Your instructor for the VerticalGeo UAS Academy is Bethany Bouquet. Bethany is an experienced Geospatial Analyst, Photogrammetrist, Business Development Manager, and Part 107 UAS Pilot.

In Lesson 1.1 we outline the FAA requirements for registering your small Unmanned Aerial System (sUAS) before you begin using it. Registering your sUAS is a very important step for both regulatory and liability reasons. Although federal law requires every sUAS to be registered, registration is inexpensive and can be done in a few minutes.

In lesson 1.2 we discuss what the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 107 is and why it has become the regulation guiding the commercial sUAS industry. You do not need a Part 107 Certification to fly a sUAS, but you do need the certification to fly a sUAS commercially. We will discuss the circumstances that require Part 107. We will also discuss how a Remote Pilot prepares for the Part 107 Certification test and how you accomplish biannual recurrent training

In Lesson 1.3 we provide an overview of the process you follow to prepare to take and pass the sUAS knowledge test and receive your sUAS Certificate. After passing the knowledge test you must apply to the FAA for the Certificate. We will teach you how that is done and what you do with the Certificate once you have received it.

There are different paths to certification depending on whether you are a certificated pilot with a current medical certificate and bi-annual flight review and those that are not. The FAA also has a process in place for those who currently hold a Part 107 Certificate and need recurrency training.

The Remote Pilot in Command, or Remote PIC, assumes an enormous amount of responsibility and liability that comes along with being in command of the mission. The FAA has designed a three person team concept to help the Remote PIC manage the mission and the crew. There are many rules that state when a person can and can't serve as a sUAS aircrew member. In this video we highlight Remote PIC responsibilities

The Remote ID system is a new FAA program being phased in that will help identify which UASs are flying in any given area and provide accountability for those PICs that are bending or breaking the rules. The program continues to evolve, so we discuss the current state of the Remote ID program in this section.

The FAA's Sectional Chart provides the sUAS pilot with an enormous amount of information. We will provide an review of the FAA Sectional Chart symbology and data in this lesson. A great online source for FAA Sectional Charts is the 1800wxbrief website. You can download the charts there or use them interactively on the website.

The FAA uses Airspace as a tool to ensure flight safety. We will overview the different classes of airspace and how they affect us as we manage sUAS missions.

The FAA Sectional Charts have many different ways they symbolize unique chart items. In this lesson we will discuss Special Use Airspace, Airport information, obstacles, reporting points, and Class E airspace.

As UAS Remote PICs we work with Mean Sea Level (MSL) and Above Ground Level (AGL) altitudes quite often. It is always important to know which type of altitude we are working with and how that affects our missions.

Finding, using, recording, and calculating Latitude and Longitude are some of the fundamental knowledge skills you need to be a successful UAS Remote PIC. In this video we help you become more fluent in using Latitude and Longitude and we give you some tips to using Latitude and Longitude.

FAA Sectional Charts contain valuable airport information. They contain almost all the information to communicate while flying and to avoid airspace violations. The US Chart Supplements, the Aeronautical Bulletins and Notices to Air Missions (NOTAMs) contain even more in-depth, and in the case of NOTAMS, more timely information on airports.

NOTAMS and TFRs are notices that are very fluid and change rapidly based on the situation. Checking NOTAMS and TFRs are not only required, but they will keep you safe and keep you from violating FAA regulations. This section will help you learn more about NOTAMS and TFRs.

As a Part 107 Remote PIC you will most often not be operating out of an airport, but most of the air traffic you will encounter will be operating from an airport. If you are operating near an airport and know the airport's runway alignment and monitor the Common Traffic Advisory Frequency it will help you with your situational awareness for when and where you may encounter air traffic.

Talking on the radio is something most UAS Remote PICs rarely do, but we can dramatically increase our situational awareness by listening to the radio calls of aircraft and air traffic control in the area where we are flying. Many lost link scenarios happen because there are too many things happening on the same radio frequency. The FAA has expanded the frequencies for UASs and systems to operate on.

The effects of weather on your UAS can include rapid battery consumption, photos that won't stitch because of excessive crab into the wind, and varying groundspeed. The weather will affect our missions every time we fly.

Fog and flying don't mix. Fog develops in at least 4 different ways and each type affects us differently. But we want to avoid it at all time while flying our UAS.

Clouds can be a great indicator of the type of weather you will be flying in. We will present the different types of clouds and some of the hazards associated with them.

The UAS Remote PIC is required to receive a weather briefing before you fly your mission. The weather briefing is how the National Weather Service communicates weather conditions to UAS Remote PICs. There are two ways to access the weather briefing and a few different briefing formats.

METARS and TAFs are two of the tools that the National Weather Service uses to communicate weather observations and forecasts to the aviation community. These should be a part of every good weather briefing you receive prior to flying your mission.

What is the difference between the wind directions I read on the TAF and the wind directions I hear the Control Tower Controller calling our on the radio. We will cover that in this lesson.

How fast can we fly? How high can we fly? Can we fly beyond visual line-of-sight? What weather minimums do we need to fly? We will discuss these limitations in this lesson.

Flight safety is always the top priority. In order to increase flight safety the FAA requires the Remote PIC to maintain visual contact with the UAS at all times. This is requirement is called maintaining visual line-of-sight. We explain the visual line-of-sight concept in this lesson.

The UAS manufacturer provides weight and balance restrictions that we need to abide by when flying our UAS. When we overload the UAS bad things happen. When we are flying in other than straight and level flight we add additional load factors to the weight of the UAS. So when we are banking our UAS will fly like a heavier UAS. Temperature, air density, humidity, and weight and balance all are factors that we need to include as planning factors that we need to keep in mind as we plan our missions.

UASs are small and very maneuverable, and many times we fly them in an autonomous mode. But, they are still subject to many of the aerodynamic rules that apply to larger aircraft. Stalls is one of those aerodynamic processes that applies equally to a UAS. In this lesson we discuss how stalls and aerodynamics affect UAS flight.

We always want to make sure our UAS is ready to fly when we are. Preflight inspection and checklists help us manage the maintenance and condition of our UAS. They also help us to make sure we ensure our UAS is ready to fly by systematically checking and preparing for the mission using the same step by step process every time we fly.

What are the responsibilities of the Remote PIC? The Visual Observer? The Person Manipulating the Controls? How are the many responsibilities divided up between the crew? We will cover all of this in Lesson 7.1.

Our personality can sometimes create an unsafe attitude when we are flying a UAS mission. The FAA has identified 5 attitudes that they consider to be hazardous. We discuss them in lesson 7.2.

The FAA has developed the acronym IMSAFE to help us determine if we are mentally and physically ready to fly. We cover how the IMSAFE Checklist helps keep us safe in this lesson.

Effective communication helps ensure we fly safely. It is the Remote PIC's responsibility to make sure the entire flight crew communicates well throughout the duration of the mission.

The FAA has amended their regulations when it comes to flying over people. The regulations continue to evolve. This lesson covers the regulation as it stands now.

The rules and conditions for flying your UAS at night are a bit different than those that apply during the day. In this lesson we discuss those differences.

The FAA says we can fly over moving vehicles, but there are a lot of restrictions on flying over moving vehicles. In this lesson we cover those restrictions.

FAA also has numerous restrictions when flying a UAS from a moving vehicle. We sort these out for you in this lesson.

Operations near other aircraft? I don't think so. It is our responsibility to keep flying safely. We will talk about this and what Category 1, 2, and 3 requirements are for a UAS.

What is an emergency? Flyaways, loss of GPS, battery fires, and other unusual situations that could cause harm to individuals and reduce the safety of flight. We discuss these situations and others in this lesson.

If you don't have a plan to deal with emergency situations, then you could make a bad situation worse. Contingency planning is a very important process for every UAS mission

If you ever do have an accident what are the FAA requirements for reporting the accident? When do I need to report an accident and who do I report to?

If you fly a UAS long enough eventually you will get a request to fly a mission in controlled airspace or to fly a mission that requires a waiver for your flight. In this lesson we discuss the difference between Authorizations and Waivers and how to process them.