A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/937821
From the program announcement: "This program will seek partnerships between state, local, and tribal government entities and private industry to gather operational and other data from advanced operational concepts, such as flights over people and package delivery. It will also enable state, local, and tribal entities to determine what kind of pilot program activities, subject to FAA oversight, will occur in their respective jurisdictions." Over 150 successful applications have been submitted. The DOT and the FAA will select approximately 10 applications from the successful entrants to be a part of this program. The entities selected and the ideas proposed would dictate how these pilot programs may affect air traffic. Mr. Richards and Mr. Weidner will be working closely with the agency as these efforts progress. LOW ALTITUDE AUTHORIZATION AND NOTIFICATION CAPABILITY (LAANC): Development and preparation for nationwide LAANC rollout continues. FAA AIT is busy making changes and updates based on the feedback received from the LAANC test sites. LAANC will remain operative at the test locations (CVG, ZMP, LNK, RNO, SJC, PHX, ANC/LHD, MRI, and MIA) while these updates are being made. LAANC is expected to be deployed nationwide beginning in April and finishing up the rollout in August/September. As a reminder, the initial version of LAANC will simply replace the manual process in which authorizations are approved. The tool itself will be used solely by staff support/management during the initial phase. It is envisioned the future iterations will be incorporated into operations. As a reminder, LAANC will automate the UAS authorization 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 at some point in the future. 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 various 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 facility 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 approved 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 LAANC 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 asked to complete. The final group of maps was released on December 7th. With a few

