Appendix B: Safety Inspection

To be cleared for flight at competition, the UAS must meet all safety requirements. The UAS and the ground station will be inspected for safety and competition compliance. Teams should be ready for their inspection at least one hour before their estimated flight time. If the UAS fails inspection or is not present, the team will be put in the back of the queue and may be revisited after other teams are inspected, as time allows.

At a minimum, the following areas are checked:

Safety Pilot

• FAA TRUST Certificate of Completion

Uncrewed Aerial System (UAS)

• FAA Vehicle Registration Certificate & ID on External UAS Surface

  • The Safety Pilot can be a student, the adviser, or non-student. The Safety Pilot must complete the FAA’s The Recreational UAS Safety Test (TRUST) and present the certificate at safety inspection and flight line

• Remote ID Module is Present

  • The UAS must be registered using FAADroneZone, the certificate must be presented at safety inspection and flight line, and the vehicle's external surface must be labeled with registration number.

• Single UAS, Heavier Than Air, No Tethers, Up to 45 LBs

• No Personnel Near Propeller Arc When Powered

  • Personnel must be clear of the propeller arc whenever the motors have the ability to receive power/rotate. Software based disarm is not sufficient. Motor power disconnect or physical propeller restraints are required to work on the UAS

• All Batteries are Brightly Colored, No Exotic Fuels/Batteries

  • Exotic fuels or batteries will not be allowed. All batteries must be brightly colored for identification in a crash.

• All Fasteners Must Have Safety Wire, Loctite (Fluid), or Nylon Nuts

• RTL/RTH Activatable by Safety Pilot and Ground Control Station

• Automatic RTH/RTL After 30 Seconds of Comms Loss

  • The configured lost comms RTH/RTL and flight termination point must be (38.315339, -76.548108)

• Automatic Flight Termination After 3 Minutes of Comms Loss

  • Fixed wing: throttle closed, full up elevator, full right rudder, full aileron, and full flaps down. Rotary: throttle closed.

Air Drop Payload

• Entire Drop Payload Weight Up to 2 LBs

  • The air drop payload includes everything that separates from the UAS during an air drop, including the object being dropped. Each air drop payload must weigh 2 LBs or less.

• No Sustained Flight

  • The air drop payload cannot have any means to sustain flight (e.g. propulsion, propellers, jets, lighter than air, etc.).

Ground Station

• Map with Flight Boundaries, UAS Position, and Waypoint Threshold Configured to Less Than 50 Feet

• UAS Speed in KIAS, Ground Speed in Knots, and Altitude in Feet MSL

• Onsite Operation of Safety Functionality

  • The safety functionality must be operated using onsite systems with no dependency on any system not under the team’s full control. For example, safety critical functionality cannot have a dependency on the public internet or public cloud providers. Safety critical functionality includes, but is not limited to, return to land and flight termination, manual piloting by the Safety Pilot, commanding the autopilot by the GCS Operator, and failsafe for the air drop.

More details on system requirements are available in Ssection 5.2: Safety Requirements and Section 5.3: Vehicle Requirements.

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