june 23, 2015 Mr. John S .Duncan Director, Flight Standards Service U.S. Department
of Transportation Federal Aviation Administration 800 Independence Ave. S.W. Washington, D.C. 20591 Dear Mr

.Duncan; On june 15, 2015 your office issued FAA Section 333 Exemption No. 11831, Regulatory Docket No. FAA-2015 1022. We received the exemption document and would like further review of the Conditions and Limitations, specifically item No
.13 that specifies that the "PIC must hold either an airline transport, commercial, private recreational or sport pilot certificate

...The PIC must also meet the flight review requirements specified in 14 CFR § 61.56 in an aircraft in which the PIC is rated on his or her pilot certificate." We would like reconsideration

of this limitation as requested
in our initial333 Exemption filing: (Highlighted areas are specific to our request) B .Appendix

B : Wild Horses

' argument for exemption from 14 C
.F.R. §61.113: Private pilot privileges and limitations

:P i lot in command. Wild Horses requests an exemption from 14 C.F .R. §61.113 so that the PIC of the UA will not be required to possess

a private or commercial pilot's license. As the FAA and numerous other national airspace regulators have recognized, UA operations conducted by persons who do not hold a pilot's license can still achieve the equivalent level of safety of current operations by manned aircraft with pilots holding

a private or commercial pilot's license

. Although

it recognizes that a pilot's license is unnecessary for safe UA operation

,the FAA has to date declined to allow grant exemptions under Section 333 that would permit individuals who possess neither

a private nor a commercial pilot's certificate to conduct commercial UA operations.

It has specified two reasons for declining to do so. First

,it has stated that it does not possess the authority under Section 333 to exempt individuals from the requirement under 49 U.S.C. §44711 to hold an airman certificate authorizing the airman to serve in the capacity for which the certificate was issued. Exemption No. 11110 at 14 .Second, the FAA has concluded that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) security screening required of all certified airmen meets the statutory requirement in Section 333 that operations not pose a threat to national security. **~E xemption** No

.11110 at 15 .Wild Horses respectfully requests that the FAA reconsideli its position

.Cfhere is no dispute that it is unnecessary for an operator of a UA to go **......__~** through the rigorous process of becoming

a certified pilot

in order to safely operate

a UA. In addition

,the FAA does have the authority to exempt UA operators from the lr e<}!lirement
in 49 U.S

.C .§44711 to hold an airman certificate for "serv[ing]
in thecapacity for which the certificate wasissued ."Indeed

,ithas exercised that authority repeatedly inthe Section 333 process

.Finally

,theFAA

'ssecurity concernscanbe addressed byavariety of methods involving operator background checks tobe conducted by government agencies

. 1.TheFAAand foreign regulators recognize that obtaining

amanned aircraft pilot license is unnecessaryfor safe operation ofaUA.TheFAA

,like the other national airspace regulators that have considered the issue

,has concluded that UA operations conducted by personswho donotholdapilot's license canstill achieve the equivalen

t 1evel of safety of current operations by manned aircraft with pilots holding

aprivate
o commercial pilot's license

.Inits recentUAS NPRM

,theFAA stated

: ..While these airman certification requirements are necessaryfor manned aircraft operations

,they impose an unnecessaryburden for manysmall UAS operations

. Thisis because

aperson typically obtains

aprivate orcommercial pilot certificate by learning how to operate

amanned aircraft

.Much ofthat knowledge would not _----, be applicable
tosmall UAS operations because

asmall UASis operated differently than manned aircraft

.Inaddition

,the knowledge currently necessary
toobtain

aprivate
Oli commercial pilot certificate would not equip the certificate holder with the tools necessaryto safely operate

asmall UAS

...Thus

,requiring persons wishing to operate

a small UAStoobtain

aprivate orcommercial pilot certificate imposes the costof certification onthose persons,but does notresultinasignificant safety benefit because the processof obtaining the certificate does not equip those personswith the tools necessaryto mitigate the public risk posed by small UAS operations
." Operation and Certification of Small Unmanned Aircraft, 80Fed

.Reg

.9543at9550 {proposed Feb

.23
, 2015 (tobe codified at14C

.F
.R.Parts 21,43
,45
,et al.)). The FAA's conclusion that manned aircraft flying experience
is unnecessaryforthe operation ofaUAis supported by research bytheFAAand the Army Research Laboratory. They demonstrate that UAs, eventhose much larger than the sUAS proposed by Wild Horses,canbe safely flown by non-certificated pilots withasmall amountof training. For example, oneArmy Research Laboratory study concluded: "[T]he specific motorskills needed tocontrol the radio-controlled UAV would have tobe learned by aviators independently
ofthe motorskills learnedin flying anaircraft. In particular, the somatic and visual cuesthat pilots useduring aircraft landings would notbe useful (and perhaps even counter-productive)
forthe different skill setsand perceptual viewpoint necessaryfor radio-controlled landings."

1 Additional research reportslend further supportforthe exclusion requested. For example, areport sponsored bytheFAA concluded that "We know that certain systems,like the U.S. Army Hunterand Shadow systems,are successfully flown by pilots with nomanned aircraft experience.
"2 In addition, foreign government airspace regulators that have examined the issue have consistently recognized that the skills required to flyamanned aircraft areirrelevant to operating

aUA.Forthat reason,they have concluded that UA operatorsdonotneed to have
aprivate orcommercial pilot's license. Canada, for example, does not require

a pilot's license to operate

aUA. Transport Canada requires training ofUA operators,but that training is limited to pilot ground school and flight operation training onUAs,notmanned aircraft.J Moreover, Canada allows this training to be "provided by other pilots, manufacturers, [UA] flight training organizations
or ...self taught."

4 1 Michael
J. Barnes, Beverly G. Knapp, Barry W. Tillman, Brett A. Walters & Darlene Veliki, Crew systems analysis of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) future job and tasking environments, Technical Report ARL-TR-2081, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD: Army Research Laboratory, page 12 (2000), available at http :// www

.dtic

.mil / dtic / tr / fulltextlu2

/ a374230

.pdf. 2 Kevin W. Williams, Unmanned Aircraft Pilot Medical Certification Requirements, ReportDOT/FAA/AM-07/3,
FAA Civil Aerospace Medical Institute, page 2, (2007), available at http .// fas.org, 1rp/program co11ectlua-pilot.pdf. While the authors speculated that UAS usein populated areas may change this assessment, indicating further research was needed to address this concern, this concern is inapplicable
as Wild Horses

' s flights will not be in congested areas. See also Jason S. McCarley

& Christopher
D. Wickens, Human Factors Implications of UA Vs in the National Airspace, Institute of Aviation, Aviation Human Factors Division, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,

13 (2004), available at http ./ / wvvw

.tc

.faa. gov/logistlcs

/ grants

/ pdf / 2004
/ 04-G-032

.pdf. 3 See Civil Aviation, Standards, Transport Canada, Advisory Circular: Guidance Material for Operating Unmanned Air Vehicle Systems under an Exemption
at 14 and 18-22, (Nov. 27
,2014) available at http :// www

.tcgc

.ca/media/documents

/ ca-opssvs

/ ac-600

· 004

.pdf. Similarly, the United Kingdom's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) recognized that determining "Remote Pilot qualification requirements on the same basis as manned aircraft may yield requirements that are too inflexible, too onerous and inappropriate for UAS operations.

" s As a result

,the CAA only requires UA operators to demonstrate UA operator competence.6 While there are a variety of ways to demonstrate competence, the most common
is to complete

a course that will lead to a ground exam and flight test. Australia, too, requires only passage of a UA-specific ground school program in lieu of a private pilot license.? Finally

,more than a dozen countries, including Germany, Italy

,France, Spain and the Netherlands

,have adopted the National UAS Certificate for Small Unmanned Aircraft (BNUC-S) Standard for UA pilot certification

.s This standard results in a type-specific UA certificate and does not require the operator to have
a pilot's license

.The process involves taking

a short ground school course, passing

a ground school test and then passing

a practical test on commercial operation of the specific UAS per the UAS manufacturer

' s operations manual. All of this experience and evidence indicates that the proposed exemption will provide

a greater level of safety than operations under 14 C.F.R. §61.113

.In this instance, the PIC has had decades ofUA experience. He has focused his training and education on UAsgenerally, and in particular on the aircraft to be operated, rather than taking additional time and risk to train on a manned aircraft, weighing several thousand pounds and carrying highly flammable fuel. The FAA has concluded in the NPRM that such UA-specific training is more than sufficient to provide an equivalent level of safety for UA operations

.Sometime in the next 24 months, that position will be enshrined in a valid regulation. However, in the meantime

,the FAA claims it lacks the authority to relax the requirement
to possess

a pilot certificate. As we show in the next section, that position
is both incorrect and contradicted by the FAA's recent decisions. 2 .The FAA has and has already exercised the authority to exempt applicants from the airman certificate requirement The FAA claims that it lacks authority to exempt UA operators from the requirement of 49 U

.S .§44711 to hold an airman certificate authorizing the airman "'to servein the capacity for which the certificate was issued

." See

, e.g., Exemption No

.11110 at 14 .This claim is inconsistent with both (i) the statutory language of that section and Section 333, and (ii) numerous recent FAA decisions

. The operative part of 49 USC §44711 provides that a "person may not

...servein any capacity as an airman with respect to a civil aircraft, ...used, or intended for use,in air commerce

-(A) without an airman certificate authorizing the airman to serve in the capacity for which the certificate was issued
..
."' If the FAA's interpretation were correct, this language would require that any person wishing to operate

a UA for commercial operations have an airman certificate authorizing the person to serve as an airman in commercial operations. However

,in all of its recent grants of Section 333 petitions, the FAA has- withou explicitly acknowledging the fact- exempted commercial UA operators from the§ 44711(A) requirement that they hold an airman certificate authorizing them "to servein the capacity for which the certificate was issued ." It has done so by allowing them to operate

a UA so long as they hold a private pilot's or sport pilot's authorization, even though such a certificate does not permit commercial operations

.Exemption No

.11 062 at **15-18**Exemption No

.11110 at **14-16**ExemRtion No

.11191 at **3-5**and Exemption No

. 11229 at 3 and 8 . The FAA argues that it cannot exempt applicants from the requirements of §44 711 because

,while the specific language of Section 333 grants it limited statutory flexibility relative to 49 U.S.C. §44704 for the purposes of airworthiness certification, Section 333 does not provide flexibility relative to §44711 and other sections of Title 49
.Exemption No

.11110 at 14. This argument ignores the plain language of the statute

.The relevant language of Section 333 is : (a) IN G E NERAL.

- Notwithstanding any other requirement of this subtitle, and not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Transportation shall determine
if certain unmanned aircraft systems may oper ate safely in the national airspace system before completion of the plan and rulemaking required by section 332 of this Act or the guidance required by section 334 of this Act (b) ASSESSMENT
OF UNMANNED AIRCRAFT SYSTEMS.

-In making thedetermination under subsection (a), the Secretary shall determine,
at a minimum- ( 1) which types of unmanned aircraft systems, if any, as a result of their size, weight, speed, operational capability, proximity
to airports and populated areas, and operation within visual line of sight do not create
a hazard to users of the national airspace system or the public or pose
a threat to national security; and (2) whether

a certificate of waiver, certificate of authorization,
or airworthiness certification under section 44704 of title 49, United States Code, is required for the operation of unmanned aircraft systems identified under paragraph

(1 ). (c) REQUIREMENTS FOR SAFE OPERATION.-lfthe Secretary determines under this section that certain unmanned aircraft systems may operate safely in the national airspace system, the Secretary shall establish requirements for the safe operation of such aircraft systems in the national airspace system. The language of Section 333(b) is permissive:

it requires that the Secretary "determine,
at a minimum ...whether

a certificate of waiver, certificate of authorization,
or airworthiness certification under section 44704 of title 49, United States Code, is required for the operation of unmanned aircraft systems identified under paragraph

(1 )." Nothing in (b) precludes the Secretary from determining whether or not arP ilot

' s license is equired for operation of a UA identified under paragraph (b X l ). Indeed, the FAA has implicitly conceded the point by granting exemptions from the requirement that commercial UA operators hold a commercial pilot certificate

.From
a analytical standpoint, there is no difference between granting an exemption from the commercial pilot's license requirement and granting an exemption from the private
o sport pilot's license requirement. Both are clearly exemptions from
a specific statutory equirement
in 49 U.S

.C .§44711

.If the FAA has the statutory authority under Sectio
nj 333(b) to do the former

,it has the same authority to do the latter. 9 For all of the reasons set forth above

,the FAA should reconsider its position and exerci

se its full authority to grant an exemption from all the requirements of 49 USC §44 711

,so that a person serving as a commercial UA operator need not have
a pilot's license

. It is therefore requested that our 333 Exemption item 13 be restated, modified or removed in accordance with the above stated policies and procedures. Thank youin advance for your time and consideration
of this matter. Sincerely, Mark Underkofler, resident Charles Franklin, Inc. dba/ Wild Horses A Film Company 8424 Bernard Rd. Sanger, TX 76266