A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/898522
program is not prescriptive as to the types of operations to be tested, but rather want to see what ideas are propo sed by the applicants . The entities selected and the ideas proposed would dictate how these pilot pr ograms may affect air traffic. Mr. Richards and Mr. Weidner will be working closely with the agency as these efforts progress. LOW ALTITUDE AUTHORIZATION A ND NOTIFICATION CAPABILITY (LAANC) Again, the vast majority of Mr. Richards and Mr. Weidner's time this past month has been spen t on the development of LAANC. Mr. Richards and Mr. Weidner and their FAA counterparts have completed initial training at all pr ototype facilities - MIA, CVG, ZMP, LNK, RNO, SJC, PHX, ANC/LHD, and MRI. The LAANC tool is operational at CVG , ZMP, LNK, RNO, SJC, and PHX. There are still a few issues remaining to be worke d out at ANC/LHD, MRI and MIA. Once those issues are resolve d, LAANC will become operational at those facilities as well. Over the next 2 - 3 months, these test facilities will provide feedback and identify issues that need to be wor ked to improve the LAANC tool. Once those updates are made, the intent is to deploy LAANC in facilities acr oss the NAS throughout CY2018. The initial deployment will simply replace the manual process in which notifications are accepted a nd authorizations are approved . The tool itself will be used solely by staff support/manage ment during the initial phase. It is envisioned the future iterations will be incorporated into operations. As a reminder , LAANC will automate the UAS authoriz ation for Part 107 proponents. There are still few legal issues to work through, but LAANC is expected to be able to provide notification for Part 101/Hobbyist proponents by early in CY2018. The initial test version of LAANC will only include Part 107 authorizations. The Agency is working with several industry partners who will provide this service to the va rious UAS proponents . The Agency will provide UAS facility map data to the industry partners. The partners will, in turn, develop tools that will provide authorization and notification services to the proponents, on a real - time basis, based on the UAS faci lity map data. The authorizations and notifications will be instantly transmitted back to the facility for which the authorization/notification was made. Should you be asked for a list of the industry partners who are authorized UAS Service Suppliers for LAANC, refer those inquiries to : https://www.faa.gov/uas/programs_partnerships/uas_data_exchange/ On that page, you will a section titled, Approved LAANC UAS Service Supplies . In that section there are hyperlinks to the a pproved UAS Service Suppliers. There are currently two approved suppliers, but more are expected to be added once they've completed the MOU process with the FAA and demonstrate that their system meets the LAA NC requirements. UAS FACILITY MAPS In an effort to improve the quality of Part 107 authorization requests coming into the FAA, the agency is making public the UAS Facility Maps that each terminal facility was a sked to complete. The agency has found t hat absent any guidance on what altitudes may be authorized around airports, proponents are simply requesting 400' AGL for every flight - whether they need it or not. This is leading to a high rate of disapprovals and greatly increased coordination time wi th the affected facilities.