If you missed my latest, most exciting news about me this week, then you have been living under a rock. (HA!)

Totally kidding.

But in all seriousness, my latest news is that I passed my Part 107 testing to become a Licensed Unmanned Aircraft pilot. That’s pretty exciting stuff in my book! And I just got the email this morning, that my temporary license is all ready to go and good until I get my real thing in the mail. I’m so dang excited for what this means for my clients this year and the years to come! I did want to just write this blog today to inform those of you wanting to know what it takes to get that licensing for commercial drone photography!

I am fortunate enough to have a few friends that have already either taken their Part 107 test, or they are actual licensed pilots that were able to help me when it came down to making this whole thing legit. If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t even know where to start. There’s a lot to learn, and quite a bit you need to know about before you can even start doing drone photography for work, so let’s dive into this.

Licensing for Commercial Drone Photography

First off, let’s talk about what the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) thinks “commercial” work is. Basically, if you are getting paid, you are doing commercial work. Whether that’s taking aerial images of a real estate listing, or getting some video analyzing a power tower pole (ha. power tower…), to taking an image of your wedding clients from the sky, that’s all considered commercial stuff. It’s only if you are using a drone for personal reasons that you don’t need to have a remote pilot license. After learning everything that I did, I actually think that EVERYONE flying drones should have to be tested because there’s so much to know about safety, but that’s just my two cents.

I think I should also mention, that regardless of what you are doing with your drone, you are supposed to register your drone with the FAA if it is between 0.55 and below 55 pounds. REGARDLESS. I don’t think many people know that.

Moving on.

Remote Pilot Requirements

• Must be at least 16 years old
• Must pass an initial aeronautical test at a FAA approved knowledge testing center (more on this later)
• Must be vetted by TSA

In order to become a Remote Pilot, you must be at least 16 years old. That’s pretty simple.

The aeronautical test was something else. I have taken some pretty hard tests before. When I was getting my certification for my Expanded Function Dental Auxiliary certification, I took some of the HARDEST tests ever, but this one wasn’t too far behind. It’s a 60 question, multiple choice test, but don’t think that you can just figure your way out of it. Most of the time with multiple choice tests, you can at least remove one of the options, and for the most part, this test was no different. That doesn’t mean that you should expect to pass when you only have a 50% chance of knowing the answer if you don’t study. I WOULD NOT have passed without going over all the helpful info I found.

There is a bit of information on the FAA’s website regarding the Part 107 test. You can see the page here. It has a study guide that has almost everything you need to know when taking this test. I took it one step further and purchased a course from Gowdy Brothers. They have two options of courses that you can take from them-a video course, or a self paced course. I decided to go with the self-paced course because I get too side tracked watching videos, but I didn’t figure out that most of the info on the course was taken verbatim from the FAA study guide! I paid about $150 for the course, and I do think it was worth it for me. You’ll have to make that decision for yourself.

Here’s just one question like those that you could see on your test…

While monitoring the Cooperstown CTAF you hear an aircraft announce that they are midfield left downwind to RWY 13. Where would the aircraft be relative to the runway?
A) The aircraft is East.
B) The aircraft is South.
C) The aircraft is West.

Do you know the answer? Because I didn’t before I did my studying. (The answer is A).

On top of studying the FAA study guide and reading through most of the same content from Gowdy Brothers, I also found SO MANY youtube videos to watch. From videos of people who took the test and failed, to people who took it and passed, to more helpful videos going over what you really need to know. One of the most asked topics on my test was reading sectional maps. I got ALL of my sectional map questions right, and one of the most helpful things for me was to make sure I knew what the “legend” of the map was saying, and being familiar with it, and watching videos explaining it more. That was kind of confusing for me at first.

I found one guy on Youtube that said something along the lines of “if you like well designed things, these maps around going to make you want to gouge your eyeballs out.” It’s pretty accurate, but once you know the general idea of all the information that’s on them, you’re getting somewhere!

Once you get all that information and feel like you have a good grasp on it, it’s time to schedule your test!!

Schedule Your Part 107 Test

If you’ve never taken a test at a testing center, you’re in for a treat. When you check in, they make you sign your name on a little signature pad to make sure that it matches your ID. If you’re like me, you just renewed your ID online the last time you had to renew it so you didn’t have to go in and get a new picture, and your signature is different than that time. That was fun. It took me three tries to finally get it “acceptable.” Keep that in mind.

Then they go over all the rules, stick you in a cubicle with a piece of scrap paper and your book with all your charts and sectional maps. They record you during the test (audio and video) to make sure you’re not doing shady things. Then when you’re done, you have to be escorted from the room. If you leave early without your moderator, the test is void. It’s pretty crazy, but the FAA is serious about the whole thing!

Once you take the test, you are automatically told if you passed of failed! They then give you the option to look through the questions you missed, but they don’t give you the right answer.

Once you pass, the rest of the steps are easy!

You head to IACRA and make a login, but make sure all your information matches your ID and the information you gave to take your test. Make a login, and fill out your application for your license. Your testing center should give you all the information that you need to get this step done. Then you just wait!

You have to be vetted by the TSA, meaning they run a background check on you and make sure you’re not a psycho, and then they send your temporary certificate while you wait for the real one in the mail (where i’m at right now).

Then you get to celebrate and have fun with all the stuff you can do, and all the information you know now! I spent like 5 minutes explain to my dad the stages of a thunderstorm. He told me “I know why you’re doing this, Misty…..for small talk”

Yes dad, something like that.  HA! 🙂

Let me know if you guys have questions about any of this!! I’m happy to help!