PER-007: Morgan Hayes — Authorization Manager

Andi Lamprecht ·2026-05-11· 4 min read· Draft

Role Overview

Morgan Hayes is an Authorization Manager — an authority-side user who receives, reviews, and decides on RPIC flight authorization requests routed to their jurisdiction. Unlike a Jurisdictional Administrator (who writes the rules) or an Airspace Manager (who monitors the live operational picture), Morgan’s primary function is transactional: working through a queue of pending requests, verifying that operators meet the authority’s requirements, and issuing a timely decision.

Morgan may work for any type of jurisdictional authority: a regional airport, a public safety agency, a federal airspace authority, a stadium or event venue, or a tribal or municipal government. The type of decision Morgan can issue depends entirely on how the authority’s jurisdiction is configured in the FAS.

Decision Framework

Morgan’s role in the authorization workflow is determined by the decision mode assigned to their jurisdiction. This is configured by the Jurisdictional Administrator, not by Morgan.

In multi-authority scenarios, Morgan’s jurisdiction may be one of several that must act. The FAS tracks each authority’s decision independently and resolves the combined outcome per the defined precedence rules (UERQ-SYS-1402).

Operator Attributes and Certifications

When Morgan opens a request, the FAS surfaces the RPIC’s submitted operator attributes inline — pre-verified by the IAM Service against authoritative sources (UERQ-SYS-1910). Morgan does not perform external lookups. Each credential shows:

• Credential type (e.g., Part 107, TSA clearance, airport proximity endorsement, insurance certificate)
• Verification source and method
• Expiry date and current validity status
• Scope: whether the credential covers the specific operational area in the request

In Verification mode, Morgan’s task is explicitly to confirm that the presented credentials are sufficient for the jurisdiction’s requirements. In Approval mode, credentials are one input among several that inform Morgan’s decision.

System Context

Morgan works through the ATOMx Authority Portal — a web-based interface distinct from the operator app. Key capabilities include:

• Pending request queue with triage filters (jurisdiction, request type, flag status, SLA countdown)
• Side-by-side view: proposed flight volume on the airspace map, RPIC credentials panel, and jurisdiction rule summary
• Condition builder: Morgan can attach structured conditions to any approval (altitude ceiling, time window restriction, area exclusion, communication requirement)
• Decision audit trail: every Morgan action is timestamped and logged for compliance purposes
• SLA indicators: requests approaching the authority response deadline are visually flagged

End Goals

• Process authorization requests accurately and within the jurisdiction’s expected response time
• Trust that credential information presented by the FAS is current and verified — no external validation needed
• Issue decisions with clear, structured conditions that the RPIC can act on
• Maintain a complete, auditable record of all decisions without additional documentation effort
• Understand at a glance which requests require action versus which are informational (Acknowledgement mode)

Key Frustrations (Without a Well-Designed System)

• Credential information presented out of context, requiring Morgan to interpret raw data against policy
• No clear distinction between “this needs your decision” and “this is for your awareness”
• Conditions issued as free-text fields with no structure — leads to ambiguity at enforcement time
• No SLA visibility until a request is already overdue
• Multi-authority workflows with no status on what other authorities have decided

Key Scenarios

Scenarios are documented as individual pages under the Key Scenarios section.