Drone Pilots September 2018
Here are some statistics on drone pilot activity in the US. I obtained all the data from publicly available sources on faa.gov. The data is current as of September 1, 2018. If this is interesting or you want more information, get in touch.
Remote Pilot Certifications
As of September 1 2018, there are at least 64,867 pilots with a part 107 UAS (drone) certificate. Following the 60% rule from last month, that gives 108,000, an increase of 8,000 in the last month.
Part 107 Waivers
As of today, there have been 2,020 waivers granted to 1,855 individuals at 1,565 companies. That represents an increase of 21 waivers since last post.
The first waiver to expire does so November of this year. Breakdown of waivers granted by type:
| Regulation | Type | Count |
|---|---|---|
| 107.29 | Daylight operation | 1850 |
| 107.41 | Operation in controlled airspace | 106 |
| 107.35 | Operation of multiple small unmanned aircraft | 37 |
| 107.31 | Visual line of sight aircraft operation | 22 |
| 107.51(b) | Altitude | 17 |
| 107.39 | Operation over human beings | 12 |
| 107.33(b) | Visual observer | 12 |
| 107.51(d) | Minimum distance from clouds | 10 |
| 107.51(c) | Minimum visibility | 10 |
| 107.33(c)(2) | Visual observer | 6 |
| 107.25(b) | Operation from a moving vehicle or aircraft | 4 |
| 107.51(a) | Maximum groundspeed | 1 |
| 107.39(a) | Operation over human beings | 1 |
| 107.33(c) | Visual observer | 1 |
The number of total waivers granted over time:
