Flying a Drone Commercially: The Remote Pilot Certificate
The line between a hobby flight and a regulated commercial operation is not the money that changes hands. It is whether the flight furthers a business at all — and once it does, a different rulebook applies to the person at the controls.
What this report covers
- The test is purpose, not payment: a flight that furthers any business is not recreational, even if nobody is paid.
- The remote pilot certificate requires an aeronautical knowledge test at an approved testing center, and no medical certificate.
- One certificated pilot must be designated as remote pilot in command for each flight, and can supervise an uncertificated operator.
- Default operating limits — daylight, visual line of sight, 400 feet, one aircraft, no flight over uninvolved people — are waivable but not ignorable.
- The aircraft must be registered, marked, and preflighted, and certain incidents must be reported within ten days.
The phrase people search for is a commercial drone license, and it does not exist under that name. What exists is a remote pilot certificate with a small unmanned aircraft systems rating, issued under Part 107, and the far more consequential question is not how to get one but when the rule applies to you at all.
What counts as a commercial flight?
The dividing line is purpose, and it is drawn more broadly than most operators expect. A flight is recreational only if it is flown purely for personal enjoyment. The moment the flight furthers a business purpose — any business, including your own, including one that pays you nothing — it falls under Part 107.
That framing catches a great deal that does not feel commercial:
- Photographing a property so an agent can list it, whether or not you invoice for it.
- Inspecting your own roof before filing an insurance claim on your own house.
- Filming footage you later post to a monetized channel, or to promote your own trade.
- Surveying a field for a farm you own and operate.
- Flying for a nonprofit, a church, a school district or a volunteer fire department.
The recreational exception is narrow and conditional: the flight must be purely for fun, must follow the safety guidelines of an agency-recognized community-based organization, and the operator must have passed the recreational safety test and carry proof of it. Fail any of those and the flight is a Part 107 operation whether or not the operator intended one.
If you would struggle to explain the flight to an inspector as pure personal enjoyment, treat it as a Part 107 operation. The certificate costs less than a single enforcement action, and the operating limits are nearly identical either way.
How the certificate is obtained
The path is short. An applicant must be at least sixteen, able to read, speak, write and understand English, and in a physical and mental condition to operate safely. There is no medical certificate requirement — a distinction worth noting against the medical rules that govern manned flight, where the certificate is the gating item.
The steps run in this order:
- Obtain an airman identification number through the agency's airman registry system.
- Schedule the aeronautical knowledge test at an approved testing center and sit it in person.
- Complete the application in the online certification system, referencing the test result.
- Pass the security vetting, after which a temporary certificate is issued electronically.
- Receive the permanent certificate by mail, and carry it during operations.
The knowledge test covers regulations, airspace classification and operating requirements, weather, loading and performance, emergency procedures, crew resource management, radio procedure, physiology, decision-making and airport operations. Airspace is where most failures happen, because it is the one section that cannot be reasoned out from common sense.
A pilot who already holds a Part 61 certificate and a current flight review takes a shorter route: an online training course rather than the full knowledge test.
Certificates do not expire in the way a driving license does, but currency does. A remote pilot must complete a recurrent online training course to keep exercising the privileges, and flying on lapsed currency is an enforcement matter rather than a paperwork one.
What the certificate actually permits
The certificate is permission to operate within a defined envelope, and the envelope is the part that governs day-to-day work:
| Limit | Default rule | Waivable |
|---|---|---|
| Aircraft weight | Under 55 pounds including everything aboard | No |
| Visual line of sight | Unaided sight of the aircraft at all times | Yes |
| Altitude | 400 feet above ground, or within 400 feet of a structure | Yes |
| Time of day | Day and civil twilight, with anti-collision lighting | Partly |
| Speed | 100 miles per hour ground speed | Yes |
| Aircraft per pilot | One | Yes |
| Over people | Only under the operations-over-people categories | Yes |
| From a moving vehicle | Prohibited except in sparsely populated areas | Yes |
Controlled airspace is a separate gate rather than a limit on this list. Operating in Class B, C, D or surface-level E airspace requires authorization before the flight, which is granted through the automated system for most locations and by application for the rest. Class G airspace needs no authorization, which is why so much commercial work is planned around where Class G actually sits.
Where a default limit does not fit the job, the answer is a waiver rather than a judgment call in the field. Night operations, flight beyond visual line of sight, flight over people and multi-aircraft operations each have their own application and evidentiary standard, and an operation flown outside the envelope without one is simply unlawful, however carefully it was planned.
What the aircraft needs
Certification covers the pilot. The aircraft carries its own requirements, and they are checked first when anything goes wrong.
- Registration. Every aircraft flown under Part 107 is registered individually, and the registration number must be displayed on the exterior surface.
- Remote identification. Most aircraft must broadcast identification and location information, either from the aircraft or from a broadcast module, subject to the exceptions built into that rule.
- Preflight inspection. The remote pilot in command must inspect the aircraft and check that all systems are functioning before each flight, and must be satisfied the operation can be conducted safely.
- Condition for safe operation. A continuing duty, not a one-time check — an aircraft with a known defect may not be flown pending repair.
Accidents must be reported to the agency within ten calendar days where the operation results in serious injury, loss of consciousness, or property damage above a specified threshold. The reporting duty sits on the remote pilot in command personally, and missing it converts an accident into a separate violation.
Where operators actually get caught
Enforcement rarely begins with an inspector watching a flight. It begins with a complaint, a posted video, or an airport operator reporting a sighting, and the investigation then works backwards from evidence the operator published themselves.
The recurring patterns are consistent:
- The flight that was obviously commercial from the caption. Marketing footage tagged with the business name, flown by someone with no certificate on file.
- Controlled airspace without authorization. Especially near smaller airports, where operators assume the absence of a control tower means the absence of controlled airspace.
- Flight over people at an event. The single most common serious allegation, because the footage itself proves the element.
- Night work without currency in the required training. Night flight is permitted, but only with the anti-collision lighting and the training that go with it.
What follows is an administrative process rather than a criminal one in most cases — certificate action or a civil penalty, with a right to respond before anything is final. State and local authorities have their own interests here too: they generally cannot regulate the airspace itself, but they can and do regulate takeoff and landing from land they control, and the privacy questions raised by a flight over a neighbor's yard are governed by state law entirely.
The gap between the two rulebooks is the thing to keep in view. Federal law decides whether the flight was lawful. State and local law decides whether the landowner, the subject of the footage or the property owner underneath has a claim about it, and a flight can be perfectly compliant with one and actionable under the other.
Sources
- eCFR — 14 CFR Part 107, Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems
The operating rules, pilot certification requirements and waiver provisions in full.
- Cornell Legal Information Institute — 14 CFR Part 107
Section-level text of the same rule, useful for citing a single provision.
- FAA — Become a Drone Pilot
The agency's own description of the certification path and the knowledge test.
- FAA — Certificated Remote Pilots Including Commercial Operators
Operating requirements, registration and the current waiver categories.
- eCFR — 14 CFR Part 48, Registration and Marking of Small Unmanned Aircraft
Registration duties and the marking requirement for the aircraft itself.
- FAA — Recreational Flyers and Modeler Community-Based Organizations
The narrow recreational exception this rule is defined against.
Questions readers ask
Does taking photographs for a friend's business count as commercial?
Yes, in the sense that matters. The agency's test is whether the flight furthers a business purpose, not whether you were paid. Photographing a friend's rental property so it can be advertised is a business purpose even if you refuse payment and post the images yourself. The safe reading is that anything other than flying purely for personal enjoyment sits under Part 107.
Can an employee fly the drone if only the supervisor holds the certificate?
Yes. The rule requires a remote pilot in command for the operation, and that person may either fly the aircraft or directly supervise someone who does. The supervising pilot must be able to take immediate control, which in practice means standing beside the operator with access to the controls, not watching from an office.
Is a separate registration needed for each drone?
Each aircraft flown under Part 107 is registered individually and carries its own registration number, displayed on the exterior. This differs from recreational flying, where one registration number can cover every aircraft an individual owns. Keep proof of registration available during operations, along with the certificate itself.
