Welcome Guest. Sign in or Signup

5 Answers

special flight permit

Asked by: 3880 views , , , ,
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.

Ace Any FAA Written Test!
Actual FAA Questions / Free Lifetime Updates
The best explanations in the business
Fast, efficient study.
Pass Your Checkride With Confidence!
FAA Practical Test prep that reflects actual checkrides.
Any checkride: Airplane, Helicopter, Glider, etc.
Written and maintained by actual pilot examiners and master CFIs.
The World's Most Trusted eLogbook
Be Organized, Current, Professional, and Safe.
Highly customizable - for student pilots through pros.
Free Transition Service for users of other eLogs.
Our sincere thanks to pilots such as yourself who support AskACFI while helping themselves by using the awesome PC, Mac, iPhone/iPad, and Android aviation apps of our sponsors.

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.

    +1 Votes Thumb up 1 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes



  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.)

    0 Votes Thumb up 0 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes

  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.

    +1 Votes Thumb up 1 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes



  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.

    0 Votes Thumb up 0 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes



  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.

    0 Votes Thumb up 0 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes


The following terms have been auto-detected the question above and any answers or discussion provided. Click on a term to see its definition from the Dauntless Aviation JargonBuster Glossary.

Answer Question

Our sincere thanks to all who contribute constructively to this forum in answering flight training questions. If you are a flight instructor or represent a flight school / FBO offering flight instruction, you are welcome to include links to your site and related contact information as it pertains to offering local flight instruction in a specific geographic area. Additionally, direct links to FAA and related official government sources of information are welcome. However we thank you for your understanding that links to other sites or text that may be construed as explicit or implicit advertising of other business, sites, or goods/services are not permitted even if such links nominally are relevant to the question asked.