Preparing for Part 108: What Asset and Site Owners Need to Know Now

If you manage an industrial site, drones have already become indispensable — inspecting flare stacks and tailings dams, mapping transmission corridors, underpinning modern asset management. The FAA's incoming Part 108 regulations change the question from "should we use drones" to "can we prove our program is built the right way." And right now, one group central to that answer has been largely left out of the conversation: asset and site owners themselves.

Regulators write the rules. Asset owners have to live inside them.

Part 108 will raise the bar for beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations, personnel accountability, and airworthiness. Regulators and service providers have filled pages discussing it. But asset and site owners — often running diverse fleets, multiple business units, and a mix of internal and contracted pilots — are the ones who'll actually have to translate broad regulatory concepts into day-to-day operational reality.

The Complexity Beneath Compliance

For most asset owners, the real challenge won't come from the rules themselves. It'll come from scaling internal drone teams, ensuring airspace safety, and maintaining oversight of external contractors — pressures that have already stretched many in-house UAS managers well before Part 108 arrives. Part 108 compounds that by introducing tighter organizational structures and formal new roles, such as Operations Supervisors and Flight Coordinators, each carrying defined accountability for safe operation.

Airspace management takes on new weight too. Industrial sites running concurrent operations between crewed and uncrewed aircraft — helicopters, fixed-wing survey flights, maintenance drones — will need to demonstrate clear coordination protocols to meet the new requirements.

The hardest part of Part 108 isn't the regulation. It's deciding who's accountable for it.

At the same time, airworthiness standards are evolving. Some existing drones may lack the documentation or certification pathways Part 108's more stringent expectations demand, compelling owners to update fleets or overhaul maintenance recordkeeping.

And perhaps the most complex question for many organizations: pursue your own Part 108 certificate, or operate under another entity's permit? Contractors working under someone else's certificate can simplify operational approval, but add layers of coordination and oversight. For site owners, who remain responsible for outcomes on their own property, this is not a trivial decision.

Strategy: Building for Dual Compliance

In the near term, most asset owners should plan to operate Part 107 and Part 108 programs in parallel. Routine visual-line-of-sight work — inspections, thermal surveys, basic imagery collection — can continue under Part 107 or similar frameworks. Riskier or more complex BVLOS work transitions gradually into compliance with the new standards.

Start adapting your program architecture before Part 108 goes live, not after.

Three things every UAS program manager should consider now:

• Develop a clear implementation strategy. Decide early whether your organization will obtain its own certificate or partner under a shared permit.
• Define internal leadership and safety management structures that align with Part 108 roles. This can mean designating a "Chief Operations Supervisor" or equivalent position to maintain oversight across units.
• Standardize workflows using integrated software that can handle compliance under both Parts — tracking flights, training, maintenance, and reporting through a single system.

These steps aren't just about compliance. They're about clarity. Asset owners who start adapting their program architecture today will avoid costly rework and confusion once Part 108 goes live.

Watch: FAA Part 108 Explained

Want the full breakdown? Our CEO David Cole walks through what the proposed Part 108 rule could mean in practice — permits and certificates, running Part 107 and Part 108 operations side by side, operation types, population-density risk, aircraft airworthiness, the new Operations Supervisor and Flight Coordinator roles, and what recordkeeping and compliance systems will need to look like. He also makes the case for a crawl-walk-run approach: start with a focused permit strategy, prove the operating model, then expand only once your people, aircraft, procedures, and systems are actually ready.

How FlyFreely Can Help

We designed the FlyFreely platform for organizations that operate complex, multi-site drone programs under multiple regulatory environments. It already helps some of Australia's largest asset owners manage internal and contractor operations simultaneously — and that experience translates directly to the United States. In any location, FlyFreely helps ensure every flight, pilot, and aircraft stays visible and accountable.

With FlyFreely, organizations can:

• Seamlessly run operations under both Part 107 and Part 108 from a unified dashboard
• Track pilot training, license currency, permits, and asset maintenance in real time
• Mirror organizational hierarchies with defined roles that map directly to new FAA requirements
• Automate recordkeeping and compliance reports so you're always audit-ready

As the industry heads toward the Part 108 launch, now is the moment for asset and site owners to take a proactive stance. Regulatory change doesn't have to slow innovation — managed through the right framework, it can drive safer, smarter growth.

Schedule a conversation with FlyFreely's expert team to assess your UAS program's readiness for Part 108. Visit FlyFreely's website to learn how to streamline your operations, protect your investment, and stay ahead of the next era of drone regulations.