Regulations: the rules you have to memorize

0:00Host: Welcome to the Drone Authority Part 107 study podcast. This is episode one, Regulations. If you only had a single afternoon to study before your exam, this is the topic I would point you at first. Under the current PSI blueprint, Regulations is forty-eight percent of the sixty scored questions, the largest slice by a wide margin. Much of it is memorizing fixed numbers and clear rules. You either know that the maximum altitude is four hundred feet, or you do not. Once you know it, that is a point in the bank.

0:32That changes how you should study. Later in this series we will hit Operations, which is twenty-five percent of the scored blueprint and leans more heavily on judgment and scenarios. Regulations rewards accurate recall, so flashcards and short repeated drills work well here. If you are nervous about the test, start here, because this domain can move your score quickly.

1:10Now, the source material here is fourteen CFR Part 107, specifically Subpart B, which lays out the operating limitations. You do not need to read the regulation itself cover to cover. What you need is to internalize the handful of numbers and the small set of rules that the FAA wrote down. So let me give you a framework that turns a scary pile of trivia into something organized and memorable.

2:10Host: Here is the framework. Sort every regulation into one of three buckets, and suddenly the whole topic has a shape. Bucket one is the airman. That means you, the remote pilot in command, sometimes written as the remote P I C. This bucket covers who is allowed to fly and what you have to do to stay current. Bucket two is the aircraft, which covers registration and Remote ID. Bucket three is the operation itself, the hard limits on how high you can fly, how fast, how far you can see, and over whom you are allowed to fly. Airman, aircraft, operation. Keep those three buckets in your head, and every single regulation question on the exam slots neatly into one of them.

2:55Before we dig into each bucket, let me give you the waiver rule without a risky shortcut. A Part one zero seven waiver is available only for the regulatory sections listed in section one zero seven point two zero five. That list includes visual line of sight, multiple aircraft, selected operating limits, and the rules for operations over people and moving vehicles. The careless-or-reckless prohibition in section one zero seven point two three is not on the waiver list. On the exam and in real planning, check the listed section instead of assuming that almost everything is waivable.

3:50Alright. Let me hit the buckets in the order that gives you the most points per minute, which means we start with the operation itself, because those operating limits show up constantly on the exam.

4:30Host: There are four core operating numbers, and these four are the spine of the entire section. Get them automatic. Number one, maximum altitude is four hundred feet above ground level. We say A G L, above ground level, not above sea level, and that distinction matters. Now there is one important wrinkle on the altitude rule. If you are flying within four hundred feet of a structure, you are allowed to go up to four hundred feet above that structure's uppermost limit. So picture a six hundred foot radio tower. As long as you stay within four hundred feet of it laterally, you can legally climb to one thousand feet, because that is four hundred feet above the top of a six hundred foot tower. The exam loves this question, so do the math once and remember it: structure height plus four hundred.

5:30Number two, maximum groundspeed is eighty-seven knots, which works out to one hundred miles per hour. Notice it says groundspeed, your speed over the ground, not airspeed. Number three, minimum visibility is three statute miles, measured from your control station, which is wherever you are standing with the controller. And number four, cloud clearance. You must stay five hundred feet below the clouds and two thousand feet horizontally away from them. So those four numbers, four hundred feet, eighty-seven knots, three statute miles, and five hundred below with two thousand horizontal, are the absolute backbone. If you fall asleep tonight reciting four hundred, eighty-seven, three, five hundred, two thousand, you have done your job.

6:30Let me give you a quick memory hook for the cloud clearance, because students mix up the two numbers. Five hundred below, two thousand beside. The bigger number, two thousand, is the horizontal distance, because clouds can drift sideways toward you and you want more of a buffer. Five hundred below, two thousand beside.

7:05One more thing about these limits before we move on. They all connect to a single idea: see and avoid. You stay low so you do not conflict with manned aircraft, you keep enough visibility to spot other traffic, and you keep clear of clouds because you cannot see through them. When you understand the why, the numbers stop feeling arbitrary and start feeling logical.

8:00Host: Now let me jump to the airman bucket, which is short and sweet. To act as a remote pilot in command, you have to meet three eligibility requirements. One, you must be at least sixteen years old. Two, you must be able to read, speak, write, and understand English. And three, you must be in a physical and mental condition that allows you to operate safely. That is the entire list. Notice what is not on it: no prior aviation experience is required, no medical certificate like manned pilots need, no flight hours. If you are sixteen, you speak English, and you are fit to fly, you are eligible. The exam sometimes tries to trick you by adding a fake requirement, so just remember those three and reject anything else.

9:00Now the aircraft bucket, starting with registration. Here is the clean Part 107 rule: every drone you operate under Part 107 must be registered individually, even if it weighs two hundred fifty grams or less. The sub-two-hundred-fifty-gram exception applies only when the aircraft is flown exclusively under the recreational exception. Part 107 registration costs five dollars per aircraft, is valid for three years, and is handled through FAA DroneZone.

10:00So to recap registration: every Part 107 aircraft, five dollars each, three years, DroneZone, and individually registered. Recreational pilots have a different fleet registration structure, but a recreational registration cannot be used for a Part 107 operation.

10:50Host: The other half of the aircraft bucket is Remote ID, and this is genuinely important on the test, so let me slow down. Remote ID is basically a digital license plate. It broadcasts your drone's identity, its location, and its altitude so that other people and authorities can identify it in the sky. Here is the key thing to memorize: there are exactly three ways to comply with Remote ID. Three paths, and the exam loves to ask you to spot the one that is not valid.

11:35Path one, you fly a Standard Remote ID drone. This is a drone with Remote ID built in from the factory, so it broadcasts its identity, location, and altitude all on its own. Most newer drones from the major manufacturers are standard Remote ID drones. Path two, you attach a Remote ID broadcast module to a drone that does not have it built in. This is the retrofit option, a small add-on that broadcasts the required information. Path three, you fly inside an FAA-Recognized Identification Area, which everyone abbreviates as a FRIA, spelled F R I A. A FRIA is a pre-approved site, often a model-aircraft flying field, where Remote ID is not required at all because the location itself is registered.

12:40So memorize those three as a set: a standard drone, a broadcast module, or a FRIA. Standard, module, FRIA. When the exam gives you four options and asks which one is a valid way to meet Remote ID, three of them will map to those paths and one will be made up. Recognize the three real ones and the fake answer becomes obvious.

13:20Host: Back to the airman bucket for one last piece, and this is currency, which means staying legal to fly over time. Your remote pilot certificate does not expire on a calendar date the way a driver's license does. Instead, you have to complete free online recurrent training every twenty-four calendar months. The course lives on FAASafety.gov, and its identifier is A L C dash six seven seven. It is free, it is online, and there is no paid retest. A lot of people confuse this with an older system that used a paid in-person knowledge test every two years, so lock in the current reality: twenty-four calendar months, free, online, course A L C six seven seven.

14:15And to close the loop on the unifying theme, let me say a bit more about waivers, because they are the escape hatch for many of the limits we have discussed. A Part 107 waiver lets the FAA authorize an operation outside a waivable rule, such as visual line of sight or certain operations over people, when you demonstrate an equivalent level of safety. New operational waiver applications now go through the FAA Aviation Safety Hub. Controlled-airspace authorization remains a separate LAANC or FAA DroneZone process. Not every rule is waivable, so check the current list in section one zero seven point two zero five before building the application.

15:15Let me also flag a few smaller rules in this domain that the exam likes to slip in, because they round out your knowledge and they are easy wins. You are required to conduct a preflight inspection before every flight to make sure the aircraft is in a condition for safe operation, checking the airframe, the propellers, the battery, and the control link. You are responsible for ensuring the drone is not in a condition for unsafe operation, which means if something looks wrong, you ground it. And you must make your drone and your records available to the FAA for inspection upon request. None of these have a tricky number attached, but they reinforce the same principle: the remote pilot in command is responsible for the safety of the operation, start to finish.

16:00There is also a reporting rule worth knowing. You must report an accident to the FAA within ten calendar days if the operation results in serious injury to any person, or loss of consciousness, or property damage of at least five hundred dollars to property other than the aircraft itself. Ten days, serious injury or loss of consciousness, or five hundred dollars of damage to other property. It is a specific set of triggers, so tuck it away.

16:40So let me recap the whole episode quickly. Three buckets: airman, aircraft, operation. The four operating numbers: four hundred feet, eighty-seven knots, three statute miles, and five hundred below with two thousand horizontal. Eligibility: sixteen years old, English, fit to fly. Registration: every Part one zero seven aircraft, five dollars each, three years, individually. Remote ID: standard drone, broadcast module, or FRIA. Currency: free online training every twenty-four months. Plus the responsibilities: preflight inspection, records available to the FAA, and the ten-day accident report. For waivers, use the current section one zero seven point two zero five list rather than an 'everything but' memory rule.

17:35That is Regulations. Run the flashcards until those core numbers come to you without thinking, because this is the topic where pure repetition turns directly into points. When you can rattle off the operating limits in your sleep, head over to episode two, Airspace and Charts, which is where most people actually lose points on the real exam. Then put it all together with our full practice exam, linked on this page. Fly safe, keep it under four hundred feet, and always verify the current rules at faa.gov slash u-a-s. This has been educational, not legal advice.