The clock
§107.65 — A person may not exercise the privileges of a remote pilot in command with small UAS rating unless that person has, within the previous 24 calendar months, passed an initial aeronautical knowledge test, completed recurrent training covering §107.73, or — if they hold a Part 61 pilot certificate and are current under §61.56 — completed §107.74 training.
Three things people get wrong:
- The certificate does not expire; the currency does. Your remote pilot certificate has no expiry date. What lapses is your aeronautical knowledge recency, and without it you may not exercise the privileges.
- It is 24 calendar months, so it runs to the end of the month 24 months later, not to the day.
- The recurrent training is free and online. Complete the ALC course through the FAA Safety Team site, and keep the certificate of completion. There is no longer a proctored recurrent test.
The thirteen knowledge areas
§107.73 lists exactly what initial testing and recurrent training cover:
- Applicable regulations — privileges, limitations, flight operation
- Airspace classification, operating requirements, and flight restrictions
- Aviation weather sources and weather effects on performance
- Small unmanned aircraft loading
- Emergency procedures
- Crew resource management
- Radio communication procedures
- Determining aircraft performance
- Physiological effects of drugs and alcohol
- Aeronautical decision-making and judgment
- Airport operations
- Maintenance and preflight inspection procedures
- Operation at night
Items 2, 7, 11, and 13 are the ones this track covers in depth, because they are where drone operations and radio meet. The others are well served by the FAA’s own free material, and there is no point duplicating it here.
Night operations
§107.29 — no night operation unless the RPIC has completed an initial knowledge test or training under §107.65 after April 6, 2021, and the aircraft has lighted anti-collision lighting visible for at least 3 statute miles with a flash rate sufficient to avoid a collision.
Two conditions, both required. The lighting requirement also applies during civil twilight, when the knowledge condition does not.
The RPIC may reduce the intensity of the anti-collision lighting if operating conditions make that safer — but may not extinguish it.
If your certificate predates April 6, 2021 and you have not since completed recurrent training, you may not fly at night. Completing the current recurrent course satisfies the condition.
Operations over people
§107.39 — No operation over a human being unless that person is directly participating, is under a covered structure or inside a stationary vehicle that provides reasonable protection, or the operation meets one of the Category 1–4 requirements in subpart D.
The categories are aircraft-eligibility rules, not pilot rules, and they turn on the aircraft’s design:
| Category | Basis |
|---|---|
| 1 | 0.55 lb or less (250 g) including everything on board, no exposed rotating parts that could lacerate |
| 2 | injury no worse than a 11 ft-lb kinetic-energy transfer, no laceration risk, no safety defects, declaration of compliance required |
| 3 | the same but at 25 ft-lb, plus no operation over open-air assemblies, and only over closed or restricted-access sites, or without sustained flight over people |
| 4 | holds an airworthiness certificate under Part 21 |
No category permits sustained flight over an open-air assembly unless the operation also complies with Remote ID under §89.110 or §89.115(a) — the one place Part 107 reaches back into Part 89 explicitly.
Categories 2 and 3 require the manufacturer to have filed an accepted declaration of compliance and the aircraft to be labelled accordingly (§107.135). You cannot self-certify into them.
Waivers
§107.200 — the Administrator may issue a certificate of waiver authorising deviation from a regulation listed in §107.205, on a showing that the proposed operation can be conducted safely under the terms of the waiver.
§107.205 is a closed list. These may be waived:
- §107.25 operation from a moving vehicle
- §107.29(a)(2) and (b) anti-collision lighting
- §107.31 visual line of sight
- §107.33 visual observer
- §107.35 multiple aircraft
- §107.37(a) yielding right of way
- §107.39 operation over people
- §107.41 operation in certain airspace
- §107.51 operating limitations (altitude, speed, visibility, cloud clearance)
- §107.145 operations over moving vehicles
Everything else is not waivable — including §107.49 preflight, §107.19 RPIC responsibility, and the §107.52/107.53 transponder and ADS-B Out prohibitions from the radio lesson. Note also the carve-out attached to §107.25 and §107.31: no waiver of either will be issued to allow carriage of another’s property for compensation or hire.
BVLOS operation is the waiver most people want, and it is a §107.31 waiver. It requires a detailed concept of operations and a demonstrated detect-and-avoid approach — the reason a dedicated BVLOS rule has been in rulemaking for years.
Reporting
§107.9 — Report to the FAA no later than 10 calendar days after an operation involving serious injury or loss of consciousness, or property damage — unless the repair cost or the property’s fair market value is $500 or less.
Ten calendar days. $500 threshold. Damage to your own aircraft never counts.
Check yourself
- Your certificate says nothing about expiry and you last did recurrent training in March 2024. May you fly commercially today?
- You want to fly at 500 feet AGL to inspect a chimney 600 feet from your control station. Waiver, or not?
- Your aircraft clips a parked car and causes $300 of damage. Must you report it?
Answers
- No. The certificate does not expire, but aeronautical knowledge recency lapses after 24 calendar months — that ran out at the end of March 2026. Complete the free online recurrent course first.
- A waiver. The §107.51 structure exception requires you to be within a 400 ft radius of the structure; at 600 ft it does not apply, so exceeding 400 ft AGL needs a §107.51 waiver.
- No — property damage under the $500 repair-cost or fair-market-value threshold is exempt, and there was no injury.