The FAA needs enough information to understand the proposed operation, identify its hazards, and evaluate the mitigations. Readiness work turns operational knowledge into a controlled evidence set the applicant can defend and maintain.
Documentation is often the first constraint
The FAA does not approve promises; it approves documented safety cases. The FAA's own waiver trend analysis reports that “the vast majority of waiver applications are two sentences or less,” and its most common denial reason is a failure to identify hazards and describe mitigations that reduce risk to an acceptable level. Most applications don't fail because the operation was too risky; they fail because the FAA was given no basis to evaluate the risk at all. Under 14 CFR 107.200(b) the agency needs exactly two things: a complete description of the operation, and justification that it can be conducted safely under the terms of a certificate of waiver. Preparation quality is the one variable fully in your control.
The authority is expanding, and it never was a big-company game.A DOT Office of Inspector General report (June 2025) counted FAA BVLOS waivers rising from 6 in 2020 to 190 by October 2024, held by 134 distinct operators; AUVSI counted more than 657 active BVLOS waivers by mid-2025, spanning 46 states and 39 industries. In AUVSI's analysis of the historical record, the majority of waiver holders were organizations with fewer than 10 employees. What separates applicants isn't headcount. It's documentation quality.
Counts
Current work can become transition evidenceA serious waiver campaign may produce a CONOPS, hazard analysis, detect-and-avoid evidence, training and testing records, a maintenance program, and operating history. Organized in the vocabulary of the Part 108 proposal, that same evidence can support later adaptation without assuming the final rule will preserve the proposal.
Proposed
Counts are point-in-time: expired waivers drop off the FAA's public list, so “active” always understates cumulative grants. The fewer-than-10-employees finding is AUVSI's analysis of the 2016 to 2020 era, when night waivers dominated: a historical pattern, not a claim about today's BVLOS holders.
Two program horizons, one first conversation
The free Readiness Call routes the question first. If a paid readiness engagement is useful, we scope it as fixed-fee work after the call; there is no public price list or application package to buy from this page.
Flying under waivers, or need one
Part 107 Waiver Readiness
For organizations whose work requires relief from a waivable operating limitation, such as BVLOS, certain operations over people, multiple-aircraft operations, or tall-structure work. A review can classify nine readiness dimensions as Ready, Needs Work, or Missing against the target operation. A roadmap then sequences evidence, identifies whether the requested relief is actually waivable, and separates airspace authorization from waiver relief. Application-preparation coaching helps the client develop its own CONOPS, risk analysis, and safety explanations. The client approves and files every submission.
You review, approve, and file through your own FAA accounts, and no one can promise a grant.
Building toward BVLOS at scale
Part 108 Program Readiness
The FAA has proposed a new Part 108 that would authorize BVLOS operations under standing permits and certificates instead of case-by-case waivers, and would shift responsibility from the individual pilot to the organization. It is a proposed rule, so its categories, thresholds, and dates can change, but its structure is public. Part 108 Program Readiness is consolidation: a readiness review and a requirement-by-requirement gap crosswalk, a build stage in which structured workbooks become your manuals, policies, and records (your documents, in your name), and permit-renewal planning that accounts for the proposal's allowance to apply for a new permit up to 120 days before an existing permit expires.
No permit, certificate, or timeline can be promised; preparation is the product.
Three stages, one evidence discipline
Stage 01
Review
Inventory the documents and operating evidence already present. Classify each applicable requirement as Ready, Needs Work, or Missing and tie every finding to evidence. Program maturity is described in plain bands, never as a numeric score or grade.
Roadmap
Stage 02
Build
Complete structured workbooks with coaching. The filled workbooks become the client's operations manual, risk register, procedures, and records, in the client's name.
Your manuals
Stage 03
Application preparation
Assemble the application package and prepare responses to agency questions. The client's responsible person signs and submits through the client's own accounts.
You file
A readiness review is advisory: it is not a certification, an attestation, or a compliance determination, and it is not legal advice. No FAA outcome or timeline is guaranteed; the FAA alone decides.
Every BVLOS safety case answers one question: what substitutes for the pilot's own eyes?
The approaches the FAA has historically accepted organize into four working patterns we use for readiness purposes. These are not FAA-defined classifications. Choosing a pattern is choosing your evidence stack, and mismatching one to your operation is one of the most common failure modes we see.
ShieldedObstruction-basedFly inside a defined envelope tied to structures, where crewed aircraft are not expected. The structure itself provides the core mitigation, and typically no detect-and-avoid hardware is required, subject to the terms of the authority.
Detect-and-avoid technologySensor-basedSensors substitute for the observer: cooperative and non-cooperative detection, with evidence carried through the completed avoidance maneuver.
Observer networkAirspace surveillanceHuman eyes arranged deliberately: networked visual observers or trained personnel monitoring the operating area or a surveillance display, with defined communication and cease-operations triggers.
Automated remote operationDock-basedAutomated launch and recovery run from a remote operations center, always riding on the shielded or detect-and-avoid air-risk method underneath.
Public-safety note: agencies flying public-aircraft operations may route through the FAA's Part 91 public-aircraft path, distinct from Part 107. We identify the correct lane and route accordingly before work is scoped.
Nine dimensions shape application readiness
Most programs are strong in a few and untested in the rest, and the untested ones are where applications stall. The free Readiness Call is a first verbal pass across all nine; it produces a verbal recap and a recommended next step, never a written score or a checklist.
1Equipment, detect-and-avoid, and command and control
2Staffing and defined roles
3Certificates and licensing
4Insurance
5Safety systems and risk method
6Operations systems and CONOPS
7Flight planning and airspace
8Maintenance and records
9Recurrency and scenario-based training
Common starting points
A current operating limit blocks a defined mission
The organization flies under Part 107, and a line-of-sight, over-people, multiple-aircraft, or tall-structure limitation prevents the intended work. The first question is which form of relief applies and what evidence the safety case needs.
Most of the evidence exists, but it is scattered
A serious Part 107 program may already have useful operating history and procedures. Preparation is often consolidation, version control, and a requirement-by-requirement crosswalk rather than starting over.
The program operates, but the file cannot answer outside questions
Procurement, an insurer, a client, or leadership is asking for evidence the current document set cannot reconstruct. The engagement starts with what exists and who owns it.
A sponsor, budget, and mission exist, but the program does not
Governance, operating pathways, records, training, and equipment requirements can be designed before an aircraft is selected.
The organization flies public-aircraft operations
Public-safety and other public-aircraft work follows a lane distinct from civil Part 107 operations. The call keeps those pathways separate.
The organization is not sure the work is ready
The honest answer may be not yet. A missing sponsor, mission, or budget can mean the useful next step is internal discovery rather than a regulatory engagement.
A method built for evidence the agency can read
Compliance crosswalkEvery deliverable is built on a compliance-statement crosswalk: requirement, method of compliance, manual reference, and evidence reference, so you can trace every claim back to its source.
Crosswalk
Evidence-file disciplineEngagements produce one governed, versioned evidence file (your own, with an owner and a retention convention) that supports insurance and procurement readiness. Insurer recognition of program maturity does not guarantee coverage or specific discounts.
Owned
Vendor-neutral, cross-platformNo aircraft, sensor, or software resale incentives; the method works with the fleet and toolchain you already run. Where equipment is genuinely the gap (detect-and-avoid capability, radio authorizations) the review says so factually and the roadmap sequences it.
Neutral
Prepare and coach, honestly boundedWorkbooks become your manuals, in your name; your responsible person signs and files through your own FAA accounts. We prepare to the standard the FAA's own evaluation guidance describes, and state plainly that no outcome or timeline can be promised. The honesty is the differentiator.
Principal-led
Straight answers.
Can you guarantee approval?No, and no one can. The FAA alone decides waivers, permits, and certificates, on its own timeline. What we control is preparation: applications built to the standard the FAA's own evaluation guidance describes, with evidence attached to every claim. If someone promises you an approval, that is a reason for caution, not confidence.
Do you file with the FAA for us?No. You sign and submit every application, response, and report through your own FAA accounts, under your own responsible person. We prepare and coach; we never act as your agent or representative before the FAA, TSA, or FCC. Any authorization that issues is yours, with every obligation that attaches to holding it.
Is a readiness review a certification?No. It is a principal-led advisory review. We score requirements Ready / Needs Work / Missing and describe maturity in plain bands; we do not certify, attest, grade, or issue pass/fail results, and we make no legal or regulatory determinations about your operation.
Is Part 108 final?Part 108 is a proposed rule; the final text may change. No one can confirm compliance with a rule that is not yet final; anyone offering that is selling something else. What can be done now is preparation: consolidating your documentation into the structure the proposal describes, so it serves the waivers you fly today and adapts when the final rule publishes.
We already hold a BVLOS waiver. Does it carry into Part 108?The proposal as published does not define an automatic transition path for existing waiver holders, and multiple industry commenters flagged this gap and asked the FAA to add a grandfathering mechanism during the comment period. As written, it would also end new Part 107 BVLOS waiver issuance once Part 108 takes effect. The prudent posture: keep your current authority active and renewed, build all new documentation in the proposal's vocabulary so it doubles as evidence if a transition mechanism is added, and watch the final rule closely on this point. We can help with all three.
How long does a waiver take?The FAA's published target is about 90 days; complex BVLOS applications are typically reported at 90 to 120 days or longer, with a request for more information the norm rather than the exception. These are FAA targets and industry reports, not commitments; actual timelines depend on application completeness, question cycles, and FAA workload, and we make no representation about how long the FAA will take.
What does it cost?The Readiness Call is free, with no obligation. Paid engagements are fixed-fee and scoped individually after the call; there is no public price list.
Do we need specific aircraft or software to work with you?No. The method is vendor-neutral and cross-platform: we work with the fleet, sensors, and software you already run, and we hold no resale incentives. Where equipment is genuinely the gap, the review says so factually and the roadmap sequences it.