etc.).
•Goes into effect on 4/21/21.
•No flights over open-air assemblies w/o RID.


Ops over People, Category 2:

The PIC must use an aircraft that:

•Possesses a Declaration of Compliance.
•Does not transfer more than 11 ft/lbs of KE.
•Has no rotating parts that lacerate skin.
•Does not contain any safety defects.
•No sustained flights over open air assemblies w/o RID (concerts, construction sites, etc.).
•Labeled as such.
•Maintained records & instructions.
•Implementation date is dependent on when manufacturers can get their Declaration of Compliance approved.
•They can start submitting them 9-12 months after 4/16/21.

Ops over People, Category 3:

The PIC must use an aircraft that:

•Possesses a Declaration of Compliance.
•Does not transfer more than 25 ft/lbs of KE.
•Has no rotating parts that lacerate skin.
•Does not contain any safety defects.
•Labeled as such.
•Maintained records & instructions.
•The PIC may not fly above open air assemblies.
•May only operate over people if:
•On a closed-site with notice given, or
•If person is directly part of the operation, or
•Under shelter or stationary vehicle.
•There is no RID requirement for this category.
•Implementation date is dependent on when manufacturers can get their Declaration of Compliance approved.
•They can start submitting them 9-12 months after 4/16/21.

Ops over People, Category 4:

The PIC must use an aircraft that:

•Possesses a Part 21 Airworthiness Certificate.
•Operated within the Flight Manual.
•Be RID compliant.
•Have very detailed records.
•Have all records accessible by the FAA and/or NTSB.
•Implementation date is dependent on when manufacturers can get their Airworthiness Certificate approved.
•They can start submitting them 6-12 months after 4/16/21.

Ops Over Moving Vehicles:

The PIC must use an aircraft that:

•Qualifies for OOP operations
•Categories 1-3 must:
•Remain in a closed-set with notification, or
•Not maintain sustained flights over vehicles (basically they must be transitory).
•Category 4 must be operated in accordance with their Flight Manual.
•All operations over moving vehicles are tied to the timeline of the category of OOP they fall under.
 
•Has no rotating parts that lacerate skin.
Thanks for this nice summary! For OOP Cat 2, did you mean to carry over the language from cat 1, i.e. "no exposed rotating parts?" I mostly shoot real estate, so haven't been sweating OOP. But when I eventually need to work over people, I want to make sure I'm compliant. I use an Air 2S a lot lately, and the prop guards I've seen look pretty flimsy. Since it doesn't have a declaration of compliance, it's moot anyway, but I'm wondering if we can expect better designs in the future. Seems like a thread re: how to ensure your UA is safe for OOP , would be warranted, once we have compliant UAs to fly, that is.
 
Thanks for this nice summary! For OOP Cat 2, did you mean to carry over the language from cat 1, i.e. "no exposed rotating parts?" I mostly shoot real estate, so haven't been sweating OOP. But when I eventually need to work over people, I want to make sure I'm compliant. I use an Air 2S a lot lately, and the prop guards I've seen look pretty flimsy. Since it doesn't have a declaration of compliance, it's moot anyway, but I'm wondering if we can expect better designs in the future. Seems like a thread re: how to ensure your UA is safe for OOP , would be warranted, once we have compliant UAs to fly, that is.

No that wording is accurate as-is straight from my FAA Safety Team Presentation I teach from. No exposed rotating parts that can cause laceration is common in Cat 1, 2, and 3.

I'm not 100% sure that mere "prop guards" will pass the sniff test for making the UAS unable to lacerate skin. As much as I hate them, I think Prop Cages will be more likely the correct solution.

It's like this, the FAA has told you what the aircraft must not do.... it's up to you, the RPIC to do whatever is needed to make sure that's not possible. Go as minimal as you like so long as you are confident you are meeting the requirements set forth. If there is an incident and somehow someone gets cut via the props then your aircraft was not compliant and the fun begins. As is very common, the FAA has given us just enough rope to hang ourselves if we aren't very careful.

It's very possible we'll do a thread like you mentioned once we have options available.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TreeLineView

Members online

No members online now.

Forum statistics

Threads
4,277
Messages
37,605
Members
5,969
Latest member
KC5JIM