Why We Need Your Voice on Part 108: BVLOS Comments to Consider and the Future of Small Drone Businesses
The drone industry is at a crossroads. This week, headlines have been dominated by DJI losing an important lawsuit against the Pentagon, Auterion securing $130M in new funding, Flock Safety acquiring Aerodome to deploy Drone-as-First-Responder systems, and even breaking news of two Amazon Prime Air drones colliding during testing.
Amidst these stories, one issue will impact every pilot, business, and stakeholder in our community far more than any single company’s win or loss: the FAA’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) for Part 108 — the long-awaited framework for Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations.
We’re writing this article because we believe more voices are urgently needed in the public comment process. These rules, as currently written, risk shutting out small businesses, ignoring performance-based mitigations, and creating unnecessary barriers for hardworking drone pilots who have already proven safety and responsibility under Part 107.
We all worked hard to become drone pilots. Why should these rules cut us out of the future?
What Needs to Change in Part 108
Below are suggested executive-level comments — concise, professional, and tied directly to NPRM provisions. Consider them for your own submission or future white papers.
1. Favor a Risk-Based, Mitigations-First Approach
Instead of population-density cutoffs
“We strongly advocate that the FAA adopt a more nuanced, mitigations-first framework rather than relying on broad population thresholds. Many sites already use geofencing, shielding, and site control. The NPRM ignores these proven mitigations, forcing operators into certificate burdens even for low-risk flights.”
? NPRM Reference: Areas of Operation, pp. 206–210
2. Remove or Relax Country-of-Manufacture Limitations (§ 108.700)
Keep safe, proven platforms in play
“The proposed § 108.700 limit — restricting eligibility to U.S. or BAA-nation aircraft — is overly restrictive. The FAA should instead adopt a standards-based approval path that rewards transparency, compliance, and cybersecurity, regardless of country of origin.”
3. Allow Continued Use of 2.4 GHz / 5.8 GHz C2 Links (§ 108.185(d)(2))
Build on operational precedent
“Banning Part 15 bands outright ignores years of safe BVLOS operations under waiver. Operators should be allowed to use these links with RF surveys, redundant links, and fallback systems.”
4. Avoid Site-By-Site Geographic Approvals
Enable scalable operations
“Requiring geographic definitions for each job site reintroduces waiver-like burdens. The FAA should allow envelope-based or corridor authorizations, making scalable operations practical.”
5. Offer Continuity for Part 107 Waiver Holders
Don’t erase proven safety history
“A streamlined transition pathway should be available for Part 107 BVLOS waiver holders, recognizing their safety data and compliance track record. This avoids costly disruptions for established operators.”
6. Preserve Manual Control Fallback Authority (§ 108.8110)
Automation is vital, but so is a safety net
“Automation and detect-and-avoid are key, but removing manual override introduces brittleness and higher crash risk. Human supervision must remain as a fallback safety layer.”
7. Keep Permit-Level Operations Practical and Affordable
Protect small business participation
“The two-tier structure makes sense, but permit-level operations must remain low-cost, fast, and simple. Clear criteria, template forms, and 30-day review timelines are essential for small operators to survive.”
Call to Action
The FAA is asking for feedback. If we don’t speak up, these rules will harden into law, leaving small operators locked out while large corporations dominate the skies.
Now is the time to ensure that performance-based systems, risk-based frameworks, and common-sense mitigations are recognized as valid and scalable pathways.
? Submit your comments to the FAA before the deadline. Encourage your colleagues, clients, and partners to do the same.
The future of BVLOS — and the ability for small drone businesses to thrive — depends on it.
Remember: Your comments should be Unique, sourced from the document and provide a reason why this is critical.
Example Comments:
1. LandScan Population Density System (Proposed § 108.405 and related sections)
The NPRM’s reliance on the LandScan Global system for determining population densities is outdated and inappropriate for regulatory use. LandScan data is nearly two decades old, offers only ~1 km resolution, and fails to capture dynamic shifts in suburban growth, real-time mobility, or even daily workforce migration.
Recommendation:
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Adopt a modern, higher-resolution and dynamic dataset (e.g., anonymized mobile device density mapping, DOT traffic flow data) OR
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Remove population-density-based restrictions entirely, replacing them with performance-based criteria that reflect mitigations such as geofencing, site control, and detect-and-avoid systems.
Alternative Proposal:
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Designate drone delivery lanes within roadway easements for large-scale delivery applications where public expectation of overhead traffic already exists.
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Allow all other commercial and industrial BVLOS operations to proceed independent of static population density thresholds, subject to operational mitigations.
This approach creates a scalable, performance-based system that does not arbitrarily exclude semi-suburban or rural operators.
2. Pilot Certification Requirements
The NPRM appears to suggest or contemplate an additional BVLOS-specific pilot certificate. This would create unnecessary bureaucracy and exclude many small operators.
Recommendation:
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Require that all BVLOS remote pilots hold a valid Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate as a baseline.
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Leverage the existing 350,000+ Part 107 certificated pilots, avoiding duplication of effort.
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BVLOS-specific training and procedures should be developed at the organizational level (via Operations Supervisors and Coordinators, as proposed in Part 108), rather than through a separate FAA-issued certificate.
This ensures competency, preserves accessibility, and prevents undue burdens on mom-and-pop operators.
3. RF Spectrum Bans (Proposed § 108.185(d)(2))
The proposed blanket prohibition on the use of 2.4 GHz / 5.8 GHz Part 15 C2 links in higher BVLOS categories is unnecessary and ignores operational precedent.
Recommendation:
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Allow continued use of these bands when paired with RF surveys, redundant links, fallback modes, and risk mitigations.
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Avoid excluding thousands of fielded systems that already operate safely under waivers.
4. Manual Control Authority (Proposed § 108.8110)
The proposal to eliminate or significantly restrict pilot manual control contradicts safety fundamentals. Removing the ability for human override creates brittle failure points.
Recommendation:
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Retain manual override authority for pilots or supervisors in degraded conditions.
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Automation and detect-and-avoid should be prioritized, but not at the expense of safety fallbacks.
5. Transition Path for Current Waiver Holders
The NPRM lacks clarity regarding operators who currently hold Part 107 BVLOS waivers.
Recommendation:
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Create a streamlined “grandfathering” pathway recognizing existing waiver data, operational history, and compliance.
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This preserves continuity and rewards proven safety cases.
6. Methodology for BVLOS Without New Certificates
The FAA should adopt a performance-based organizational authorization model rather than a pilot certificate regime.
Key Elements:
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Organizational-level authorization instead of per-pilot certificates.
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Role-based credentialing (Operations Supervisor, Flight Coordinator) as outlined in Part 108.
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Risk-tiered operations: permits for lower-risk BVLOS, certificates for higher-risk BVLOS.
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Operator-level training & recency requirements, audited by FAA.
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Envelope-based approvals rather than site-by-site filings.
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Safety management systems (SMS) with incident reporting, hazard logs, and audits.
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Data-driven feedback loop: performance reporting to refine future rulemaking.
This architecture avoids the bottleneck of certifying each individual pilot while ensuring organizational accountability and systemic safety.
Conclusion
The FAA’s Part 108 rulemaking represents an important opportunity to enable scalable BVLOS operations. However, reliance on outdated datasets (LandScan), unnecessary certificate burdens, restrictive RF provisions, and removal of manual safety controls will significantly limit its success.
By adopting a performance-based, risk-informed approach — grounded in modern data, leveraging the existing Part 107 certification base, and focusing oversight at the organizational rather than individual level — the FAA can achieve both safety and innovation.
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