Part 107 is easier to hold than its length suggests, because almost every rule answers one of three questions: **who** may fly (a certificated remote pilot), **what** may fly (a registered aircraft under 55 pounds), and **where and how** it may be flown. The operating limits are the third group, and they exist to keep an uncrewed aircraft inside the airspace nobody else is using — low, slow, in sight, in daylight-adequate visibility, away from people. When a limit looks arbitrary, ask which of those three it belongs to and what collision it prevents. Read this for the structure and the reasoning; the exact numbers are worth memorising afterwards, and they are all in one place.
Each chapter opens with the short version. Tap one to read the detail.
What Part 107 governs, and the weight that decides it
~2 min
Part 107 covers civil small unmanned aircraft systems. "Small" means under 55 pounds at takeoff including everything on board — so the payload counts, and adding one can push an operation out of the rule entirely.
Becoming, and staying, a remote pilot
~2 min
A remote pilot certificate requires being at least 16, able to read and speak English, and fit to fly by self-assessment, with security vetting behind issuance. Currency is maintained by recurrent training every 24 calendar months.
The operating limits, and the airspace logic behind them
~2 min
Maximum 400 feet above ground, 100 miles per hour (87 knots) groundspeed, 3 statute miles visibility, and 500 feet below / 2,000 feet horizontally from clouds. Together they keep the aircraft in air that crewed traffic is not using.
Registration attaches to the aircraft, not the pilot
~1 min
Registration is a separate obligation from certification, with its own eligibility conditions. A Part 107 aircraft is registered individually and marked with its number; exclusively recreational aircraft may share one registration across several airframes.
Broadcast identification, and when the duty starts
~1 min
Remote identification requires an aircraft to broadcast identifying information from takeoff through shutdown, with a successful pre-flight self-test as the precondition for flying at all. The duty tracks the registration requirement.
Flight over people, and what "participating" actually means
~2 min
The default is no flight over a human being. The exceptions are narrow: the person is directly participating, is under a covered structure, is inside a stationary vehicle, or the aircraft meets one of the defined operational categories.
Two different permissions, and the limits that are never waivable
~2 min
A waiver authorises deviation from specific listed sections; an airspace authorisation permits flight in controlled airspace. Some requirements are outside the waiver list entirely, so no safety case can reach them.
What the knowledge test covers, and how to close its gaps
~2 min
The test spans regulations, airspace and charts, weather, loading and performance, emergency procedures, crew resource management, physiology, maintenance and airport operations. Its report gives coded subject areas, which is what makes re-study targetable.
The recreational exception, and the conditions that keep it
~1 min
Limited recreational operations have a statutory exception with conditions attached — recreational purpose, community-based safety guidelines, visual line of sight, and the rest. Breach one condition and the flight is a Part 107 operation being flown without a certificate.
Carriage: what may be carried, and the one categorical bar
~2 min
Carrying hazardous material under Part 107 is prohibited outright, with no waiver available. Carriage for compensation is separately constrained, and any external load must not shift or degrade controllability.
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