Questions & Answers
UAS Certification Process
What regulations and information do I need to know before I initiate the UAS certification process?
As an applicant, you must understand civil regulatory requirements for the following 14 CFR parts, as they apply to experimental aircraft:
- 21, Certification procedures for products and parts. Regulations that allow for experimental certificates and special flight permits.
- 43, Maintenance, preventive maintenance, rebuilding, and alteration. Unless we previously issued a different kind of airworthiness certificate for the aircraft, part 43 does not apply to experimental aircraft. However, you should be familiar with the scope and detail of this part. Appendix D of part 43 provides useful information for you to use to develop a maintenance and inspection program that the FAA will ultimately find acceptable.
- 45, Identification and registration marking. The requirement for marking aircraft with the registration number.
- 47, Aircraft registration. The requirements for registering aircraft.
- 61, Certification: Pilots, flight instructors, and ground instructors. The UA must be flown by a licensed, certificated, current pilot.
- 65, Certification: Airmen other than flight crew members. You may be required to have maintenance performed by certificated airmen.
- 91, General operating and flight rules. A certificated pilot must operate the unmanned aircraft within the regulations established for manned aircraft.
If you lack knowledge about, or don’t understand, the regulatory requirements related to UAS certification, we will conclude the certification process at this point. We will advise you to gain necessary knowledge and then contact us when you understand the applicable regulatory requirements.
The UAS process closely follows the manned aircraft certification process so you may refer to Order 8130.2 and AC 21-12 for related reading material. You may also obtain information from New Mexico State University Physical Science Laboratory, Technical Services Institute.
If you demonstrate sufficient knowledge, we will instruct you to complete a Program Letter (14 CFR Section 21.193) and Safety Checklist (MS Word) and submit them to us for review. This review can take from 30 to 60 days from the date we receive your letter and checklist.
How long does the entire UAS certification process take?
The UAS certification process consists of FAA evaluation of the applicant, the applicant's preparation of the Program Letter and Safety Checklist, and a Safety Evaluation. The entire process can take three months to more than a year. The amount of processing time depends significantly on your (applicant) efforts.
During initial conversations with you, the potential applicant, we evaluate your familiarity with applicable regulations and areas such as:
- Your prior manufacturing activity and experience;
- Company staff background and engineering expertise;
- Company policies and procedures (and documentation thereof) for design, manufacturing, configuration control, software development, testing, analysis, and quality assurance;
- Attributes with regard to the proposed UAS;
- Proposed operating location; and,
- Maturity and complexity of the UAS, if it was previously operated for another agency.
Following favorable outcome of this evaluation, we provide you with a Sample Program Letter and Safety Checklist that you must complete and return. Your preparation of these documents often is the longest part of the application process.
Once we receive and review your completed documents, we schedule a safety review with you at FAA Headquarters in Washington, DC. During this meeting we schedule a final visit at your facilities and proposed flight area, usually within 30-60 days. The intent of the final meeting is to clear up any open questions, issue the experimental airworthiness certificate with associated operating limitations, and witness a flight to verify safe operations.
I’ve heard the FAA prioritizes UAS applicants based on certain criteria. How does this process work?
Manpower and workload considerations require a change to the Aircraft Certification Service (AIR) policy and process for accepting UAS applicants for experimental certificates. These changes, effective January 1, 2008, apply to new applicants and current certificate holders who present new systems. However, the policy change does not affect current certificate holders who may reapply with the same or duplicate systems, and who only require support from the geographic MIDO and FSDO.
Based on our assessment of the UAS certification process, and required dedicated resources to support the process, we determined that we can issue a limited number of experimental certificates per calendar year. This number is directly affected by the complexity of each applicant’s system and the amount of work effort each applicant requires. The process we use to accept applicants will prioritize and sequence their proposed projects to ensure effective use of available FAA resources.
We evaluate applicants on the following criteria:
- Previous civil certification experience and success.
- Previous experimental airworthiness experience and success.
- Evidence of mature design, manufacturing, and quality systems.
- Understanding of the regulatory process in 14 CFR.
If you meet the majority of these four criteria, you will receive preference ahead of earlier applicants with little or no experience.
