SkarpChapter 20 of 23
Maintenance, Records, and Preflight Inspection
A loose propeller, damaged cell, outdated app, or incorrect setting can defeat an otherwise sound mission plan. A system-level inspection process covers every element from airframe and firmware to controller, payload, lighting, and documentation.
Start With a System, Not a Checklist
Preflight Is a System Check
A preflight examines the whole operating system: aircraft, control station, software, payload, crew, operating area, and required documentation for this mission.
The 107.49 Core
Before flight, assess the environment, verify functioning control links and safe aircraft condition, check registration marking, and consider the hazard if control is lost.
A Repeatable Flow
Plan, Inspect, Configure, Function-check, Decide. A ready message in an app does not prove that a propeller, battery, latch, or return-to-home setting is safe.
Step 1: Assess the Operating Environment
Assess Before Assembly
Start before opening the case. Section 107.49 requires an operating-environment assessment that considers risks to people and property on the surface and in the airspace.
Four Required Assessment Areas
Assess local weather, local airspace and flight restrictions, people and property, and other ground hazards. Convert each item into a specific site check.
Build Emergency Options
Select a launch point, recovery point, and immediate landing areas. Brief participants on hazards, roles, communication, and who may call an abort.
Step 2: Inspect Structure, Propulsion, and Landing Gear
Use a Physical Pattern
Inspect nose-to-tail and top-to-bottom: arms, shell, seams, landing gear, mounts, dampers, access doors, and fasteners. Look for impact, heat, water, and corrosion evidence.
Propellers Are Critical Parts
Reject props with cracks, chips, bends, deep scratches, delamination, distortion, or loose attachment. Confirm the correct prop is fully seated in the correct location and direction.
Motor and Gear Checks
With power off, motors should rotate smoothly without grinding, binding, or excess play. Inspect mounts, wiring, debris, and overheating signs before trusting a flight.
Step 3: Power, Software, Navigation, and Remote ID
Battery: Inspect, Do Not Assume
Check for swelling, punctures, leaks, corrosion, heat damage, terminal damage, correct latching, charge state, temperature limits, health data, and warning history.
Configuration Is Airworthiness
Confirm app, aircraft, controller, and battery firmware compatibility. Check home point, navigation warnings, altitude reference, geofence messages, and return-to-home altitude.
Remote ID Check
The two Types of Remote Identification under 14 CFR part 89 are Standard remote identification and Alternative remote identification. Verify the applicable method is functioning.
Step 4: Verify Control Link, Payload, and Flight Controls
A Connection Icon Is Not Enough
A functioning control link includes correct pairing, controller power, antenna condition, signal quality, readable display, centered controls, and expected aircraft response.
Secure Every Payload
Verify approved attachment, weight limits, latches, pins, cable strain relief, propeller clearance, and gimbal freedom. Treat an accessory as part of the aircraft, not an afterthought.
Test Mission-Essential Functions
Before launch, test camera, recording, sensor status, telemetry, and mission file selection. Know how to cancel automation, regain control, and land if it misbehaves.
Step 5: Prevent Failures Through Maintenance and Configuration Control
Maintenance Is Risk Control
Set intervals using manufacturer instructions, operating time, battery cycles, mission severity, exposure, and discrepancy history. Heat, salt, dust, vibration, and impacts increase inspection needs.
Control Every Change
Record hardware, payload, firmware, app, battery, and critical-setting changes. After repair or an update, perform a controlled functional check before normal operations.
Ground When Safety Is Uncertain
Spare equipment reduces pressure, but does not justify flying defective equipment. If safe condition cannot be established, do not fly.
Step 6: Add Night-Specific Inspection and Emergency Readiness
Night Lighting Requirement
For night operations, anti-collision lighting must be visible for at least 3 statute miles and flash at a rate sufficient to avoid a collision. Test it before every launch.
Visibility Is Not Orientation
A strobe can make the aircraft visible without making its direction obvious. Add orientation cues, prevent sensor interference, and use conservative routes and ranges.
Light the Ground Too
Inspect the launch area for wires, holes, wet surfaces, curbs, traffic, and people. Protect the recovery zone and carry spare lights, power, and cables.
Step 7: Records, Declarations, and Maintenance Authority
Make Defects Traceable
Record aircraft and battery IDs, inspection results, discrepancies, repairs, parts, firmware, functional checks, flights, and crew information as appropriate to the operation.
Stay Within Authorized Work
Perform only maintenance permitted by manufacturer instructions and applicable approval conditions. Routine approved tasks differ from repairs or modifications that affect conformity or airworthiness.
People-Over-Operations Records
Category 2 and Category 3 operations depend on an accepted Declaration of Compliance. Category 4 uses an FAA-issued airworthiness certificate and its operating limitations.
Worked Example: The Inspection That Stops a Bad Launch
Pressure Is a Hazard
A waiting client and a "Ready to Fly" display create pressure, not evidence of safety. A sunset operation needs the same deliberate process as every other mission.
Find, Correct, Verify
The crew relocates the landing zone, replaces a chipped propeller, removes a swollen battery, corrects return-to-home settings, and reroutes a light cable.
The Decision Standard
Launch only after corrective actions are verified and the revised plan is safe. If safe condition cannot be established confidently, delay or cancel the operation.
Build Your 60-Second Go/No-Go Brief
Build Your 60-Second Go/No-Go Brief
Imagine a planned flight to photograph a construction site at dusk. The aircraft has a newly installed camera payload. Wind is 14 knots with gusts to 22 knots, workers are still moving below, and the app reports that a firmware update is available.
Pause and make a go/no-go brief using this sequence:
- Mission and limits: What must be accomplished, and can it be done within aircraft, weather, and airspace limits?
- People and ground hazards: Where are workers, vehicles, cranes, wires, and safe landing areas?
- Aircraft condition: What must be inspected because the payload is new?
- Configuration: Will you update firmware on site? What settings must you confirm instead?
- Failure plan: If gusts exceed your limit, the link degrades, or workers enter the recovery area, what is your immediate action?
A strong answer might defer the firmware update, inspect payload retention and center-of-gravity effects according to manufacturer guidance, establish a protected landing area, set a conservative gust limit, and postpone if the operation cannot remain clear of hazards.
The key is to state observable triggers: "If sustained wind or gusts exceed our predetermined limit, we land," rather than "We will be careful." Specific triggers reduce plan-continuation bias.
Flashcards: Preflight and Records Recall
Flip each card, then try to apply the answer to a real launch scenario.
- What four areas must the 107.49 operating-environment assessment include?
- Local weather conditions; local airspace and any flight restrictions; location of persons and property on the surface and in the airspace; and other ground hazards.
- What is the conservative rule for uncertain aircraft condition?
- When the aircraft's safe condition cannot be established, do not fly.
- What night-lighting performance is required by 14 CFR 107.29?
- Anti-collision lighting visible for at least 3 statute miles, with a flash rate sufficient to avoid a collision.
- What should a useful discrepancy record include?
- Date; aircraft or battery ID; symptom and conditions; action taken; person performing work; parts installed; functional-check result; and final status.
- What are the two Types of Remote Identification under 14 CFR part 89?
- Standard remote identification and Alternative remote identification.
- Why can a firmware update require a new functional check?
- It can change flight modes, safety limits, return-to-home settings, geofencing behavior, payload controls, or battery logic.
Quiz 1: Find the Best Preflight Action
Choose the action that best meets the remote pilot's preflight responsibility.
During preflight, the app shows a strong control signal and no system warnings. The remote pilot finds a propeller with a small crack near its hub. What is the best action?
- Launch and keep the aircraft below 50 feet because the app reports no warnings.
- Replace the propeller with the correct approved part, then verify installation before flight.
- Apply tape over the crack and conduct a short hover test.
- Continue if the propeller passed inspection on the previous flight.
Show Answer
Answer: B) Replace the propeller with the correct approved part, then verify installation before flight.
A crack near a propeller hub can propagate under rotational load. App status does not inspect mechanical integrity. Replace the propeller with the correct approved part and verify secure installation; do not use a hover test to validate a known defect.
Quiz 2: Category and Night-Operation Records
Choose the most accurate statement.
Which statement is correct for a planned Category 2 operation over people at night?
- A Declaration of Compliance is optional if the aircraft has bright anti-collision lighting.
- The operator should verify the aircraft is covered by an accepted Declaration of Compliance, preserve applicable conformity and configuration records, and verify required night lighting.
- Any owner repair is acceptable because Category 2 aircraft do not require configuration control.
- Remote ID eliminates the need to inspect the aircraft and control link before flight.
Show Answer
Answer: B) The operator should verify the aircraft is covered by an accepted Declaration of Compliance, preserve applicable conformity and configuration records, and verify required night lighting.
Category 2 operations require an aircraft covered by an accepted Declaration of Compliance and continued conformity with the applicable requirements. Records and manufacturer-supported configuration control matter. Night lighting and Remote ID are separate requirements; neither replaces preflight inspection or control-link checks.
Key Terms
- discrepancy
- A documented defect, abnormal indication, damage finding, or unresolved condition that requires evaluation, corrective action, monitoring, or removal from service.
- visual line of sight
- With vision that is unaided by any device other than corrective lenses, the remote pilot in command, the visual observer (if one is used), and the person manipulating the flight control of the small unmanned aircraft system must be able to see the unmanned aircraft throughout the entire flight in order to: (1) Know the unmanned aircraft’s location; (2) Determine the unmanned aircraft’s attitude, altitude, and direction of flight; (3) Observe the airspace for other air traffic or hazards; and (4) Determine that the unmanned aircraft does not endanger the life or property of another. Throughout the entire flight of the small unmanned aircraft, the ability described in paragraph (a) of this section must be exercised by either: (1) The remote pilot in command and the person manipulating the flight controls of the small unmanned aircraft system; or (2) A visual observer.
- configuration control
- A process for identifying, documenting, and verifying hardware, software, firmware, payload, and setting changes so that the aircraft's known safe configuration can be maintained.
- remote pilot in command
- A remote pilot in command must be designated before or during the flight of the small unmanned aircraft. The remote pilot in command is directly responsible for and is the final authority as to the operation of the small unmanned aircraft system.
- small unmanned aircraft
- An unmanned aircraft weighing less than 55 pounds on takeoff, including everything that is on board or otherwise attached to the aircraft.
- Declaration of Compliance
- A record submitted to the FAA that certifies the small unmanned aircraft conforms to the Category 2 or Category 3 requirements under subpart D of this part.
- standard remote identification
- A small unmanned aircraft system that is designed and produced to transmit identification and location information of the unmanned aircraft and control station in accordance with the requirements of 14 CFR part 89 for standard remote identification.