The Remote Pilot's Field Guide

The Certificate & the Exam

Do you need Part 107?

You need the Part 107 certificate to fly a small unmanned aircraft (under 55 lb) for any non-recreational purpose: work, business, a nonprofit, anything that is not purely for fun. Recreational flyers instead follow the limited recreational exception and pass TRUST, a free online test that is not a pilot certificate and does not authorize commercial flight.

Eligibility

• At least 16 years old.
• Able to read, speak, write, and understand English.
• In a physical and mental condition to operate safely.
• Pass TSA security vetting (runs automatically with your IACRA application).

The knowledge test, by the numbers

The five knowledge areas are Regulations, Airspace & operating requirements, Weather, Loading & performance, and Operations. As of 2026 the largest shares are Regulations and Airspace; study those hardest.

After you pass

1. Complete FAA Form 8710-13 in IACRA; the TSA check runs in the background.
2. You get a temporary certificate, then the permanent one by mail.
3. Register the aircraft in FAADroneZone. For Part 107 (commercial) you register regardless of weight (the 0.55 lb exemption is only for recreational flyers). Registration costs $5 and is valid 3 years; mark the number on the exterior.

Keeping it current

The certificate does not expire, but to keep flying you must complete the free online recurrent training (course ALC-677) every 24 calendar months. That training also carries the night-operations material.

Altitude: AGL vs MSL

The two references

MSL (Mean Sea Level) is height above the average level of the sea, a fixed reference. Airport elevations, obstacle tops, terrain, and almost every number on a chart are in feet MSL. AGL (Above Ground Level) is height above the ground directly beneath the aircraft; it changes as you fly over hills and valleys. Your drone's altitude display usually reads AGL because it zeroes at takeoff.

The relationship is simply MSL = ground elevation + height AGL. A drone 400 ft AGL over Denver (ground about 5,280 ft MSL) is near 5,680 ft MSL; the same 400 ft AGL at the beach is about 400 ft MSL. Same legal altitude, very different MSL.

Why it bites drone pilots

• Chart data is MSL, your limit is AGL. To know whether you are under a 700 ft or 1,200 ft Class E floor, or clear of an obstacle, you convert using the ground elevation.
• Flying from a hilltop out over a valley. If your controller holds height above the launch point and the valley floor drops 300 ft, your true height over that ground is now 700 ft, a 400 ft bust.
• The structure exception: you may exceed 400 ft AGL only within a 400 ft radius of a structure, up to 400 ft above that structure's top, to inspect tall towers and buildings.

Pressure altitude is what you read with the altimeter set to the standard 29.92 inHg; it is the input for performance and density-altitude math in Chapter 7.

The Regulations

Who is in charge: the Remote PIC

Every operation has one Remote Pilot in Command (RPIC) who is directly responsible for and the final authority over the flight. A person without a certificate may fly the controls only under the direct supervision of an RPIC who can immediately take control.

The hard limits

Visual line of sight means your own eyes or those of a visual observer. Binoculars and first-person-view (FPV) goggles do not satisfy it, so FPV flight requires a visual observer who keeps the aircraft in unaided sight.

People, vehicles, and cargo

Flight over people who are not part of the operation is allowed only under the Operations Over People categories, which are set by the aircraft's injury potential:

• Category 1: 0.55 lb (250 g) or less with no exposed rotating parts that can lacerate skin.
• Category 2: cannot cause injury at or above the severity of an 11 ft-lb impact; needs a declaration of compliance.
• Category 3: 25 ft-lb threshold, plus site restrictions (no flight over open-air assemblies; only closed sites or participating people).
• Category 4: holds an airworthiness certificate and is flown to its operating limitations.

Sustained flight over an open-air assembly is allowed only for Categories 1, 2, and 4 and only if the aircraft meets Remote ID. Operating from a moving vehicle is allowed only over a sparsely populated area. Carrying hazardous material is prohibited.

Registration and Remote ID

For Part 107, register the aircraft regardless of weight ($5, 3 years) and mark the number on the outside. Most aircraft must broadcast Remote ID, the drone's digital license plate, one of three ways: standard Remote ID built in; a broadcast module added on (which limits you to visual line of sight); or flight within an FAA-Recognized Identification Area (FRIA).

Night, waivers, authorizations

Night and civil-twilight flight is allowed with anti-collision lighting visible for 3 statute miles and the current training. You may request a waiver of many limits, and an airspace authorization for controlled airspace, through FAADroneZone; for routine airport airspace use LAANC (Chapter 4). A waiver does not grant airspace access, and an airspace authorization does not waive other rules.

Accidents, inspection, emergencies

Report an accident to the FAA within 10 calendar days if it caused serious injury or loss of consciousness, or at least $500 in damage to property other than your aircraft. On request, present your certificate to the FAA, NTSB, TSA, or any law enforcement officer. In an in-flight emergency you may deviate from any rule as far as needed to meet it (107.21), and must file a written report if the FAA asks. Careless or reckless operation, and dropping objects so as to create a hazard, are prohibited.

Airspace

Getting into controlled airspace: LAANC

To fly in Class B, C, D, or surface Class E, you need prior ATC authorization. LAANC (Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability) grants it in near real time, up to published grid ceilings expressed in feet AGL, through an approved app. Where LAANC does not reach, request authorization in FAADroneZone.

Special use airspace and TFRs

• Prohibited (P): no flight, ever. Restricted (R): hazardous when active; enter only with the controlling agency's permission.
• MOA: military training; use caution. Warning / Alert: advisory hazards or heavy training.
• TFR: a short-notice closure for stadiums, VIP movement, and disasters, issued by NOTAM. The chart shows only national-security TFRs, so you must check NOTAMs every flight.

Reading Sectional Charts

The color and line code

Reading ceiling and floor numbers

Airspace numbers drop the last two zeros and are written ceiling over floor. So 100/30 = 10,000 ft MSL ceiling over a 3,000 ft MSL floor. Class C core might read 41/SFC (4,100 MSL down to the surface) and its shelf 41/13 (4,100 MSL down to 1,300 MSL). A Class D ceiling sits in a dashed blue box, for example 29 = 2,900 ft MSL. "SFC" means surface.

The airport data block, in order

1. Name and identifier, e.g. RIVERTON (R12).
2. Tower (CT) frequency at towered fields; a star after it means part-time.
3. CTAF, the self-announce frequency, marked by a C inside a circle. At non-towered fields this is usually the UNICOM.
4. UNICOM / ATIS / AWOS frequencies where published.
5. Field elevation in feet MSL (a plain number).
6. Lighting: *L means lighting with limitations (check the Chart Supplement); plain L means dusk-to-dawn.
7. Longest runway length in hundreds of feet (72 = 7,200 ft).
8. RP plus a runway number means right traffic for that runway.

A dash in place of any character means that item is not available. Fuel is shown by small tick spokes around the airport circle.

Obstacles and the MEF

Charts show man-made obstacles over 200 ft AGL (over 299 ft in dense city tint). The bold number is the top in feet MSL; the number in parentheses is the height AGL. Obstacles 1,000 ft AGL and taller use a larger, heavier symbol, a common cue for "what is the tallest obstacle." Lighted obstacles show radiating marks at the tip.

The large faint number in each grid square is the Maximum Elevation Figure (MEF): the highest terrain or obstacle in that quadrant, rounded up with a safety buffer, with the last two zeros dropped. A printed 25 means 2,500 ft MSL. The MEF is a clearance reference, not a legal minimum, and it is usually higher than any single charted obstacle because it folds in terrain and an uncharted-obstacle allowance.

Special use airspace on the chart

Prohibited, Restricted, and Warning areas use a blue hachured border (tick marks on the inside) and carry a P-, R-, or W-number whose altitudes and times are listed in a margin table. MOAs use a magenta hachured border. A National Security Area is a thick broken magenta line. A charted broken blue line marks a national-security TFR; all other TFRs live only in NOTAMs.

Pilotage & Navigation

Pilotage vs dead reckoning

Pilotage is navigating by visual reference to landmarks you can both see and find on the chart: roads, rivers, railroads, towns, lakes, and towers. Dead reckoning is navigating by computation, using a known starting point, speed, heading, time, and wind to predict position. Real navigation combines them, holding a computed heading between visual checkpoints. Sectionals support pilotage by drawing those landmarks in detail, and they mark prominent visual checkpoints with a magenta flag.

Direction: the compass rose and magnetic variation

The ring of degrees around a VOR, the compass rose, is oriented to magnetic north, so a course measured against it is already a magnetic course and needs no correction. The chart's latitude and longitude grid, on the other hand, is oriented to true north. The angle between the two is magnetic variation, shown by dashed magenta isogonic lines labeled with the local value.

To convert true to magnetic, remember "East is least, West is best": subtract easterly variation, add westerly. The return course on any leg is the reciprocal, the heading plus or minus 180 degrees.

Distance and position

One minute of latitude equals one nautical mile, so the latitude tick scale on the side of the chart is a built-in ruler. Latitude is read on the left and right borders, longitude on the top and bottom, and you interpolate between the labeled lines using the minute ticks. A sectional is drawn at 1:500,000, about 6.9 NM to the inch.

Weather & Air Density

Air density: the science

Air density is the number of air molecules packed into a given volume. It is what a propeller bites to make thrust and what a rotor works to make lift, so more molecules per cubic foot means more performance. Four things change it:

• Altitude up, density down (less air stacked above). The biggest everyday factor.
• Temperature up, density down (warm air expands).
• Humidity up, density down (water vapor is lighter than the dry air it displaces, which surprises people but is correct).
• Pressure up, density up.

Density altitude is pressure altitude corrected for temperature: the altitude at which the standard atmosphere has the density you are actually flying in. Hot, high, and humid means high density altitude means thin air, and thin air means less lift, less thrust, slower climb, less payload, and shorter battery life, because the motors and props must work harder for the same result. The standard atmosphere is 15°C and 29.92 inHg at sea level, cooling about 2°C per 1,000 ft.

Reports and forecasts: METAR and TAF

A METAR is an observation of current conditions; a TAF is a forecast for an airport. Both use nearly the same code. Read a METAR left to right: station, time in Zulu, wind, visibility, weather, sky cover, temperature/dewpoint, altimeter. A worked example:

METAR KJAX 121853Z 09012G18KT 10SM FEW045 SCT250 31/24 A3005
Jacksonville, 18:53Z, wind from 090° at 12 kt gusting 18, visibility 10 SM, few clouds at 4,500 ft and scattered at 25,000 ft AGL, temperature 31°C / dewpoint 24°C, altimeter 30.05 inHg.

Sky cover runs clearest to most: SKC/CLRFEWSCTBKNOVC. The ceiling is the lowest broken (BKN) or overcast (OVC) layer; FEW and SCT are never ceilings. Get both products from aviationweather.gov or 1800wxbrief.com; use the TAF to plan the window and the METAR to make the go/no-go at launch.

Weather characteristics

Moisture: a small spread between temperature and dewpoint means the air is near saturation, so expect fog, mist, and low ceilings; a spread near zero is a fog warning for a dawn flight.

Inversions (temperature rising with height) are very stable and trap haze and moisture, giving smooth but low-visibility air, often at dawn. Cold fronts move fast and hit hard: cumulus, gusty shifting winds, a quick temperature drop, possible thunderstorms or squall lines ahead. Warm fronts are gradual: layered clouds, low ceilings, steady precipitation, and poor visibility over a long lead time.

Wind hazards

• Wind shear: a sudden change in wind speed or direction over a short distance, at any altitude, which can destabilize a light drone without warning.
• Microburst: an intense, short-lived downdraft near a thunderstorm, with violent shifting winds. Stay well clear of storms.
• Mechanical turbulence: the dominant everyday hazard for structure work. Wind breaks into rotors and eddies on the downwind side of buildings and terrain and accelerates between buildings. Treat the gust value, not the steady wind, as your limit, and derate for high density altitude, which also cuts control authority.

Loading & Performance

Weight, balance, and center of gravity

Every aircraft has a maximum takeoff weight, and the small unmanned aircraft including everything on board must weigh less than 55 lb. Adding payload shortens flight time, weakens climb and maneuver margins, and can move the center of gravity (CG) outside limits. An out-of-limits CG hurts stability and control even when total weight is legal: an aft CG is twitchy and oscillatory, a forward CG is heavy on the controls. Mounting a camera or sensor off center without rebalancing shifts the CG, adds vibration, and can trigger instability or a flyaway, so balance payloads to the manufacturer's spec.

Batteries and environment

Lithium-polymer batteries lose usable capacity in the cold and can sag in voltage suddenly under load, so warm the packs, hover briefly to warm the cells, and plan shorter flights with bigger reserves. Heat plus high current plus thin air reduces cooling and can overheat packs and motors. Tie it all back to density altitude: the same drone that lifts a payload easily at a cool sea-level site may be marginal on a hot afternoon at elevation.

Pre-flight performance planning

1. Check weather for wind, gusts, visibility, ceiling, and the temp-dewpoint spread; confirm you meet the Part 107 minimums.
2. Judge density altitude for the site and its effect on lift, thrust, payload, and endurance.
3. Verify total weight is within the max and under 55 lb, with the CG in limits.
4. Derate endurance for cold or heat and set conservative reserves.
5. Compare winds to the airframe limits using the gust value, and expect turbulence near terrain and buildings.

Operations & Decisions

Aeronautical Decision-Making

ADM is a structured way to make consistent, safe decisions. The models the test expects:

• PAVE, a preflight risk checklist: Pilot, Aircraft, enVironment, External pressures (the deadline and client pressure to finish).
• 3P, the continuous loop: Perceive the hazards, Process the risk, Perform the mitigation, repeated throughout the flight.
• DECIDE, a reactive loop for a change in the situation: Detect, Estimate, Choose, Identify, Do, Evaluate.

The five hazardous attitudes and their antidotes

Fitness to fly: I'M SAFE

Check yourself with I'M SAFE: Illness, Medication, Stress, Alcohol, Fatigue, Emotion. On alcohol, applied to remote pilots: no flying within 8 hours of drinking, with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.04 or higher, or while impaired by any drug. Fatigue and dehydration degrade judgment and reaction time, and you are a poor judge of your own impairment.

Crew, visual observers, and the airport

Crew Resource Management is using every available resource, people, equipment, and information, for a safe flight. A visual observer helps you see and avoid, but the operation must still stay within unaided visual line of sight, observers cannot be daisy-chained to extend range, and the RPIC keeps final responsibility. Around airports, most traffic patterns use left turns, pilots self-announce on the CTAF at non-towered fields, and you give way to every aircraft.

Preflight, maintenance, emergencies, security

Before each flight the RPIC inspects the aircraft and assesses the environment (weather, airspace, TFRs and NOTAMs, people and hazards on the surface), confirms the control link is clear of interference, and verifies enough battery with reserves. Maintain the aircraft per the manufacturer. Distinguish a lost link (a planned loss of the command link, where the aircraft runs its programmed return-to-home or land) from a flyaway (the aircraft is not behaving predictably and the pilot has lost control). Configure and test return-to-home and failsafes before flight. Protect the aircraft, controller, and data physically and keep firmware patched from the manufacturer, since GPS spoofing (false position) and jamming (denied signal) can trigger lost-link behavior or a flyaway.

Exam-Day Playbook

A two-week plan

1. Days 1 to 7: read one chapter a day, then answer that chapter's questions in the practice test in Study Mode. Spend extra time on Regulations, Airspace, and Charts, which carry the most questions now.
2. Days 8 to 11: take full Exam-Mode runs; review every miss and reread the matching section.
3. Days 12 to 14: retake until you pass comfortably, aiming for 85% or better with Charts and Airspace solid.

How to read a chart question

1. Find the exact airport or point named before you look at the answers.
2. Identify the color and line style first to fix the airspace.
3. Read the data block top to bottom for frequency and elevation.
4. For obstacles, compare the bold MSL numbers; for heading, use the compass rose and the line between the two points.

Test-taking method

• Answer the easy ones first; flag the rest. 60 questions in 120 minutes is 2 minutes each.
• Eliminate clearly wrong choices; with three choices, ruling out one gives strong odds.
• Watch for "except," "not," "minimum," and "maximum," which flip the answer.
• Change a first answer only when you find a concrete reason.

Memorize This

The numbers that show up again and again. If you know these cold, you have banked a large block of the test.

Vocabulary

The terms the exam leans on, in plain language. Use the search box up top to jump to any of them.

Above Ground Level (AGL)

Height above the ground directly below the aircraft. The 400 ft Part 107 limit is AGL.

Mean Sea Level (MSL)

Altitude above the average level of the sea. Airport and obstacle elevations on charts are MSL.

Pressure altitude

Altitude read with the altimeter set to 29.92 inHg; the input for density-altitude and performance math.

Density altitude

Pressure altitude corrected for temperature. High (hot, high, humid) means thin air and worse performance.

Air density

Mass of air per unit volume; what a propeller and rotor work on to make thrust and lift.

Ceiling

The height of the lowest broken (BKN) or overcast (OVC) cloud layer.

Visibility

How far you can see horizontally; Part 107 requires at least 3 statute miles.

METAR

An observation of current weather at a station.

TAF

A Terminal Aerodrome Forecast of expected weather for an airport.

Dewpoint

The temperature at which air becomes saturated. A small temperature-dewpoint spread means fog risk.

Temperature inversion

Temperature rising with height; very stable, traps haze, smooth but low visibility.

Stable air

Resists rising; stratus clouds, smooth air, poor visibility, steady precipitation.

Unstable air

Rises readily; cumulus clouds, turbulence, good visibility, showers and thunderstorms.

Wind shear

A sudden change in wind speed or direction over a short distance, hazardous at any altitude.

Microburst

A short-lived, intense downdraft near a thunderstorm; avoid.

Standard atmosphere

The reference condition: 15°C and 29.92 inHg at sea level, cooling about 2°C per 1,000 ft.

Pilotage

Navigating by visual reference to landmarks matched to the chart.

Dead reckoning

Navigating by computation from heading, speed, time, and wind.

Magnetic variation

The angle between true north and magnetic north; shown by isogonic lines. East is least, West is best.

Sectional chart

The aeronautical map (1:500,000) showing airspace, airports, obstacles, and terrain.

Maximum Elevation Figure (MEF)

The highest terrain or obstacle in a chart grid square, in hundreds of feet MSL; a reference, not a legal limit.

CTAF

Common Traffic Advisory Frequency, used to self-announce at a non-towered airport; marked with a circled C.

LAANC

Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability; near-real-time ATC authorization for controlled airspace.

NOTAM

Notice to Air Missions; time-critical notices, including most TFRs.

Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR)

A short-notice airspace closure (events, VIP, disasters) issued by NOTAM.

Remote ID

The drone's broadcast digital license plate: standard, broadcast module, or FRIA.

FRIA

FAA-Recognized Identification Area where a non-Remote-ID aircraft may fly.

Visual Line of Sight (VLOS)

Keeping the aircraft in view with the unaided eye (corrective lenses allowed), required under Part 107.

Visual Observer (VO)

A crew member who helps the RPIC see and avoid; the RPIC keeps final responsibility.

Remote Pilot in Command (RPIC)

The certificated person directly responsible for and the final authority over the flight.

Center of Gravity (CG)

The balance point; payload shifts it, and an out-of-limits CG degrades control.

Lost link

A planned loss of the command-and-control link; the aircraft runs its return-to-home or land routine.

Flyaway

The aircraft is not behaving predictably and the pilot has lost control; not the same as lost link.

Aeronautical Decision-Making (ADM)

A structured process for consistent, safe go/no-go decisions (PAVE, 3P, hazardous attitudes).

Crew Resource Management (CRM)

Using all available resources, people, equipment, and information, for a safe operation.

Acronyms