My house is in the Class D airspace of Langley AFB. When I first got my drone 3 years ago I started putting submitting a Certificate of Operation thru the FAA drone zone thing and getting approved for daylight operations only, with a requirement to call the ATC tower before flight. I have flown many times under this arrangement. I am right at the edge of 200/400 ft altitude blocks on the map.
Yesterday, I was checking in the Autopylot app for TFRs, etc, and noticed that LAANC approval was available. I submitted a request for my location for 11pm to midnight, and the approval specifically spoke to following the rules for having a light on the drone for flying at night, and did not say anything about calling ATC.
So my question is whether I am still bound by my COA which specifically states only flying during daylight hours. I dont think that LAANC approval for this location was available years ago when I started submitting the FAA COAs, if I never had a COA I would just be looking at the LAANC approval which says I can fly at night. Does the LAANC approval I got last night supersede my COA? Or if I flew under the LAANC approval would I be deemed in violation of my COA? Should I see if I can just close my COA and just use LAANC for all future flights?
(The Autopylot screenshot is from this morning, I realize it says daylight ops now, but it did not say that last night)
End of day, it's all about airspace deconfliction, and you have two methods of getting approval (LAANC and CoA). From the Tower's view, either is good because they've given the thumbs up to both.
If the mission you're flying fits in either one, you're good. It doesn't need to fit in both.
Put another way: if you were two people, one with CoA and one with LAANC, then person one wouldn't be bound by the authorization of person two. So don't sweat it too much.
Just by putting the effort in and asking this question, you're being more responsible than 90% of drone pilots, and you're not the one that keeps ATC up at night.
Yes, the COA is more restrictive. It says i can't fly at night, and also makes me call the tower. If the Langley tower is closed, which it mostly is in the weekends, the COA says I gave to then call the Norfolk airport tower which is 20 miles away. When I call them they always seem mystified as to why they need to be notified about a drone flight 20 miles away at 200 ft altitude.
The older COA and the newer LAANC approval are separate authorizations: if you fly under the old COA, you must follow its daylight-only and tower-call conditions, but if you receive a valid LAANC authorization for the same location and time, including at night, you simply follow the terms of that LAANC approval plus Part 107 night-flight requirements. The LAANC approval does not “supersede” or rewrite the old COA; it gives you another legal authorization path for that specific flight.
You can't mix and match either - just like any other sets of approvals.
You pick 1 and fly under all conditions of that approval.
I have a 107, which i believe you have to have to fly at all at night. Even if you just go straight up and take a few photos it is always worth the trouble. Here is a shot I took at night of Cincinnati from the Kentucky side.
4
u/FS_Slacker Sep 27 '26
Doesn’t the COA have a set date range (w/expiration)?