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5 Answers

special flight permit

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FAA Regulations, Private Pilot

I understand Special Flight Permit can be obtained for various reasons and "evacuating an aircraft from an area of impending danger" is one of them as described by 14 CFR 21.197. I believe getting special flight permit would require a lot of paper work and time. Also the original special flight permit document must be onboard as far as I know(please correct me if Im wrong). I don't think this Special Flight Permit would help in emergency situations at all because you don't have enough time. There must be a reason for this regulation or I misunderstood the sentence. It would be  much appreciated someone could fill in the blank.

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5 Answers



  1. Kris Kortokrax on May 10, 2015

    It requires neither a lot of effort nor a lot of time. I have gotten Special Flight permits in the past. Called the FSDO, gave them the required info and they faxed the permit. You still need a mechanic to inspect the aircraft and determine that it is in condition for safe flight.

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  2. Seokhyun Lee on May 10, 2015

    If it requires a lot of efforts and time, what’s the use in the situation with impending danger? If there will be an earthquake in less than 30 mins and need to evacuate ASAP, I believe no one would contact FSDO or DARS with mechanic and expect permission within 30 mins. Or do I misunderstood the situation “evacuating an aircraft from an area of impending danger”? Or we can get the permission in case of evacuating?(I couldn’t find any reference saying so though.)

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  3. Best Answer


    Kris Kortokrax on May 10, 2015

    If you had the ability to predict that an earthquake would happen in a certain place within 30 minutes, you are wasting your time as a pilot. You could command a greater salary predicting earthquakes.

    The impending danger referenced is more on the order of an approaching hurricane which would give plenty of time to secure the permit and escape.

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  4. Seokhyun Lee on May 10, 2015

    Thank you for the answer!

    According to your explanation, FAA referenced “impending danger” as a danger gives us plenty of time to get the special flight permit. It doesn’t sounds impending to me but maybe I just overinterpreted the word.

    One more thing, does the original special flight permit have to be in the airplane or I can just prove it is issued in case of the airplane is far away from the base.

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  5. Kris Kortokrax on May 10, 2015

    I seem to remember that one of the provisions is that the permit be carried onboard the aircraft.

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