The anti-collision lighting rule is firm, but it is not absolute. § 107.205 lists the regulations a certificate of waiver can lift, and the anti-collision-light requirement — § 107.29(a)(2) and (b) — is on that list. So an operation that genuinely cannot carry a light visible for three statute miles is not simply barred from flying after dusk; it has a lawful path, the same certificate-of-waiver process Chapter 8 covers in full, through which the FAA can authorize a deviation once you show your operation is safe without meeting the letter of the lighting rule.

The line the list draws is worth reading carefully, because only part of § 107.29 can be waived. What appears on the § 107.205 list is the anti-collision lighting — the equipment on the aircraft. The night-qualification condition from the first section of this chapter, § 107.29(a)(1), is not on that list. A waiver can therefore relieve you of carrying a compliant light; it cannot relieve the remote pilot in command of being qualified to fly at night. The pilot competence the rule builds in is treated as non-negotiable in a way the equipment is not.

In practice this closes the chapter where Chapter 2 began. A waiver is not a shortcut around the lighting rule you would rather not meet — it is a deliberate, evidence-backed application to the FAA, granted only when your proposed alternative holds the same safety margin the rule protects. The lighting rule and its narrow dimming allowance from the last section remain the default for every night and twilight flight; the waiver is the documented exception you pursue in advance, through the process already laid out, when the default truly cannot be met.