Buying a drone and having the ability to have a birds eye view over, well everything, has got to be one of the coolest opportunities to have in our age. While drones still come at a hefty cost, even you average Joe can drop a couple of hundred to snag a tiny copter in your hand.
Yet with the increase of drones being purchases more and more by your average Joe, the FAA in America was exactly…okay with that. Well, in regards to safety that is!
Thatʻs where the Part 107 comes in.
What is the Part 107
Part 107 is in simple terms, a license to utilize an unmanned aircraft such as a drone for purposes other than recreation. There are small drones out there like the Mavic Mini that were built just one gram less than the weight needed to register like larger drones. But still, fly your drone to promote a business like a video shoot or Youtube, a license is needed.
Does this really make sense?…not really..ish.
Who needs to get a Part 107 Certification?
Basically anyone who flies their drone commercially, regardless of the size of the drone. That includes flying for purposes that involve financial gain or simply, for social media likes. YEA, even posting on the GRAM, the Book of Face(Facebook), or Tiktok is still considered “commercial use” in the eyes of the FAA.
What is needed to get a Part 107 License?
To get a license, one must partake in an exam created by the FAA to qualify for it. This exam covered not only essentials for operating a drone and the laws behind it but an endless pit of information your average pilot knows. Such as:
- Weather patterns
- Clouds
- METAR Codes for pilots
- Types of Airspaces
- Radio Frequencies
(See images below. Left to Right: Sectional chart, Airspace Graph, METARS Example, Stages of a cloud)
How do you study?
Online Study Guides
There are endless resources out there for studying nowadays and the most common ones you’d see in any Google result are paid study guides ranging anywhere from $50 to a couple hundred dollars. Pretty steep, but choose the right on and youʻre guaranteed to pass the test.
Me? I went with Drone Pro Academy as they had a sweet special for $47. They not only covered just about all of the essentials needed for the test, but I loved the visuals and the pacing broken down into each literal topic.
Note: You might find free information online which could be more difficult to find. So to alleviate the headache, I went with the easy approach of paying so I can take the test and get it over with.
Youtube Videos
There are so many Youtube videos out there that cover essentials for the test like Tony & Chelsea Northrup. But what I did was, I crammed videos of testimonials of people after they took the test and turned out, there were three questions I got the answer to from the morning of the test. Here is one video that helped me the morning of the test:
Youtube videos are a helpful piece to the puzzle!
Trying more than one practice test
Apart from Drone Pro Academyʻs 140 question practice test, I bounced around google results for free online tests to give myself a variety of questions to answer and to see my overall performance. Any repetitive mistakes here would allow me to restudy and understand those topics.
Click here for the link to the practice exam show in the above image.
What to Expect on Exam day
Other than breaking the bank from the $175 test fee and storing all of your sh** including your phone in a bag/locker, anticipate these things:
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Read wording carefully in QUESTIONS….There are a lot of trick questions.
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Read wording carefully in ANSWERS….there are also a lot of trick answers (I.E.: MSL vs AGL)
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Chances are some questions were not even in study guides (WATCH YOUTUBE VIDEOS)
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The legend is low key your cheat book….For the exam, you are provided a pencil, basic calculator, dry erase marker, dry erase sheet, and a book with all the diagrams. However, in the beginning of the book is a legend. Which in fact may contain actual answers to questions.
DO:
1. Take your time
2. Read all questions thoroughly
3. Bookmark questions youʻre unsure of and come back to it.
4. Refer to the legend
5. Go to figures first, then read the whole question.
6. Use process of elimination for the answers where needed.
DONʻT:
….Basically the opposite of those above…
Conclusion
This exam was extremely daunting and I was nervous as sh** the morning of my test. However, with these things I did above proved not only how possible it is to pass this test, but how much you can actually learn from this certification. Be aware, if you donʻt pass, you have the pay the $175 all over again.
I passed with an 80% and happy to know that in one week I was able to attain the one thing keeping me from looking over my shoulder while I drone the world for Youtube. Until world exploration, Iʻll be enjoying Hawai’i from above!
If you plan to take the test and have any questions at all, please donʻt hesitate to reach out to me!
Good luck & see you in the skies 🙂
