Just had my first airspace authorization approved (and after only 4 days too!)

[dawgpilot]

Very happy today:

I occasionally visit a town under Class D airspace, where the adjacent airport isn't part of LAANC (contract tower, I think), so I finally decided to apply for an Airspace Authorization. I asked for a year-long wide-area authorization, with the only limitation being the published UAS altitude limit. Approved after only 4 days! Dates were adjusted a bit based on the approval. Hopefully this is a sign of good things happening at the FAA!

 

[zalo]

Would you care to share your application with us?

 

[Surveyflyer]

My first attempt, not so lucky.
I had a project in El Centro California, last week, 1 mile from IPL airport. The grid map called out a 0 elevation. I filed two requests for two separate dates on the FAA DroneZone site and got a confirmation of the submitted request.
After a week with no answer I contacted UAS help @ faa.gov. In about an hour the FAA called. They saw on the map that I was just inside the green area, but close to the flight path. They denied the authorization anyway. He said that it is almost a sure bet if you are in a 0 elevation block, you will be denied. He also stated that the FAA will not respond to authorizations sent on the FAA DroneZone site, and only approved vendors, i.e. airmap should be used. Not what I have been told in the past. They also have 30 days to review and respond.
I did the job with gps anyway, but it would have been nice to get a flight to compare final products.
Dawgpilot's application might help.

 

[dawgpilot]

Hey everybody, sorry for the delay in the reply.

Instead of me providing the exact wording of my application, I'll just summarize what I provided to the FAA. This will allow people to customize their application and make sure it is tailored to their exact operations.

I entered a 1-year long date range, with the frequency of operations being monthly.
Maximum flight altitude was 400 feet AGL. I selected the wide-area operation option.

My stated location was:
Multiple areas around [town] within [my local airport] Class-D airspace. I also specified that all altitudes that I would be flying at would be at or below the published maximum altitude for that square on the FAA's published UAS Facility Map (UASFM), and that no operations would take place in those sectors with a published 0 altitude.

As for as the coordinates I entered, I picked the airport's GPS coordinates as listed in the airport facility directory. (I was told this is the proper way to specify a wide-area location, as the airport is the center of the airspace)

Description of operations:
I wrote that I was requesting permission for repeated occasional UAS flights within the [my airport] Class-D airspace, for the purposes of aerial photography. I also listed what type of UAS I planned on flying, and that all my operations would be compliant with all other part 107 rules and regulations, including any published TFRs.

Hopefully that's helpful. Of course, there is no guarantee that the exact same application will be successful again. I imagine that more complicated airspace areas might draw greater scrutiny or questions before approval. Fortunately LAANC is now providing automated authorizations to many airports though, so the need for manual approval has been decreasing.