FAA Surveys Commercial Drone Operators

If you’ve registered a commercial drone, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) wants to hear from you.

On June 19, the FAA sent a questionnaire to everyone who has registered a commercial drone – more formally, an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) – for anything but recreational or hobby use. Most of these owners fly their drones for commercial purposes, but the survey population also includes government departments and other users. Hobbyists are not included in this survey.

The goal is to collect information on drone flight activities under the FAA’s small drone rule (Part 107), data that will help the FAA improve the services it delivers to the UAS community. Responses to the questionnaire are voluntary and entered 100 percent electronically. The survey will take about 10 minutes to complete.

The questions include areas such as number of drones registered, number and types of missions completed in 2017, primary locations where the operator flies and types of waivers requested. The survey also asks how operators want to get information about drone-related issues from the FAA, and how satisfied they are with the news channels they use now.

The questionnaire is completely anonymous, so responses cannot be attributed to an individual.

Kim Stevens

Kim Stevens is the publisher of State Aviation Journal, which he founded in 2009. A longtime commercial-rated pilot, he was introduced to state aviation in 1992 as Director of the Nebraska Department of Aeronautics, later serving as Deputy Division Director for the Arizona Department of Transportation's Aeronautics Division. From 2013 to 2018, he was Director of Communications and Operations for the National Association of State Aviation Officials (NASAO) in Washington, D.C. Relocating to North Carolina, Kim worked for the Raleigh-Durham International Airport for two years and now concentrates solely on the Journal. Prior to his aviation career, Kim spent a decade in the newspaper and magazine business.