Definition
A written authorization issued by the FAA that permits a person or operator to deviate from specific Federal Aviation Regulations under defined conditions. It is granted when the FAA determines that the deviation is in the public interest and can be conducted safely, and it specifies the limits, duration, and any required alternative procedures.
Plain English
An official FAA letter that gives someone permission to do something the rules normally do not allow, as long as they follow the conditions the FAA sets out in the letter.
Context Anchor
Pilots and operators encounter this when an operation is not normally allowed by a rule unless the FAA gives written permission first.
Derivation
“Deviation” comes from words meaning “to turn aside from the way.” That helps here because the letter does not remove the rule; it allows a controlled turn aside from that rule for a specific case.
Why Pilots Care
It enables training programs that would otherwise be restricted by standard regulations, allowing more flexible or accelerated instruction options.
Analogy
It is like a written hall pass: it lets you be somewhere you normally could not be, but only for the reason, place, and time written on the pass.
Intuition Check
Do not read “authority” as personal power to ignore a rule. Here it means official written permission from the FAA for a specific, limited deviation.
Example Sentence 1
The operator held a Letter of Deviation Authority that allowed certain flights to be conducted outside the normal certification requirements.
Example Sentence 2
With the Letter of Deviation Authority in hand, the training center began offering the specialized program the following month.