FAA Rules and Navigation

Teams will be assessed on their knowledge of FAA regulations and their ability to navigate the drone through a variety of tasks. These will include:

• 4 Points: FAA knowledge test (answering FAA regulation question in the "pit" area right before flight)
• 4 Points: Fly to 3 m, hover, and return to ground within target area
• 4 Points: Fly to 3 m, move horizontally to target and return to launch area
• 8 Points: Fly through an obstacle and return safely to launch site
• -3 Points: Drone crash that requires human assistance to correct (applied only once)

FAA knowledge will be tested both by the submission of the FAA TRUST Certificates and a knowledge test administers in the "pit" area right before each team’s flight time. Teams will be asked four questions and given 1 point for each correct answer. These questions will be derived from the FAA's Rules for Recreational Flyers (see https://www.faa.gov/uas/recreational_flyers)

Multiple attempts can be made to successfully complete each navigation tasks, but each task can only be completed once. A judge will notify a team when a task is successfully completed.

A "crash" is any situation, e.g. caught in arena net, flipped drone, broken propeller, that requires human assistance to return drone into a state where it can fly again. Rough landings in arena space that do not require human intervention to regain controlled flight do not count as a crash. Repeated crashes may count against a team if controlled flight is regained in between crashes.