Anyone here happen to know how long it takes for a school representative (me) to get approval for an educational FRIA? I can't take my drone class outside until we have one in place, and it's been weeks since I submitted it.

Piece of string?

"As of August 29, 2023 around 700 FRIAs have been approved, 200 denied and around 800 are still in the queue"

… what state are you in? Is there a different deadline for “educational FRIAs?.. it would be rather unfortunate I if schools were not allowed to submit their school for a fria
Even though my wife only uses Tinyhawks (inside) , we are looking into the TSA drone competition.. it’s high school directed.. but a lot of teams are overwhelmed from the steep learning curve..

New York  (Central)

We are also currently stuck flying our whoops, which isn't the end of the world, but we had plans to do some Ag work and mapping, and can't fly our 450s until we have that FRIA in place. I thought about just doing it anyway, but the admin isn't keen on that, unfortunately.

Yup.. all the political hoops..the local “Stem” school TRIED to put together a drone program..
I unfortunately “popped” their bubble… showing them all the “flaming hoops” they had to jump through.. and when I go done.. I finished with .. “none of that will matter.. this school is literally a couple hundred yards from a Army Airfield… “

Sad part is, I've already got 40+ drones and only a small number of them are optimized for indoor flight. Our indoor space for flight has been taken for the short run because of a building project, so I'm kinda handcuffed.

Damn… I feel your pain.. my wife’s kids had to fly in the hallways due to the cafeteria being used for other sports. It made for some great pilots FAST though..
Having the kids get a 107 is kinda expensive and would be difficult.. now I see why your pushing for a FRIA. I’m guessing these are 5” freestyle rigs no where near sub 250.. out of curiosity .. who are you getting supplies / parts from?

We have around 8 functional whoops, those are a mix of built by us with parts from GetFPV and some from CoDrone; We have 4 Taycan 3.0's and 3 other smaller 4" class drones, along with 6 450's from a company called LocoRobo (I got a grant for their educational program, which includes Part 107 study courses and drone building and maintenance courses for the kids to enroll in). We also have a Phantom 4, and an iFlight cinewhoop (that's actually my personal drone). Also have several other drones that are in various states of build. 

I did see yesterday that since there is a backlog at the FAA, schools fall under the new waiver that applies until March 16 2024, so that is good news until we get the decision back on whether they will grant our FRIA.

… fingers crossed…keep us posted..
Some schools have reached out to me regarding troubleshooting… apparently a wire had broke loose from the rx .. havnt heard back since..
I wonder if my wife should apply her school (area) as a fria.. even though she wouldn’t need to.. the Highschool is literally next door and if they wanted to attemp thei program in the future… it would be one less hoop for the. To jump through..IF the FAA shuts down applications

I went to the FAAs site.. wanted to look and see what is entailed regarding what is required to apply for a educational FRIA…
Apparently you have to create an account before they even let you know…
The site will lead you around lots of corners.. but to get to “the emerald city”.. they want to know who you are..

… we’ve decided to go forward and start this process.. the schools are in a “complex” to include the Highschool.. so if we are fortunate enough to get this .. they will be able to offer any “drone” curriculum in the future..

(19-Sep-2023, 06:04 PM)william_hunter Wrote: New York  (Central)

We are also currently stuck flying our whoops, which isn't the end of the world, but we had plans to do some Ag work and mapping, and can't fly our 450s until we have that FRIA in place. I thought about just doing it anyway, but the admin isn't keen on that, unfortunately.

Hi William,

From all of the research and things that I have seen, there is No difference between one FRIA and another.
I have seen nothing to suggest that schools get any preferential treatment. In fact, just because it is a 
school, doesn't mean that it will get approved. It could very well get denied. Also, the FAA does not appear
to be particularly fast with the process.

That said, you mentioned doing some AG work and mapping which will very likely (actually, most likely since
that is NOT purely and solely recreational) be considered Part 107 activities whether or not money is involved. 
As such, it will require a Part 107 pilot's license, each drone to be registered and each drone to have a separate 
Remote ID unit. Yeah. Unfortunately, any flight that is not solely and purely recreational, aka just for fun, is
considered to be "In the furtherance of a business" which even includes posting to YouTube for a like which
promotes that person's personal "business" or even a homeowner checking his gutters as he gets a benefit
from it. These examples have already been used by the FAA to show just how broad they consider a Part 107
activity to be. There are basically two types of flights 1) Purely and solely just for recreation, just fun for the
pilot and 2) Everything else and those are considered Part 107. Keep in mind that it is not our call, but theirs. 

If you wait for FRIA approval, then you might be waiting a long time. If you have a timeline for outside flights,
with heavy drones, then you might reconsider registration and the Remote ID option. Whether we like it or not, 
a Remote ID device is pretty much going to be required for UAS (drones) that weigh more than 250 grams. 
Plus, any craft regardless of weigh that is used in a Part 107 activity will require both registration and a Remote ID.

Anyway, it just is what it is. Good Luck.  

Heck, is it even possible to count education in the recreation exemption? Almost seems like the only way to avoid all the legality of it is to just fly in a gymnasium or something. Of course, flying something big enough for ag work indoors seems like a nightmare.

I also recall one of the YouTubers (I think it might have been Greg from Pilot Institute) mentioning that the FAA were only approving FRIAs at locations where there were no neighbouring residential areas on their boundaries for safety reasons, so if a school has surrounding residences close by I don't know if that is going to have an negative impact on any FIA application. If this is true then it means that the FAA have totally killed any drone STEM programs for inner city education facilities.

I should clarify that when I say "ag work" I mean working with our agriculture classes to help them plot their planting sites on school property. We won't be doing anything commercial, honestly that would be considered "double dipping" by our admin, and is a big no no.

If the FAA is denying applications based on residences, I can't see many schools being approved, which will indeed kill our program because we do not have budget to afford the addition of RID modules to every drone we would be using.