FAA Drone Flight Logs

To Whom It May Concern:

This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act. I hereby request the following records:

Flight data for all UAV/UAS/drone flights conducted under FAA Certificate of Waiver or Authorizations (COA) by government agencies. This information should include the following:
-Number of flights conducted under each COA
-Pilot duty time per flight
-Unusual equipment malfunctions (hardware/software)
-Deviations from ATC instructions
-Operational/coordination issues
-All periods of loss link (telemetry, command and/or control)
-All accidents or incidents involving UAS activities, including lost link
-Deviations from any provision contained in the COA

According to COAs dating back to 2006, the following information was to be sent to Unmanned Aircraft System Safety employee Donald E. Grampp on a monthly basis.

Include the above information for COAs dated 2004 to the date this request is processed.

I also request that, if appropriate, fees be waived as I believe this request is in the public interest. The requested documents will be made available to the general public free of charge as part of the public information service at MuckRock.com, processed by a representative of the news media/press and is made in the process of news gathering and not for commercial usage.

In the event that fees cannot be waived, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 20 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Shawn Musgrave

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Jan. 7, 2013. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.

Mr. Musgrave:

The FAA has been sued by the Electronic Frontier Foundation for release of
all unmanned aerial vehicle certificates of authorization issued. This
lawsuit now prohibits the agency from answering any other requests that
seek the same records.

However, as records are released related to the litigation, we are also
posting the records on faa.gov. Please review the records at the url
below. The FAA will continue to post records and believes those postings
will answer the bulk of your requests.

http://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/uas/

FOIA Office

Hello,

I would like to request OGIS assistance regarding a rejected FOIA request I filed with the FAA. Please find correspondence with the FAA as well as a Privacy Statement attached, and further information below:

Contact information:
Shawn Musgrave

MuckRock News
PO Box 55819
Boston, MA 02205-5819

Agency to which request was made: Federal Aviation Administration
Original FOIA/Privacy Act Request and Appeal Number: 2013-1847
Brief description of the issue or dispute for which you need OGIS assistance:
The FAA has rejected a number of requests regarding UAVs/drones. This rejection is on the grounds that their lawsuit with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) “prohibits the agency from answering any other requests that seek the same records.” EFF's lawsuit is for Certificates of Waiver or Authorization (COA) to operate UAVs. This particular request is for data submitted to the FAA by holders of COAs, a different set of documents that than sought by EFF in its lawsuit. The clearest indication that the two requests are different is that the FAA has not been releasing any of the data I seek as part of its document releases pursuant to the EFF lawsuit, whereas the FAA has been releasing the COAs themselves.

Thank you for your help and assistance with this matter.

Best,
Shawn Musgrave
MuckRock

Dear Mr. Musgrave,

Please find attached to this message a letter responding to your request to the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS).

Thank you,

The OGIS staff

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Jan. 7, 2013. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Jan. 7, 2013. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.

Hello,

Please note that the FOIA amendments of 2007 require agencies to provide estimated dates of completion. For clarification of this point, see the following post from the FOIA Ombudsman, entitled "How to Invite a FOIA Lawsuit" : http://blogs.archives.gov/foiablog/2012/02/03/how-to-invite-a-foia-lawsuit/

Additionally, it has been more than 2 months now since the last release of UAS COA materials. Furthermore, to my knowledge these materials do not include my requested materials (i.e., flight logs as required to be reported under the COA), nor are these logs posted elsewhere on the FAA website that I have found. Please advise.

Thank you,

Shawn Musgrave
MuckRock

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Jan. 7, 2013. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. You had assigned it reference number #2013-1847.

Thank you for your help.

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Jan. 7, 2013. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. You had assigned it reference number #2013-1847.

Thank you for your help.

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Jan. 7, 2013. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. You had assigned it reference number #2013-1847.

Thank you for your help.

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Jan. 7, 2013. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. You had assigned it reference number #2013-1847.

Thank you for your help.

Hello,

It has been several weeks since this request was updated. Having reviewed the FAA's FOIA logs for FY2013, I know that the agency has reviewed approximately 20 FOIA requests related to UAS. This is hardly overwhelming. I respectfully request that you proceed with processing my request in accordance with your obligations under FOIA.

Best,
Shawn

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Jan. 7, 2013. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. You had assigned it reference number #2013-1847.

Thank you for your help.

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Jan. 7, 2013. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. You had assigned it reference number #2013-1847.

Thank you for your help.

Hello,

Please provide an updated completion date for this request.

Thank you,
Shawn

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Jan. 7, 2013. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. You had assigned it reference number #2013-1847.

Thank you for your help.

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Jan. 7, 2013. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. You had assigned it reference number #2013-1847.

Thank you for your help.

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Jan. 7, 2013. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. You had assigned it reference number #2013-1847.

Thank you for your help.

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Jan. 7, 2013. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. You had assigned it reference number #2013-1847.

Thank you for your help.

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Jan. 7, 2013. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. You had assigned it reference number #2013-1847.

Thank you for your help.

Mr. Honda, Ms. Culley and Mr. Williams --

Per the attached letter, I have navigated to the FAA UAS Incident/Accident data site (http://www.asias.faa.gov/pls/apex/f?p=100:446:0::NO:446::). While this provides crucial information, this data does not fulfill my request.

As submitted in January 2013, this FOIA is for:

Flight data for all UAV/UAS/drone flights conducted under FAA Certificate of Waiver or Authorizations (COA) by government agencies. This information should include the following:
-Number of flights conducted under each COA
-Pilot duty time per flight
-Unusual equipment malfunctions (hardware/software)
-Deviations from ATC instructions
-Operational/coordination issues
-All periods of loss link (telemetry, command and/or control)
-All accidents or incidents involving UAS activities, including lost link
-Deviations from any provision contained in the COA

Submission of flight data is a key provision of the UAS COA. The data provided pertains solely to incident/accidents, rather than to overall data for all flights conducted under each COA. Please advise.

Best,
Shawn

Ms. Culley and Mr. Honda -

Checking in on this once again. The data provided does not complete my request for flight log data submitted pursuant to COA requirements.

Please advise.

-Shawn

Mr. Honda and Ms. Culley -

Again, the documents sent last month do not fulfill my request. Please confirm receipt of this followup and confirm that the request is still being processed.

Best,
Shawn Musgrave
MuckRock

Mr. Honda and Ms. Culley -

To be unmistakably clear, the documents provided in September do not complete this request, which is now more than a year overdue.

To repeat, as submitted in January 2013, this FOIA is for:

Flight data for all UAV/UAS/drone flights conducted under FAA Certificate of Waiver or Authorizations (COA) by government agencies. This information should include the following:
-Number of flights conducted under each COA
-Pilot duty time per flight
-Unusual equipment malfunctions (hardware/software)
-Deviations from ATC instructions
-Operational/coordination issues
-All periods of loss link (telemetry, command and/or control)
-All accidents or incidents involving UAS activities, including lost link
-Deviations from any provision contained in the COA

Submission of flight data is a key provision of the UAS COA. The data provided pertains solely to incident/accidents, rather than to overall data for all flights conducted under each COA.

I will be submitting an appeal for constructive denial if your office does not provide a substantive response to this inquiry, per your obligations under the FOIA.

Respectfully,

Shawn Msugrave
MuckRock

Mr. Fuss -

Thank you for reaching out. Please provide an estimated completion date for this request, which is considerably overdue.

Best,
Shawn Musgrave
MuckRock

Mr. Fuss -

I would appreciate updates as you get them. I also respectfully point out that the revised FOIA statute requires agencies to provide estimated dates of completion:

http://blogs.archives.gov/foiablog/2012/02/03/how-to-invite-a-foia-lawsuit/

http://www.justice.gov/oip/blog/updated-guidance-providing-estimated-dates-completion

Best,
Shawn Musgrave
MuckRock