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107 UAG Exam Problems

RangerOne

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Joined
Jul 14, 2020
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Age
47
Location
Edna Bay Alaska Southeast Alaska
I have decided to go rouge and start a Drone Business here in Southeast Alaska. Beautiful land, wild life, and opportunities abound here. My trouble is I live in remote Bush Alaska, in a community of 40 people, on a remote island. Being 125 air mile from the nearest town of note, I have no test facility available. I have taken the FAA safety UAG practice test and an online course with RemotePilot.com. I'm fairly ready to take the exam but have know reasonable way to test. It would take a $1000,00 to get to the testing center from where I live. Yet someone that has already got his or her card, pass a past exam, can take it online and bob's your uncle? Where can I go for help? I already got the business for Drone Ranger, and have a Mavic Air 2 and a Mavic mini en route to start my business up with and clients just waiting for the moment I can get to work......I here crickets....oh, I just herd a pin drop for thirty paces. What can I do and how do I do it to or with? Right now I'm feeling a little postal about the whole thing. As you can probably tell by the sound of my post I not happy. I feel discriminated against and the FAA reps just shrug and tell me tough.....anyone...Help me please. I'm at a loss. I have a job right now that is 6 days a week fourteen hours a day. little time to battle the FAA or even weed though all of the sites myself. And yes I just took of two weeks off work to study and take the test. Only to find I couldn't take the final 107 Exam online because I'm a rookie and haven't taken it yet. But those that did can.....I hear that pin dropping again.....Anyone have any Advice?
 
If you've already spoken to the FAA, it seems you should see about planning to take the exam some time when you're traveling for something else.
 
First off WELCOME to the forum.

It sucks but there's not a lot of options for you other than traveling TO a testing facility. That or get your Private Pilots License (good excuse for it LOL) and then take the online Part 107.
 
It sucks but there's not a lot of options for you other than traveling TO a testing facility. That or get your Private Pilots License (good excuse for it LOL) and then take the online Part 107.

I would have done that myself, but there's no way I'm getting any sort of license to pilot an aircraft that I'm sitting in.

Vestibular neuritis. Constant vertigo. I'm just fine on the ground or driving a car, but being a passenger in the same car on the same road is... problematic. My PT tells me that's not uncommon, because as the driver I have far better ability to predict motion than I do as a passenger.

I'm not sure how you missed the requirement for being at a testing facility, though, RangerOne - it's plastered all over the place when you go looking for the requirements, like here: Certificated Remote Pilots including Commercial Operators
 
I would have done that myself, but there's no way I'm getting any sort of license to pilot an aircraft that I'm sitting in.

It's funny I use my Part 107 as "justification" for maintaining my Private Pilot's License. This way my drone company pays for all the training etc so I can maintain my "currency".
 
It's funny I use my Part 107 as "justification" for maintaining my Private Pilot's License. This way my drone company pays for all the training etc so I can maintain my "currency".
As in the green currency $$$$ :D
 
Just to clarify - neither the Part 107 initial or recurrent tests can be taken online. There is only an online option if you have a current private pilot license.

Certificated Remote Pilots including Commercial Operators I have talked to several FAA reps and it is only a six month extension.

Just trying to come up with a testing center in Ketchikan that the FAA will let me work with. I thank you for your thoughts. With this virus problem they don't want to see people at this time....so they closed testing.... So how then do you get complaint? Go to another state? Anyway it has been helpful to put this out there. To bounce off others to get my head on straight and get things lined up...Thank you for you responces...
 
With this virus problem they don't want to see people at this time....so they closed testing.... So how then do you get complaint? Go to another state? Anyway it has been helpful to put this out there. To bounce off others to get my head on straight and get things lined up...Thank you for you responces...

Most of the testing centers near me were closed, but I got lucky - there's a local FBO that has a single testing station in the back room. I was in and out in an hour.
 
And for me drones and droning are a LIFESAVER. I have always wanted to be a pilot. I wanted to be no less then a helicopter pilot, but one fateful day after a Civil Air Patrol Training exercise my flight commander pulled a joke on me, during flight with me at the controls, that he said he never would do to anyone ever again. He covered my eyes, in that moment we both found out lurking in the depths of this young daredevil pilot was one hell of a bad case of vertigo. I learned that day I visually orient to my world by 95%. Needless to say I'm glad we had had a bit of altitude for we lost a lot in the falling barrel roll , I unintentionally put the twin piper into. That day my dream of piloting died. I lived but the dream die till I found drone and camera in one cool package.... I won't get to feel the flight but i can get to have that perspective again. What a feeling it was to be above it all....how little we are...how big life is around us.
 
Certificated Remote Pilots including Commercial Operators I have talked to several FAA reps and it is only a six month extension.

Just trying to come up with a testing center in Ketchikan that the FAA will let me work with. I thank you for your thoughts. With this virus problem they don't want to see people at this time....so they closed testing.... So how then do you get complaint? Go to another state? Anyway it has been helpful to put this out there. To bounce off others to get my head on straight and get things lined up...Thank you for you responces...

That's just an extension to the currency expiration date based on taking ALC-451. There is no way to get initial certification without taking the test.
 
If you've already spoken to the FAA, it seems you should see about planning to take the exam some time when you're traveling for something else.
Yes it is about time, this winter, I have lived in the same remote village commercial Trolling for Salmon for 30 years and been to town 6 times for anything of any importance.
 
The good news is that if you are starting a business, the business can write off your travel expenses and the cost of the test.
That is true. I just need the time. I currently have a job logging as the Commercial Fishing is failing to get the income I need to start a business up like this and live life too. But Commercial Fishing is a business and a very very greedy one at that. If its not the boat, its the gear, or the crew members or the government licencing and the coast guard licencing and all the coast guard safety gear to go with that.
So I think I'm going to Drone for awhile commercially for a change. This winter when the virus is a thing of the past and the testing center isn't scared of its shadow.....I mean the virus....If that happens that they start up again I mean....? They shut their doors.
 
Have you created a comprehensive Business Plan? Is there enough "Work" there in the Drone industry to support you? Drone Business is a struggle in areas with lots of people and business so I can't even start to imagine trying to get paying clients in such a small rural area.
 
I have decided to go rouge and start a Drone Business here in Southeast Alaska. Beautiful land, wild life, and opportunities abound here. My trouble is I live in remote Bush Alaska, in a community of 40 people, on a remote island. Being 125 air mile from the nearest town of note, I have no test facility available. I have taken the FAA safety UAG practice test and an online course with RemotePilot.com. I'm fairly ready to take the exam but have know reasonable way to test. It would take a $1000,00 to get to the testing center from where I live. Yet someone that has already got his or her card, pass a past exam, can take it online and bob's your uncle? Where can I go for help? I already got the business for Drone Ranger, and have a Mavic Air 2 and a Mavic mini en route to start my business up with and clients just waiting for the moment I can get to work......I here crickets....oh, I just herd a pin drop for thirty paces. What can I do and how do I do it to or with? Right now I'm feeling a little postal about the whole thing. As you can probably tell by the sound of my post I not happy. I feel discriminated against and the FAA reps just shrug and tell me tough.....anyone...Help me please. I'm at a loss. I have a job right now that is 6 days a week fourteen hours a day. little time to battle the FAA or even weed though all of the sites myself. And yes I just took of two weeks off work to study and take the test. Only to find I couldn't take the final 107 Exam online because I'm a rookie and haven't taken it yet. But those that did can.....I hear that pin dropping again.....Anyone have any Advice?
Thank you for all you reply's I just can't believe our government at times and how much sense they don't make...and then do... Good Droning.
 
Have you created a comprehensive Business Plan? Is there enough "Work" there in the Drone industry to support you? Drone Business is a struggle in areas with lots of people and business so I can't even start to imagine trying to get paying clients in such a small rural area.
I don't need much but I have all ready got a list of people that want. Aerial footage taken of their Commercial Fishing boats in Action and a lot of charter boat captains and lodges for advertising and so forth,let a lone for them selves.. I have lived on little and had less for a long time. The forest service is also a possible client but I know a lot of people in the logging industry would love such capabilities at their disposal. In just the few mediate jobs I could get it would cover the drove cost and insurance for the year. Have to work at the job for a bit more till the seasons fall break and go get tested.....I mean take the 107 exam.... Which means all my clients will have to wait till next summer to get any aerial footage. Anyway just found My life conflicting with the real world. Thanks for your thoughts...Happy droning.
 
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Just to clarify - neither the Part 107 initial or recurrent tests can be taken online. There is only an online option if you have a current private pilot license.

Incorrect.

There is a SFAR that allows people to take the UGR if they have lapsed during the COVID situation and cannot make it to a testing facility of feel uncomfortable to do so. It is a temporary fix for some, but there are limits as to who can take it. It is a 6 month extension.

Instructions here: FAA Updates Part 107 Recurrence Exam Protocols - Drone U™

They above recently expanded that SFAR to include those who's recency is lapsed up to the end of September. Not 100% sure on the end date.

More info: Limited Extension of Relief for Certain Persons and Operations During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Public Health Emergency
 
Incorrect.

There is a SFAR that allows people to take the UGR if they have lapsed during the COVID situation and cannot make it to a testing facility of feel uncomfortable to do so. It is a temporary fix for some, but there are limits as to who can take it. It is a 6 month extension.

Instructions here: FAA Updates Part 107 Recurrence Exam Protocols - Drone U™

They above recently expanded that SFAR to include those who's recency is lapsed up to the end of September. Not 100% sure on the end date.

More info: Limited Extension of Relief for Certain Persons and Operations During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Public Health Emergency

That's not the recurrent test taken online though - it's the FAASafety ALC-451 online class (Part 107 Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (small UAS) Initial). I should have clarified that point.
 
I don't need much but I have all ready got a list of people that want. Aerial footage taken of their Commercial Fishing boats in Action and a lot of charter boat captains and lodges for advertising and so forth,let a lone for them selves.. I have lived on little and had less for a long time. The forest service is also a possible client but I know a lot of people in the logging industry would love such capabilities at their disposal. In just the few mediate jobs I could get it would cover the drove cost and insurance for the year. Have to work at the job for a bit more till the seasons fall break and go get tested.....I mean take the 107 exam.... Which means all my clients will have to wait till next summer to get any aerial footage. Anyway just found My life conflicting with the real world. Thanks for your thoughts...Happy droning.
hang in and good luck!
 
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