TRUST
By Tyler Dobbs, Government Affairs Director | tylerd@modelaircraft.org
AS MANY OF YOU LIKELY know, AMA became a testing administrator for The Recreational UAS Safety Test (TRUST) in June 2021. The completion of TRUST is required to comply with USC 44809, the Exception for Limited Recreational Operations of Unmanned Aircraft. This code is what allows AMA members and other hobbyists to fly without obtaining an FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate.
The idea of a safety and knowledge test was first introduced in early 2018 by the Senate Commerce Committee. In fact, it was one of the committee’s only requests when the bill was being conferenced between the two chambers. After it was mandated to the FAA, AMA immediately began engaging and assisting with the development of the testing structure, areas of focus, and specific questions. AMA coordinated and chaired a community-based organization roundtable to make recommendations regarding the testing mandate. The meeting took place on Tuesday, April 23, 2019, in Arlington, Virginia. In addition to AMA, groups invited by AMA to participate included the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), The Toy Association, the University of California, Fresh Air Educators, Flite Test, MultiGP, UASidekick, the Drone User Group, the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, Horizon Hobby, the EAA, Civil Air Patrol, the Alliance for Drone Innovation, the Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals, and the FAA.
After the roundtable was complete, AMA and CTA debriefed FAA leadership on the group’s recommendations. AMA worked diligently to ensure that the questions asked about TRUST would meet Congress’ objective while posing as little burden to the test takers as possible.
In early discussions, the FAA proposed a 60-question test that would have been required to be taken at a proctored testing facility. AMA and others in the industry were able to persuade the agency to decrease the number of test questions and the difficulty level of the test in general.
In late 2019, AMA joined the FAA TRUST question development team and assisted with the creation of the questions found on TRUST today.
It’s understandable that no testing mandate will ever be welcomed by most recreational users; however, the final version of TRUST that was released to the public in June 2021 is more palatable than what the hobby was facing after the FAA Reauthorization Act was released in October 2018.
TRUST provides our community a quick refresher course on safety and informs newcomers that there are indeed rules to flying in the National Airspace System. I encourage everyone reading this article to visit www.modelaircraft.org/trust and complete this short test.
Everyone who starts the process will pass with 100% accuracy, and it will reaffirm that AMA and the recreational modeling community is the safest in all of aviation.
