Page 27 - 70843_NSAA_SummerJournal2016

however, there are only a few reported incidents of fines
issued to commercial drone operators for failing to obtain
a Section 333 exemption or comply with other FAA regula-
tions. And those few enforcement actions have occurred in
extreme circumstances with higher risks of potential injury
or property damage, and in especially congested airspace.
And remote pilots in command may deviate from these
rules in emergency situations. The FAA, though, said this
“deviation authority” is “limited to emergency situations that
affect the safety of flight.” If a remote pilot can establish that commercial general liability insurance provides for your
he or she deviated from an FAA rule (like flying over people)
in order to ensure the overall safety of flight operations, there
likely will be no FAA violation or sanctions. Drone pilots,
moreover, must report any drone accident to the FAA within
10 days of any operation resulting in injury or property dam-
age over $500, or risk the suspension or loss of their remote
pilot certificate.
Given the explosion of commercial drone use anticipated
once these new rules become effective on August 29, and
given the FAA’s low budget to police and enforce these rules,
the FAA will only be able to go after the most egregious vio-
lators, or instances of serious injury or property damage.
More likely, lesser violations will not be subject to enforce-
ment priority, given the FAA’s small budget for enforcement.
At worst, low-level violators will receive a written letter from
the FAA explaining how the drone operator can fully comply
with regulations in the future, without any fine.
In addition, for those ski areas operating under a special
use permit from the USFS, the permits require adherence to
all federal laws, and a willful violation of the FAA’s drone
regulations could (if sufficiently egregious) risk suspension or
revocation of the Forest Service’s permit to the ski area.
QWHAT CAN SKI AREAS DO NOW TO
PREPARE FOR DRONE USAGE?
AThere are a few key things ski areas can do now before these
regulations become effective in late August.
Get pilots certified. Determine who at the resort (mar-
keting, ski patrol, lift operations, etc.) has the technologi-
cal interest and desire to become certified as a drone pilot.
It’s likely that a resort will have several drone operators who
want to become certified remote pilots in command under
the new FAA rules. Those individuals should apply for a
remote pilot airman’s certificate, take the aeronautical skills
assessment test at an FAA-approved testing center, and begin
the background check process through the FAA. Again, start
this process quickly, because when the rules take effect there
will be an initial backlog in processing the applications.
Register drones. If the ski area owns or will be purchas-
ing drones for use at the ski area, or will use drones individ-
ually purchased by its employees, those drones must still be
registered with the FAA under the agency’s rules released
last year.
Clarify insurance coverage. Be sure to contact your insur-
ance representative to discuss what coverage, if any, your
drone operations.
Communicate with stakeholders. Set up informational
meetings with key community stakeholders—including the
local air traffic control in the vicinity and your local helicop-
ter medical service providers—to discuss your resort’s plans
for using drones. Designate a specific contact for these stake-
holders to reach out with questions about drones in emer-
gency situations.
If your ski area is on US Forest Service land, discuss
your drone operations with your local Forest Service ranger,
and share your drone restriction policy. The feedback and
dialogue with these stakeholders will help everyone under-
stand the risks involved and the practices that will be need
to be developed for FAA compliance and overall guest and
employee safety.
Likewise, work with your local media organizations to
share your guest drone policy (it will help spread the word to
the community), and consider educating guests (season pass
holders, condominium owners, etc.) about the resort’s drone
policy. Because ski areas will need to obtain a waiver from
the FAA to use drones at the resort when flying over peo-
ple, educating your guests now, pre-season, on how the resort
plans to use drones (search and rescue, special events, lift
inspections, marketing, and so on) will help with the FAA
waiver process down the road, especially if your resort can
show an ongoing sophisticated guest education process.
Along these lines, work with your outside legal coun-
sel to discuss how you can incorporate the use of drones into
your resort’s releases and waivers of liability. Because your
marketing department may, someday, want to use photo-
graphs or video footage of guests on the mountain (taken
from camera-enabled drones), it will be important to obtain
consent for use of an individual’s image in your season pass
releases. Similarly, as part of your resort’s release or waiver
of liability, you may want to add a provision to the exist-
ing laundry list of claims or possible injuries which states
that the skier is waiving or releasing all claims related to
any operation of drones (by the resort or a guest) when they
sign a release of liability, such as in a season pass release, ski
rental, or in ski lesson release.
SUMMER 2016 | NSAA JOURNAL | 25