Attorney Rupprecht on 333 Exemptions for Education (and a workaround)

At the Drone Educator’s Conference held at Cal Poly recently, Jonathan Rupprecht gave a presentation on Drone Law for Education. The focus of the presentation was on FAA 333 exemptions, what the requirements are and how to meet them.

Mr. Rupprecht has extensive experience with legal issues related to drone technology. His presentation was comprehensive in scope. He emphasizes that educational institutions are required to file for 333 exemptions because they do not qualify as recreational use (i.e. “an individual doing it for fun with no direct or indirect benefit”).

You can listen to Mr. Rupprecht’s complete presentation below.

There is another option for institutions that are looking to get a program in place quickly and provide training to students that does not require a FAA 333 exemption. We spoke with Gregory Crutsinger, the Academic Program Driector for 3DR, a Berkeley based drone manufacturer. He explained that schools can build netted structures for drone flying. In this instance you are flying a drone inside a structure and therefore no exemption is required. These can be fairly substantial in size.

Mr. Crutsinger can advise educators on cost effective netting solutions that exclude them from FAA rules. You can email him at greg@3drobotics.com.

You can learn more about Jonathan Rupprecht here. Here is his presentation courtesy of the Drone Educator’s Conference.