Alaska’s first commercial drone company receives first overhead waiver

Alaska Aerial Media (AAM) in collaboration with Advanced Aerial Education (AAE) is the first small unmanned aircraft service company in Alaska to obtain a certificate of waiver (COW) from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for operations over people in the State of Alaska.
The provisions of the waiver incorporate the scenario-based end to end training provided by Advanced Aerial Education as a critical requirement for personnel operating under this waiver.
AAM provided a first-of-its-kind risk-assessment that demonstrated that small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) flight over people can be safely conducted in compliance with FAA requirements. This innovative methodology allows AAM to conduct unmanned operations over people which had only been previously accessible by larger organizations with large, complex aircraft.
“Alaska Aerial Media’s diligence to innovation and safety allows us to offer solutions to our partners and clients that were previously unobtainable in Alaska. Alaska Aerial Media has continuously found ways in which to derive meaningful value from unmanned technology and this waiver is just another way in which they will allow us to continue to do the same.” – Sheyna Wisdom, Fairweather Science
This newly acquired capability allows Alaska Aerial Media to provide services offered only by a few companies nationwide. Once again, the aviation community in Alaska is proving to be a leader in aviation technology and development.
“We are beyond excited to bring yet another first to the unmanned industry here in Alaska. More importantly, we are proud and anxious to pass along the benefits of all the hard work we’ve done up to this point on to our clients.” – Nick Morrison, Chief Pilot